A collaboration between Seth Buchwalter and Daniel Ludwig
We’ve seen the pictures and videos; witnessed heartbreak and frustration. As obstacle course racing becomes more popular, and attempts to be seen as a “real sport,” cough cough Olympic Games, there seems to be a disconnect between those looking to run the course for fun, compete for actual qualifications and money, and the events themselves. Over the past few weeks, there have been major announcements from the industry’s top players, including strict penalties, rule changes, and even the complete elimination of competitive racing all together. 2019 has been exciting to say the least!
If the community and its major brands want to be taken seriously as a competitive sport, and earn a bid into Olympic glory, there must be a true competitive series, with strict rules, qualifications, professional-level prizes, and a supporting cast of “open” group of racers to help grow the future of our sport, without diluting the champion-caliber athletes.
Standardization is Key
Follow Seth at @pnw_ocr on Instagram
We’re going to come right out and say it. There are too many people who take advantage of open registration for elite/competitive athletes. First hand, as competitive age group racers, pushing for a podium spot, there are plenty of people we pass, who are walking with an elite band, even on shorter courses. For races with World OCR qualifiers, or global series, such as Warrior Dash, Spartan Race, Savage Race, etc., open racers or Age Group in the case of Spartan, should NOT be catching up to elite racers, who start 15-30 minutes ahead of the pack.
As Age Group Racers ourselves, there have been cases where we’ve chatted with people in the corral, who blatantly tell us they’re only signed up for the age group start because of the timing. While this may not impact our results, other racers who start in later competitive waves have to deal with these early starters jamming up obstacles and single-track paths. Not only is that detrimental to finisher times, but it’s also dangerous for a participant who may not be familiar with the etiquette of competitive OCR. “On your left,” may not register.
For elite heats, there is no question that OCRs should have a qualifier, which should not be outrageous to meet, but enough to keep the competition organic and exciting. Whether it’s a top 10 AG finish or another condition, racers should be held to the highest standards. You should not be able to register for an elite OCR if you can’t finish before the next wave starts. Big money is on the line, but more importantly, competitors should not have to worry about safety issues with clogged obstacles or trails. Is it out-of-line to say it’s unfair that anyone can just sign up and run the Elite wave, next to the best in the world?
Obstacle Proficiency
Now, touching back on another extremely relative topic, it doesn’t take long to scroll through the free public photos, or live streams available from races, to see people breaking mandatory obstacle or penalty rules. Whether they’re supporting a bucket on their shoulder, grabbing the top of an obstacle, or completely disregarding an obstacle and associated penalties, just to get through faster, it’s extremely frustrating for the competitive racer.
Of course, the majority of people who break rules, skip penalties or completely shark their way through a race are most likely not going to challenge anyone’s podium. We like to think there is strong integrity in true elite and competitive racers. However, if a racer is not held to the strong standards, to which they agreed while signing up in that bracket, they hurt the sport’s honor and reputation. Those grabbing “no touch” pieces of obstacles and posting their action shot on Instagram, while supporting the competitive band or bib, ignites a passion from those of us who work incredibly hard to fly through these obstacles for a chance at a podium or a big novelty check.
We do understand that these OCR organizations are businesses, and their bottom line is extremely important. But we do believe that longevity should obviously also be a concern. When it’s all said and done, it may prove difficult to run a qualifier for Age Groupers, as there are a significantly larger number of active folks in those brackets.
Follow Daniel Ludwig at @danielkludwig on Instagram
We Love Volunteers, But They Need to Drop the Hammer
If participants are going to break the rules, they must be held accountable, especially if there is photo or video evidence. Propose the elite and Age Group qualifier, or disqualify racers, post-race after the photos are made available. This comes with a call for better course marshaling. Perhaps, if these heats were better patrolled, fewer non-competitive runners would register, opening it up for those looking to take a serious run at the podium.
Conceivably, not all of those who “gain a competitive advantage” on the course are “cheating.” While everyone should be reading the rules before toeing the line, ignorance may still be a tremendous player in the OCR world. That said, it's the judges (or volunteers', as the case may be) job to simply assess the penalty, not decide why they didn't complete the obstacle correctly.
In the spirit of creating a positive conversation, use of the word cheating” should be limited, as it implies intent (not that that doesn't happen, of course), and has a negative connotation.
We thank the volunteers on course for their service, but there must be a way to ensure they are holding their responsibilities with honor and excitement for the sport. This is a tricky, yet important issue. Most volunteers work hard and are doing a great job, but we need people at the obstacles who are going to make the right call. Unfortunately, many are simply volunteering to earn that free race; sitting there for 6 hours or so seems easy enough if you don’t have to do anything… Better education, perhaps a reward with a higher value?
