The 4 mile, over 30+ obstacle course race, Conquer the Gauntlet (CTG) returned to KC at the Grain Valley Speed Way to put on another great race for their second year in a row. Instead of racing this particular event I went behind the scenes of Mainprize Industries and experienced the hard work this family puts into each and every race they promote.
THE BATTLEGROUNDS at Cedar Lake in St. Louis, is the Midwest’s only permanent mud run obstacle course, and obstacle course with its very own vineyard! It offers a 5k and 5 mile running option along with 30+ military themed obstacles. It is truly where “Life is better Battled”. This race has been getting a lot of publicity behind the scenes with OCR Warrior and the city’s very own KSDK News Channel 5. I had to come check this out for myself.
This past weekend I headed to compete in the Warrior Dash in Lexington, MO at The Big River Ranch. I was eager to see how this venue was going to create the most bad-ass day possible for its competitors.
This race was 4.15 miles, 30+ obstacles, and had 12 mud/water pits. The Mainprize brothers definitely made this race their toughest event yet. This race was not set up for time purposes but completion purposes. The Tiger Trap on this course was the deepest mud pit I've been in so far.
CTG is put on by Mainprize Industries LLC, a family company. David Mainprize and his brother Stephen, with his wife Courtney are incredible people. Their goal is to create an energetic, community atmosphere while still providing an extreme, intense, and competitive race. You get what you pay for and more.
I got the privilege to check the new, first time, KC Timber Challenge OCR in Bonner Springs, KS this past Saturday. This is the first OCR that I have seen that is literally STRAIGHT UP NATURAL- NATURALLY TOUGH!! It’s on 130 wooded acres along the banks of the Kansas River. It’s definitely a one of a kind natural course with unique terrain and landscape. I’m talking huge fallen trees you’re jumping over and crawling under, sliding down ten foot banks into creek beds, mud pits, hurdling fire logs, boulders and rock bluffs, just to name a few. Some of the man-made obstacles are their 300 foot hand held zip lines over a muddy water hole, swimming through the Icy Shriveler, and a 40,000 cricket cage crawl. Is that crazy enough for you??
I always have a blast and look forward to what Tough Mudder is going to bring to the table. I was scheduled to go off in the first heat at 10 AM on Saturday and the weather was perfect. I arrived there between 8-8:15am and it’s always exciting to see people already waiting in line to get their bib # and getting fired up!! Parking was well marked and all the volunteers were in their places and racers were checking in smoothly.
I think everybody to some extent is or can be an “athlete”, BUT then there are those that are “born competitors”. I have been a competitor/adrenaline junkie my whole life. I eat, sleep, live, and breathe competition. The greatest compliment I was ever given was by a bodybuilding photographer and writer for Muscular Development Magazine, who was doing an interview with me. He told me, I was the first person he had ever met, that he could not ask “What is it that you do?”, but instead he had to ask, “What is it that you haven’t done?
