We have passed our goal of 300 team members. We recieved this letter earlier today:
OEW Bragg Spartan Team,
It’s almost here. I know many of you have been looking forward to the Ft. Bragg Spartan Sprint and Operation Chew-n-Brew just like I have. I would like to thank you all for coming to join us at our largest event and our largest fundraiser combined into one weekend. For some of you this will be just another Spartan Race and for some of you this will be your first race and you may have a lot of questions. I hope to answer some of them in this email.
When you arrive at the race site at Smith Lake you can expect there to be a lot of traffic getting into the parking area. There are approximately 7000 people running the race on Saturday. There will be a $10 fee to park so carpooling is recommended. Once you park you will move to the registration area where you will first sign a waiver and find your bib number on a wall. If you received your number in an email it will save you looking it up but its not hard to find.
After you get your number you will go pick up your packet and enter the festival area. Make your way to the tent for the biggest team (that’s us… Again!!) where you can get ready to run. Don’t lose your timing chip they charge $10 for those. The biggest team is allowed to store bags at the tent normally. That being said I would ask everyone to use the bag check since we have 300 people. All told I would say it takes 30 minutes to get you to the booth and all settled in if you have never been here before.
If you want to be able to find official Spartan pictures you can display your bib number which will help you find them in the days after the race. If you run with OEW during the whole race we will have three awesome photographers running with us.
The timeline for the day is rather extensive. We will be meeting for a briefing at 715 at the biggest team tent. Why so early you ask? Well we have a 300 person team that we need to pass information to and a lot of people who haven’t ever run with OEW before. We go over race procedures, how to help Adaptive Athletes, and some things not to do. This will make the race go much smoother once we get out on the course. We will also take some pre race pictures during this brief. Everyone needs to be here for this. At this time if you do not have an OEW shirt and would like to purchase one for the race you can.
At 800 we will move down the hill to the stage where we will receive the award for the biggest team. Back up the hill we go to get ready to move out. At 815 the Masked Athlete Team will head off to get ready to run. At 830 we will step off to march to the starting line and hit the course at 845.
When we run these races everyone needs to be aware of the image that you project. By signing up with OEW you have become OEW. The people that you interact with along the race course will not make a distinction between our newest OCA and myself as president. For that reason we ask that everyone act professional during the race during all of your interactions. Please ensure that your dress is appropriate to represent the organization. Do not wear shirts with profanity or derogatory terms on them, short shorts that show more than they should. Everyone will end up in photographs and needs to look appropriate.
We will move through the course helping each other and leaving no one behind. The first priority is safety. That being said we need to ensure we keep the pace moving at a good speed. We have a lot going on during the rest of the day that will require many of us who are on the race course to help set up.
Operation Chew-n-Brew kicks off at 5pm with food, beer, skydiving, cornhole and live music including Nashville recording artist Luke Combs. We will have our silent auction which has some amazing items donated by area businesses and others around the nation. Make sure you get your tickets before hand for $25 they will be $30 at the door. Get them at this link: bit.ly/oewchewbrew
Friday night Mellow Mushroom in Fayetteville will be conducting a Mellow gives back where they will donate a percent of their sales to OEW from 5-11pm. The Masked Athlete Team will be eating dinner with all of our Adaptive Athletes on the patio from 5-7. We asked that during this time that this be a closed event. At 7pm we welcome OCAs to join us and mingle with all of us and discuss the race. From 730-830pm we will have a small merchandise table set up if you want to buy shirts before the big race. We also have many new items that have never been sold before available at the booth this year. Don’t stay out too late race time comes early and please drink responsibly.
Well that about wraps it up. We will have many more things to put out in the briefing when we all see each other on Saturday at 715 am. Please email me if you have any questions. Thank you all for your support of our nation's wounded veterans.
Scott Blough
OEW President
If you didn't catch it, visit Mellow Mushroom on Friday night and help support OEW with your food/beverage purchase! Hope to see some of you either at the race or the bbq.
SPARTAN UP!
