The first thing to say is that although the event was called off due to adverse weather conditions (snow and serious wind chil!) and multiple injuries, the first edition of Monster Race in Devon sadly had issues beyond this. 

Monster appear to have taken over from Rock Solid who had previously run an OCR event at Escot Park. I ran that event in 2013 and 2014, and comparisions were inevitable. Where Rock Solid created an incredible event village and atmosphere, the start of the Monster Race fell flat... the registration process was average, there was no race brief (at least not one that we heard), the start line was not well signposted, the 'hi-vis heroes' seemed disinterested... in fact, it all felt flat, and I don't think this can just be blamed on the cold weather! 

The course itself was picturesque and well-laid out, but nearly identical to that of Rock Solid, and the 10km course featured 2 laps! I deliberately booked into the first wave of the day to get a good run, but by the time we hit lap 2, we were running past crowds and queuing at obstacles (getting cold!) There were no feed stations on the course at all. The marshalls and local support was excellent, despite the cold weather, but as we neared the end of the 2nd lap, we were informed the event was being shut down. We ran to the finish line, missing the last 2-3 obstacles, but were met with chaos - timing chips cut off (no time registered), foil blanket thrust at us, medal self-procured from a box (we had completed the race after all!) 

Leaving the event was well-coordinated, despite the mass exit, but many people were suffering with the cold/hypothermia. A significant contributing problem to this was the lack of hot water/showers/shelter on site meaning participants were forced to shelter in their cars in wet/muddy clothes and/or change in a muddy field!

OCR is an expensive hobby, but for the money paid, I expected more from Monster Race. Even discounting the unfortunate weather conditions and unforseen race cancellation, I won't be signing up to another Monster event, despite the great medal.