After a long off season, the Spartan Race UK National Series came back with a bang at London West. The second weekend of May means one thing for the UK’s, and some of Europe’s, Spartan Race athletes: the season’s opening weekend.

If you’re wondering who I am, I’m Race Reporter Reece and will be reporting on every race weekend this season as they unfold, giving you a run down of the results from both the Elite and Age Group races, keeping you up to date with the running points totals and what that means for those coveted end of season podiums.

How Does The Series Work

For those of you who are new to the Spartan Race National Series and how it works, here’s a quick summary to help you.

The National Series is a way for Spartan athletes, both Elite and Age Group, to compete against their peers to see who is the best at a national level. From here, with a good enough result, an individual will qualify for regional and world championships.

In the UK, there are five race weekends with each weekend having a nominated distance from the core three races, Sprint, Super and Beast, that count as part of the UK National Series race. For 2026, these are:

• London West - Beast

• Scotland - Super

• Midlands - Sprint

• South West - Beast

• London South East - Super 

An athlete can race as many of the five races as they want, with their best three results being counted in the final standings. Points are awarded based on their finishing position as such:

It is only mandatory for Elite athletes to have raced the minimum number of races to be able to win the associated awards, which for the UK is three.

The final thing to note is what do I mean by “Age Group”? The Age Group field is split down into ranges that cover 5 years, with the exception of 18-24, running all the way up to the last age group, 60+. When competing, they are compared only to others in the same age range as them for the end of season glory.

If you want any more details on how the National Series work, for the UK or other nations, you can READ MORE.

Excitment Around Race Week

London West is one of my favourite races in the UK series for a number of reasons. Firstly, after a long off season, preparing myself for the season, it’s a time to put my hard work to the test and see if it’s all paid off.

The second reason is the nature of the course and the test it brings with it. For much of the first half, it is fast, flowing trails that have a number of hills spread throughout that will test whether your hill climbing training has paid off. The second half of the course increases in obstacle density, putting to the test you’re ability to keep your speed between obstacles and how long your grip can hold up. With the spear throw in sight of the finishing line, the jeopardy of your race being made or broken in one moment only adds to the excitement. With the A Frame and Fire Jump being in the middle of the race village, this is always a crowd pleaser, watching who will be victorious. 

How My Race Unfolded

To help you get that deeper insight in the racing at the Elite level, part of these reports will give you an insight into how my race unfolded.

With a strong field, the aim of the game was to make sure that I paced myself for a strong finish, kept the front runners in sight as much as I could, and most importantly, keep my race clean.

For much of the race, I was leapfrogging positions with Dasos Gonnella and Josef Drbohlav, whilst doing our best to keep up up with those in front, such as Jason Brunnock. Having others around you always helps with keeping the pace up as you naturally push each other, in turn helping each other.

It was the final quarter where I was able to make the difference. Being someone who feels strong with carries, the sandbag carry and bucket carry in particular allowed me to leave a gap on the others, moving me up from 9th to 6th.

It goes to show how different OCR athletes are proficient in different areas. For some, the running is what gets them ahead, for others is smooth technique through obstacles, whilst others excel when having to pick something up.

It was upon seeing Morgan Maxwell unfortunately doing burpees at the spear throw that made me realise that there was a chance for 5th position, with the small task of making sure I hit my own spear.

With the pressure on, hearing Morgan with only 10 burpees left, I took a deep breath and threw my spear, after taking extra care to untangle the rope. What felt like slow motion, I watched it sail through the air, hitting the target and most importantly sticking in.

With a celebratory fist bump and hit of adrenaline, I ran away to take on the Monkey Bars, A Frame and hit the trademark pose over the fire jump to finish 5th overall.

This was my best National Series finish since stepping up to Elite and felt truly amazing!

Elite Results

Ahead of me, a fierce battle played out for the podium places, led by Roman Tóth and Tom Tweddell, taking the challenge to each other across the 21km, only for their final positions to be decided in last section of the race, with Roman taking the win. Behind them, a spear throw miss was the defining moment for third place, as George Tranckle’s impressive debut saw him nearly beat the experienced Samuel Castela.

In the women’s race, it was a close finish between Blanka Adamova and Becky Neal, with a late surge from Becky seeing her narrowly miss out on the top step of the podium. 21km of racing to only be separated by 11 seconds shows you how competitive the field is, and with athletes due to return in the future, it’s only going to hot up over the year! Behind them, Federica De Caria rounded of the podium by taking third place, with strong ambitions to be fighting for those race wins in the near future.

For the full race weekend results and to check how your time compared, you can head over to here: https://www.spartan.com/en/race/past-results/9005

Age Group Results

Elites weren’t the only ones racing with the hope of National Series glory. The Age Group athletes opened their own accounts as they attempt to be victorious in their respective age groups. Below you can find the podium results for each Age Group and gender:

Once again, if you intend to see the full breakdown of these results, you can head over to https://www.spartan.com/en/race/past-results/9005

Next Race - When and Where

With Spartan Race Scotland just around the corner on the 7th June, the next iteration of the National Series is already upon us with the athletes taking on the Super distance before heading to Belvoir Castle on the 12th July, racing over the Sprint distance.

If you missed London West, the good news is that you can still join us on the start line and be counted in the series, taking on some of the best athletes Spartan Race has to offer. Is there a podium place with your name on it?