Dear OCR Buddy Community;
Call it a love letter because some of these letters are.
Call it a Dear John letter.
Call it a plea from a frustrated community.
But that community is speaking volumes and they are not feeling heard.
We asked the OCR Buddy Community to pen their letter to Spartan after the latest news cycle left the community reeling. The common thread of most of these letters is the feeling that Spartan has lost touch with the OCR community as a whole and that community feels forgotten, left behind and unheard.
These are your words. Your thoughts, your feelings. I only did minor editing for SEO and family friendliness.
-Bonnie Wilson OCR Buddy Community Manager and Marketing Person
Dear Spartan and Joe DeSena-
Thank you so much, for all you have given to us charities. You have helped our youth, more than I could ever express. You go above and beyond for our Veterans and Adaptive athletes, like nothing anywhere else, in any sport, but especially OCR.
Please, remember the core of what we stand for, community, overcoming obstacles, sportsmanship, individuality.
Every person matters.
Michele Littlejohn-Luccketta
I appreciate what you have done in the past for OCR and all the support you give Veterans and Adaptive Athletes. However, I wish you would come back to what worked and work with other OCR groups and not against. I came to OCR to get away from the divisive politics of other sports. Bring back the television shows, but keep them OCR. Use the celebrity athletes to promote the sport.
Phillip Fralish Webb
Dear Spartan-
Fire Joe. You’ll be better off.
Josh Chace
Dear Spartan, you are spreading yourself too thin with projects outside of ocr. Come back to the foundation of ocr and make it strong again. Also stop making Tough Mudder another Spartan. It needs to stay different and quirky to bring in a different audience and hopefully bring racers from TM to Spartan and vice versa.
Sarah Boothby
Dear spartan your lack of community involvement sucks. I have tried to write too and they don’t care. I am even thinking about not going to Jax and other Spartans this year because of it
Toby McGrail
Hey Spartan-
When I first walked into this OCR club you were across the room. Everyone had your attention. All of these muscled up pros were your entourage. I figured you were way out of my league. You were flashy, looked impossible to get, and were the most popular one in the room. But I was persistent. We first hooked up in a Stadium. Then later we did a Trifecta. Like everyone else with you, I was just another notch in your numbers.
I’ll admit I wasn’t faithful to you. While you kept doing your thing – raising your rates, trying to get in bed with the Olympics, not paying your entourage – I was running around the midwest (where you never go) picking up local & regional races.
I learned something important: You really aren’t all that. All looks, little substance. Savage, Conquer the Gauntlet, Indian Mud Run, War-X, Bonefrog, Mythic, Thunderdash – they were all way harder to get than you. I actually had to put in some work to make it to the finish line with them. You can’t beat the local race-next-door types. And most of all, they genuinely appreciated me when I was with them.
Sorry babe. You keep doing you (whatever that is). I’ll see you around. I may call you if I need a sneaky link but don’t count on it. It’s not you, it’s me…. (But it’s really you.)
AC Hale
Dear Spartan,
Yeah it’s not even worth my time. You don’t care what we have to say anyways……..
Sean Martin
Dear Spartan – Your lack of responsiveness and regard for athlete safety is appalling. We all assume risk when we race, however swinging obstacles should always have water/hay or something underneath. I am certain that I am not the only one STILL recovering 7 months later from fractures from a fall where they were no safety measures in place. Yes, I train hard. Yes, I am great at the Monkey Bars. Sometimes bars are wet and things happen. If there had been something to soften my fall, my injuries would not have been as bad. The response I received when I asked about a medal was that you only give metals to those who cross the finish line. YET – I broke bones very close to the finish line AND many received medals that day when the race was called due to weather. It’s little things like that that would be nice when you are going into surgery on a Sunday morning. I don’t regret racing, only that you do not treat your athletes as individuals. Be kind. Do Better
Tami Dawn
Dear Spartan – pull your head out of your ass and look around at all the damage that you are doing to the sport.
Kevin Given
Where is your leadership? Where is your vision? Where is your plan? You are a rudderless ship. Your only strategy seems to be “throw crap against the wall and hope something sticks.”
You treat the athletes (pro and regular) like
. You treat the volunteers like
I haven’t ran a race since 2019 and I see no reason to run one now.
It’s not me. It’s you.
Brian Crim
Dear Spartan
You lost me years ago but you have done nothing since that time to make me rethink my decision. You need to focus on the people and not the greed. The competitors that spend countless hours and money to train, travel and compete. The employees and volunteers that make Spartan events so great. That’s where you should focus. You are f*****g up a really good thing.
Barry DeMartin
No dear Spartan … just Spartan you changed a lot your fundamental values , not for good because you don’t care about your people anymore like old days .. I ready missed the original Spartan but now you are another corporate company sucking money like blood with not supporting. I find more opportunities with local races and new sport like hyrox …
See ya !!
And you know you f***** your people.. and we are the Spartan !! No you …
Eddy Guerra
Thank you!
Tom Misialowski
Dear Spartan UK and Ireland,
Thank you for your comprehensive coverage of southern England, I’m sure they really appreciate it.
Love from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the rest of England
Alexander Kane
Dear Spartan….. stop ruining Spartan!
Clare Macro
Please have more races near Illinois! We are feeling left out.
Derek Johnson
Dear Spartan,
Sorry everyone on the internet apparently knows how to run your business better than you, yet don’t seem to have started their own companies and putting on races for everyone to enjoy.
I appreciate everything you have done and are doing for the sport of OCR and I know it wouldn’t exist without you. While I don’t agree with some of the decisions you make, it’s not my place to criticize because I don’t know what all goes into it. Thanks again.
Jason Duly
You became a greedy corporation and lost sight of the foundation and what this was all about!!!
Matt Ocr Enthusiast
Spartan: The moment we met, I knew it was destiny. I had found my place in sports and my reason for pursuing fitness. Your drive for showing me a great time and desire to serve the community spoke to me. But lately, you seem to have other things on your mind. When you have messed up, I have even defended you to my friends. I have told them “no one is perfect”, but lately, I am beginning to ask if you are still as committed as I am. You seemed like you were starting to try but then yet another blow.
You don’t talk to me anymore, you act erratically, and don’t ever explain your actions. I just wish you would be more transparent and communicate more.
We all love adventure and the thrill of the unknown on the course. But not in our race brand relationships. We need those to be solid.
Hoping we can work things out,
Neil
Stop milking people for every cent, bring back obstacles and not workouts, go back to the roots of the open waves that pay YOUR bills, don’t act like you care about folks cause at the end of the day it’s a buisness and you want their money and hire back the guys that made courses awesome
Gene Johnson
Maybe you could send out the codes for trifecta pass purchases for the gear and Spartan+, promised mid January. WTF. Quit sending me emails to buy a trifecta pass when I already did back last November.
sixty_and_strong
Dear @trailmasterhammond you are the chosen one. The one that made Spartan what it is. The best face of the brand to be so invested in the community. Without him… I’m pretty sure Spartan will slowly be a watered down version of bullshit knowing how @joedesena does not care about the sport or athletes and especially the critical employees that have made the culture and the brand what it is today… good fucking luck without. @trailmasterhammond #icoreordie
Mark Falcone
Dear Spartan, thanks to you, I found Ultras. The trail community has evolved since we started doing events together, but I headed back to the trails. The parties are better, the food is free, the beer is craft, last year I got a 6 race series for the price of one of yours. Also, @realjoedesena is a cancer in your system.
el_tylastro
