Cody Peyton takes a quick training break in the middle of his work day.

If you missed the first article, make sure you go back and check it out.  This article will further help you identify OCR athletes outside of their natural habitat covering places not talked about in the first article.

At the Bar

The Red Beast can't resist the urge to show off her climbing skills.

Another good time to find OCR athletes is at the bar early Saturday afternoon. After having a free beer post-race plus a couple more that they paid for, the adventurous make their way to a nearby watering hole. If you decide to approach these athletes, do so with caution because they are sometimes sub-tribes within the OCR clan.  If you see a bunch of men and women in orange headband drinking Shock Top beer, you can use the Tough Mudder pledge to show your allegiance.   If the athletes are wearing Reebok shoes and talking about trifectas be sure to use a loud AROO to show you were friendly and meant no harm.  However if the person just appears excessively dirty and looks very non-athletic, they may just be a homeless guy that wandered into the bar, so be careful.  In the event things spill out into the street watch out for athletes climbing on things to display their physical prowess.
 

At Formal Gatherings

OCR power couple, OCR United athlete Dustin Radney and CTG Pro Team Member Ashley Samples.

This is one of the most challenging events to locate an OCR athlete. The formal attire prevents the ceremonial wearing of race shirts and hides the wristbands of honor. The easiest way is to identify them in this setting is watching their interaction with other people at the event. A formal event that was a lot of other OCR athletes will result in them clustering into a corner discussing recent race results. If you see large gesticulations that look like rope climbing or monkey bars, it is probably safe to approach.  If there are not many other athletes at these events, you can find OCR athletes talking to a crowd regaling people of his fire jumping, wall climbing, mud crawling experiences or the complete opposite will happen. If this OCR alpha male or alpha female is too aggressive with his/her stories of triumph, they will chase non-athletes away.  Look for the regular people walking away confused and the OCR athlete holding up his wrist trying to show off his BattleFrog wristband. Other subtle things may give them away such as other company’s wristbands or OCR T-shirt underneath their formal attire.

Driving a Car

Brenna Calvert standing by her car…how many OCR accessories can you find?

After the difficulty of trying to identify an OCR athlete at a formal event, you be glad to know that identifying the car of an OCR athlete is easy. They typically display their accomplishments through stickers on their back windshield and their back bumper. A simple tap of the horn as you pass him on the left and point out your Conquer The Gauntlet medal hanging from your rearview mirror shows them you acknowledge their presence. Finally, as your car passes their car, they will notice your collection of OCR stickers including the coveted OCR Qualifier sticker.

At Work:

Another game of how many OCR accessories can you find already answered. Some people think it's excessive, but Honey Badger don't care.

To fund the obsession of OCR, it requires people to work (unfortunately).  Despite being confined to a cubicle or forced to do manual labor, the OCR athlete still tries to make his or her physical superiority known.  By displaying their trophies of conquest around the office, it informs everyone who is the leader of the tribe.  It is not the guy standing by the water cooler; it is the rope swinging, low crawling, fire jumping OCR athlete.

Hopefully, this guide will help you identify OCR athletes in the wild.  Although I will not require you to sign a waiver prior to venturing out to find these athletes, I will provide you with a word of caution: Always approach with care because a person that jumps over fire, crawls under barbed wire and jumps from elevated platforms into water for fun while running between three and 30 miles may be mentally unstable.

Photo Credits:

Cody Peyton photo provided by Brandon Riggs.

“Red Beast” photo provided by Brenna Calvert.

Dustin Radney & Ashley Samples photo provided by Ashley Samples.

Brenna Calvert photo provided by Debbie Calvert.

Christina Armstrong photo provided by Wendy McElwrath Ragsdale.

Share this post!