It’s important to open up the conversation to EVERYONE on course. We hear a lot from the racers, but learning from volunteers and judges about the issues they see, as well as the race
Mud Run Guide is here looking for solutions. What do you propose would be a strong solution to obstacle misuse, bottlenecks in competitive waves or making sure OCR is set to take center stage at the Olympics? We’re confident that, in the true spirit of MRG, we can have an intelligent, positive conversation, and come up with some potential solutions. Let us know what you think in the comments!
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and official policies of Mud Run Guide LLC, or their staff. The comments posted on this Website are solely the opinions of the posters.
There needs to be an elite qualifier and I think there should be time limits/expectations for AG. If you’re AG and you don’t finish within a certain time, you are a DNF, no medal, no shirt… better luck next time.
This article is spot on. Thank you MRG for posting and I hope it gets the attention it needs from the race brands.
Here is my suggestion:
Break the race day volunteer shifts into divisions (1) festival, (2) mandatory obstacles [including fire jump/ finish line], (3) penalty obstacles. When you sign up to volunteer, you sign up under which division you’d prefer and standardize your volunteer division amongst all volunteer shifts to increase volunteer proficiency (volunteer at a monkey bars once, stay at hanging obstacles for every shift).
Each division should have tiers.
Basic volunteer (1-5 volunteer shifts completed, free race), head volunteer (5+ shifts with test on rules, free race and swag), and marshal (full training on rules and paid worker).
Educate volunteers of the rules of the obstacles when they get to that obstacle for the day and a head volunteer or marshal can clarify any questions. If a volunteer sees something of a competitor that is outside the rule, inform that head volunteer or marshal. The head volunteers are the enforcers at mandatory obstacles, either re-do if break the rules or cut the chip/ band. Marshals enforce at penalty obstacles, penalty or cut the chip/ band. Head volunteers and marshals get scissors to eliminate any racers looking to run only for their finishers medal.
We need to give volunteers more responsibility. This is a job for the day and they are getting paid in some form to be there. Know the rules and report rule breakers as necessary.
As far as penalties are concerned, I think that if you’re racing for $, it’s only fair to the athletes if there are trained referees at each obstacle. If they see someone doing something wrong, they need to call it. OCR should be just like other professional sports- if the ref didn’t call it, it didn’t happen. If they mess up, they should have the opportunity to serve the penalty or re-do the obstacle, whatever the rules starte. There’s no point in video replay or making calls after the race in our fast-paced sport unless it’s a close finish.
I’ve been saying this for years. There should be a promotional points system. If you are in elite and ANY AG racer catches you. YOU ARE NOT ELITE.
Time to start taking a page from cycling and triathlon. They have qualifying points systems in place to upgrade and race at the next level. It would be fairly simple to have a general AG (beginner), an AG category that you need to get a certain number of points to enter (intermediate), and elite with a higher points requirement (pro level).
Also, paid referees. If you want true, impartial, and fair refs they need to make some money (NOT a free race).
Finally, giving a governing body teeth will be crucial. Make certain things standard across the sport, but the individual brands can still maintain their individuality. Things like distance, heights, lengths of obstacles, etc can all be standardized easily and making the rules very straight forward across all the brands will make it simpler for referees.
Elite should have to obtain a pro card, either by previous results or through age group results. Series championship should have Regional races that allow for more point earning events so new runners can qualify in age group and move up in the same season without being completely removed from contention. Top regional racers can then race together at a select event, carrying their points with them.
I love your idea about the varying AG categories. I’m one of those that may get caught from the next group behind me. The reason I run AG is because it has pushed me to figure out the obstacles because I have to (or do a lot of burpees). I don’t think I would be able to do some of them if I was getting help in the open category. I can see the point of not being fair to those behind me. Your suggestion sounds like a great answer.
While I do agree with the jist of the artcle, there are some races where I get blown out and then have no chance of finishing in the top 100 in the competitive wave for example. From that point on I just treat it as an open wave.
This is one of the major issues. It’s not an open wave. All athletes are required to follow all rules, and penalties.
I’ve been thinking about this for years. I think they should run it like most community triathlons with the slowest swimmers going first and the elites starting last. Imagine running a heat where all the obstacles are in the worst condition possible. Everyone else has finished and you have to course to yourselves. There would be no advantage to signing up unless you expected to be competitive. That would be more than fair.
We (non rabbits) have often signed up for early heats because we want to run in the morning, don’t want to wait in line for obstacles, want cleaner obstacles. We often lament that the elites don’t have to deal with dirty wet walls or ropes, bad bags or buckets, missing the variable of adversity in their races. At one HH12HR I participated in, Dingo had us getting muddy then running around getting the obstacles dirty for the elites the next morning (Seattle Super) because he also expressed that it’s not right for the elites to race on a pristine course every time.
Anyway, a good solution WOD be to clear a Sprint or super course in the middle of the day and run the AG and Elites then or at the end of the day.
Food for thought.
This is a great idea!
Only pool-based tris put elites last. Only in some certain European championships do this for spectator purposes. All other tris the Pros (not called elites) go first.
