The Course:
The “Jerry Can Carry” obstacle proved to be brutal on the grip and upper body, many struggled on this obstacle. I then came to a “8 Foot Walls” climb. The next obstacle was a “Rope Climb” which had a very cool twist, you were in about 4 ½ feet of water and had to climb ropes that got very wet fast. The part of this obstacle I enjoyed most was being in the cool water, it was another opportunity to cool my body down on what was turning into a very hot and sunny day. One of the next obstacles that came was the “Amphibious Assault” which is one that I have only seen used by BattleFrog and gives you a chance to shoot a target with a paintball gun. I was able to hit my target on all three laps within two shots.
At this point of the course, it splits for the 15K and 5K. The first obstacle on the 15K side was “Caving Ladders”, which started you in about five feet of water and then had us climb up a military ladder and onto a ledge high above. The next few obstacles were “Stump Jump”, “Hump Overs”, “4 Foot Walls”, and “12 Foot Rope Walls”, between my bad back and lack of the typical upper body strength I am used to having the only obstacle I really struggled with was the “12 Foot Rope Walls”. I then came to “Ramp Walls” and then on to the obstacle “Wedge Donovan”. Credit for this obstacle has to go to BoldrDash as that is where I originally first saw it.
The final four obstacles in the course (15K and 5K) were, “Tip of the Spear”, “Monkey Bars”, “Tsunami”, and “Normandy Jacks”. The one thing worth mentioning regarding the final four obstacles was the “Monkey Bars”, the water was very low and it appeared several people were injured from falling into the water.
Overall Feelings:
I want to point out a few things that happened at this event. Co-founder and former Navy SEAL Michael Donnelly can always be found around the finish area and helping at the “Tsunami” obstacle, but while starting my second lap, I witnessed him climbing up one of the ropes on the “Tsunami” and using his right leg to help a racer climb the obstacle and complete it! The was awesome to witness and I am not sure any other OCR has someone on the course helping people complete obstacles let alone one of the OCR's Co-founder.
Last but not least, I have to give a shout out to BattleFrog’s DJ Haviken Hayes who as always, played a great play list all day and did his typical awesome job on what was a busy day.
The Schwag:
The Xtreme medal is amazing; it’s big, heavy, and sexy and the stars are very cool and a great touch! This time, Xtreme finishers were not provided the individual medals for the 15K and each completed 5K, which is what I expected as they have said from the beginning we would only be awarded with the Xtreme medal. I was mistaken in my last article about the finisher shirt, it has been changed from last year and now has more color and is even cooler than last years.
Congratulations to Tony & Laurie:
Our very own Tony Ferrante was married this past Saturday at BattleFrog to the love of his life Laurie. MRG and I want to congratulate the two of them.
Overall event rating:
First, for the second race in a row, at least all the 5K water stations ran out of cups. I rather they run out of cups than water and to be fair the volunteers were awesome and held the water jugs above each racers head to quench their thirst and prevent dehydration.
Second, it was a hot scorching day and not a single one of the volunteer stations (water or obstacle) had an umbrella or any type of protection for the volunteers from the direct sun and heat.
Third, the “Monkey Bars” obstacle needs to be redesigned to be in deeper water or other means to prevent racers from falling and being potentially injured.
Fourth, the registration tent at least really early in the morning (was still dark out) moved slowly for the Elites, both the Elites and Xtreme racers registered on the same line and this caused some delays and stress. I would suggest in the future they have at least two lines for Elites (A to P & Q to Z) and have the Xtreme's register on any line and just have the volunteer walk over and get the correct Xtreme registration package. All four of these fixes/improvements are not hard and I expect by the next BattleFrog event/race all four will be corrected.
I am rating this event a 4.7 stars out of 5.
Dedication:
I want to dedicate this article and Xtreme run to Ted Heleotis the father of Jason Heleotis (CEO/Race Director of MudManX) who in November found out he has stage four cancer. My thoughts and prayers go to both Ted and his entire family. Keep fighting, the only easy day was yesterday.
Rating 4.7/5
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