I arrived in Miami Friday and checked out the events main festival area. The festival area as always was well thought out and ready to rock and role come Saturday and Sunday. I was running the new BattleFrog Xtreme. For the BattleFrog Xtreme you start by running the 15K version of the course at 8:30 AM and then you run the 5K loop. You can run the 5k version as many times as you like with the last lap until 3PM. The winner of both the male and female versions of the Xtreme race are rewarded a very nice BattleFrog paddle. For conquering BattleFrog Xtreme you receive a gorgeous medal and also earn an additional star for each lap through the course. For the first 15K lap and each of the next three 5K laps you receive a gold star. If you complete a fourth 5K lap, you then earn a silver star.
The Course:
The race started out with a pre-race pep speech by Coach Pain Dewayne, the best inspirational motivators in the OCR world. The course started out with a sprint and the first obstacle was a water crossing/swim, it was impressive all day to see the lines never backed up and the staff/volunteers did a great job of keeping it very safe and organized. The next two obstacles were “12 Foot Ladder Walls” and then “Wading Area” and at this point was the first split in the course for either the 15k or 5K. On the 15k side up next came “Trip Wire” and then came the obstacle “Tree Cargo Net”, which pretty much the entire day was the only obstacle that had long delays.
Back on the combined course (15K and 5K) we came to another water obstacle called “Hydro recon” and then “Wedge Donovan”. The course again (for the last time) split the 15K and 5K course. The 15K part of this course had a total of ten obstacles such as, “Delta Ladder”, “Up and Over”, “Inverted Walls”, “Spider Web”, “4 foot Walls” and a “Rope Net Climb” and “Rope Descent”.
The 15K then merged back to the course that was used for the 5K and you came to the obstacle “Water Weaver”, I liked this obstacle as it was chance on each lap to get in the water and just have a few minutes of fun, I also found both the volunteers and safety crew that stationed this specific obstacle to be a really fun group of guys so I look forwarded to talking to them each lap. Two obstacles later I came to the “Sandbag Carry” which got harder with each lap. Up next was a “12 Foot Rope Wall” which was not that difficult until the last lap. Three obstacles later, I came to one of BattleFrog's signature obstacles “Tip of the Spear” which has been changed since last time I did it at the OCR World Championships to now include a section that is required killer grip strength.
The very next obstacle was a very long “Rope Traverse” (over water) and this was the only other obstacle all day that I experienced significant delays at. They had a total of eight ropes set up which is more than most other OCR’s I have seen have, but at least early in the day when you had 15K, 5K, and Xtreme participants all on the course at the same time, this obstacle had a long delay.
Several obstacles later I came to the “Jerry Can Carry” obstacle and I have to say this obstacle was brutal on the grip and upper body, I saw so many struggling on this (including myself on laps two and three) and also heard several racers after the event comment on how difficult the obstacle was. At this point if I recall we had one last chance to do a water crossing obstacle “Swim Across” and then we went back in the water and through a metal tunnel called “Tunnel Rats”.
We (15K and 5K) were now in the home stretch and had just three difficult obstacles left to deal with in “60 Degrees”, “Monkey Bars” which have yet again been redesigned to be even more of a challenge and got harder with each Xtreme lap, and then came the good old obstacle “Tsunami” which as always was a challenging rope climb and then rewarded you with a very fun slide into water. Last but not least came “Normandy Jacks” and the race was complete, unless you were running Xtreme and went back to run the 5K version again!
Overall Feelings:
This was my third BattleFrog event/race and it’s easy to see they are improving with each event/race in all aspects. The course was a lot of fun and I for one was happy that it rained most of the day which helped break the Florida humidity. The volunteers were awesome and did a great job as always and helped make the event even better. I am very happy I decided last minute to fly to Miami and run the race.
The Schwag:
The Xtreme medal is amazing; it’s big, heavy, and sexy and the gold stars are very cool and a great touch! For this race all Xtreme racers were also provided the medals for the 15K and each completed 5K, it should be pointed out this came as a big surprise to me as I was told prior to the event that we would only be awarded with the Xtreme medal. Future BattleFrog races will probably not award each lap with the individual lap medal as well.
Overall event rating:
The event/race was top notch and as always every obstacle was built out of top quality materials and construction. The only issue I really had all day that could be easily corrected was the “Tree Cargo Net” obstacle, in the future they should either not use this obstacle in the woods or at least have three versions of this obstacle to keep the lines from backing up. I am rating this event/race a 4.9 out of 5 stars.
Final Thoughts:
I was only in Miami for basically one day and then went back to New York and the cold weather. I had a great time and look forward to my next BattleFrog race, which should be in only two weeks back in Florida.
Event Rating:
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See ya in Winter Park FL. Good review, thanks for taking the time.