Many in OCR are often claimed that the finishes are not very exciting and often times minutes separate athletes. However, over the past weekend, BattleFrog Series disproved the notion with a photo-finish for second place between Ian Hosek and Glenn Racz.
The Race
The runners traded leads throughout the course and were battling neck and neck through the final lap of the course. Towards the final stretch, Hosek opened a small lead at the Delta ladder with a strong climb and quick moves down. Undeterred, Racz sprinted to the Tip of the Spear, completing the obstacle first and picking up a few paces on Hosek as they barreled toward the finish. Racz had the race all but locked up heading towards the finish, and elected to skirt the right side of the last bit of mud and standing water standing in his way. Hosek saw an opening and risked everything by jumping straight into the standing water, regaining crucial lost steps. With a fierce will to win, Hosek made a flawless exit and a split-second lunge by Hosek made the difference. He edged out Racz by less than a nose at the finish line. Their race was so close that neither the Battlers or the course officials could visually identify the winner!
BattleFrog Battle For the Podium
The outcome was definitively decided by digital timing, verified by third party timing experts, Chosen USA. Both laps of the exciting heat were captured in beautiful high definition video by BattleFrog’s video partner iRewind. As part of its unique partnership with iRewind, every BattleFrog participant receives a free, fully edited highlight video of their BattleFrog experience that they can share with friends on social media. This is just one of the many ways BattleFrog is investing in technology to revolutionize the sport of OCR.
Guy in the shorts cheated by going around the first water pit.
Hello,
I was the guy in the shorts. I sure hope that was not considered cheating by the officials because I really try hard to keep within the rules for the race. I believe the rule is that I need to be on the left side of the little orange flags. I do not think I broke that rule. But if going into the water is required, I was not aware of such a rule (and if it was, I am sorry about that). But if it was a rule, would the racer need to go chest deep, knee deep, ankle deep, etc? It would be hard to be so specific, so that is why I think the race designers generally use flags and tape to mark the path – ie: they would narrow the path to force racers to do the water pit. Note- The water pit was supposed to be part of the water slide, but the slide was removed after my first lap. Either way, I appreciate you pointed this out for 2 reasons, Bob: (1) I’m sure others are wondering the same thing; and (2) I will make a better effort to ask more questions about this in the future.
However, my big question is why the heck I’m running so slow when coming up to the finish line?? Also, my taking the “easier path” only amplifies Ian’s great finish!!
ps- I chipped my tooth on the Platinum Rig 😉
I wanted to quickly chime in on behalf of BattleFrog. First, I’d like to compliment Glenn on an amazing race. We appreciate that you gave it your all and put on such a show. Wow! Second, I wanted to confirm that Glenn stayed within the boundaries of the obstacles and was communicating with course Marshalls that were helping in boundary issues.
We are really proud of the San Diego course and Ryan Atkins’ awesome work. We have been hearing a lot of compliments and we are thrilled our Battlers had a great time and we made a big first impression on the west coast. Glenn, I hope you’ll be back for a re-match with Ian soon! What a race!!!