If you are going to race elite or age group then it should be mandatory obstacle completition. This burpee penalty thing is a joke cause if you want to make it a Olympic sport then man up. You want to be elite or in the competitive groups then train for what you want to be It’s not a burpee running race people it’s a obstacle course race
Interesting statements. Here are my thoughts (in case any of you are wondering)…
I think that in order to run elite, you should have to qualify. I think that is an awesome point. But, I also think that if you qualify to run elite, you should have to run elite. Part of the problem with AG runners catching elite runners is the slower elite runners want the challenge, but there are definitely AG runners who only run AG because they KNOW they’ll podium. So, essentially, you’re seeing some really talented athletes running in a division that is, well, not challenging enough for them.
This article is spot on! As an OCR racer for the past 7 years i feel like I’ve seen it all. I do run AG and open. Very obstacle proficient but not the fastest runner. Definitely a hard balance between Elite/AG and Open racers. Too many people skipping Obstacles and their penalties even in Elite and Age Group. More training for volunteers with more incentives. Each race a volunteer is saying something different and frustrates the crap out of me. Until the standard is enforced and the volunteers out on course know the rules across the board and follow them, there’s no way to move forward. Just my two cents.
I think it’s fine to leave Age Group categories “open” to registration. Meaning there is not a qualification to get into an AG wave. Elite waves at all Series/Championships level races should be qualifiers only, which its trending towards anyway. As far as local/non series Elite waves I think a lighter qualification program should be in effect. Say a top 10% of an Age group finish gets you qualified for a future elite wave in a non-series/championship wave for that year. I think it would be detrimental to the sport of OCR to so widen the gap that getting into any elite wave basically becomes only available to people with the means to do it full time. There needs to be a bit of a carrot stick to entice people to stick with it over time. Podium finishes even in AG is too small a group to build excitement for dreaming of taking the next step. I say base it off percentage rather than place because of the variability of the size of AG categories. 5th place out of 25 runners is not as good as 8th place for 80 runners. Again this is only for qualifying for non-series/championship elite waves. The series and championship race qualifier only need come from other elite wave qualifying placements.
Great article Seth, couldn’t agree more!
There NEEDS to be qualifying standards for Elite and AG along with mandatory penalty enforcement for ALL elite and AG racers at every obstacle, not just the top 10. Want an early start time? Work your way up the ladder.
Volunteer education is crucial. I would suggest providing the volunteer at an obstacle a laminated sheet of DO’s and DON’T for that particular obstacle, that way there would be no question about what is or isn’t permissible. There is plenty of down time at the obstacle before the racers start to come through to familiarize themselves with it.
Aroo!!!
1. Fully support elite qualification so only those whose abilities fall within the professional range for speedy completion compete in that group. If you qualified for elite, then you automatically qualify for AG.
2. Age Group qualification is a tougher call. If you’ve ever podiumed for a Spartan then you’re grandfathered in to all future AG competitive races (or elite if that’s where you podiumed). Maybe if you’ve placed in the top 30 (or some researched number cutoff) at a prior race for your age group in an open race, then you qualify to race the competitive age group. Let’s get rid of those signing up for just the earlier time but have no interest or knowledge in following the rules. They should be racing the open heat rather than distracting course marshalls and bottlenecking obstacles for the competitive racers.
3. Course Marshall and penalty enforcement. Both times that I’ve marshaled, I monitored through all elites and hour(s) or lots of AG. When there’re a tremendous number of racers simultaneously failing, it gets busy videoing headbands, answering racers questions, calling out to racers if burpee form is incorrect, chasing down anyone who starts walking off before his/her headband has been recorded and they’ve only done 5-15 burpees. Really could use a fullly participating two marshalls to especially chase down those occasional cheaters (who will be ultimately disqualified by Robert) to get their headband number. Free race and swag is great. It motivates me to do a professional job, review those videos so any missed burpee penalties are applied, placements are adjusted and racers who ignore the integrity of the sport are even disqualified.
Spartan has/had a motto to get your butt off the couch and try a race. This is a great concept and has produced millions of participants and great for the open division. OCR as a sport has grown and now attempting to serve all levels. Qualification standards for AG and Elite are necessary. For instance the Boston Marathon and other road races in USA, require proof that you can meet certain times for that specific coral. The same concept has been applied to several time trial start triathlons. Basically, if your 400 meter time is X, then you start with that group. Spartan can create a top 10% AG placing or 10% overall placing to qualify for Elite, etc. Stepping on the heals of those who pay an additional $30 to race earlier only creates issues for those who are there to compete.
Training/educating an obstacle official which leads to Megan Beck’s idea of ranking levels for officials. This may create volunteer shortages but then officials may need to be a paid position. Tough call which may lead to increased race costs.
This is exactly why I made the standard obstacle design called the Hive, hexagonal obstacle course design.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/G1eeCaB3pp6irNhY7