Dr. Andrea Davis of Davis Physical Therapy & Sports Rehab was at the Medford Lakes Colony Memorial Day 5K. She brought her team and some tech that is very new to our industry and our country. The dorsaVi ViPerform running sensors, analysis, and computer technology were developed in Australia.
This was a weekend of miracles and firsts. For two weeks leading up to Goliathon, the weather forecast promised thunderstorms all weekend. Race Director Doug Horton told me at 4 pm Saturday after all waves had nearly finished the course that God miraculously kept the bad weather at bay all day.
The umbrellas, towels, and toys remained in the parking lots while hundreds of men, women, and children stormed the beach of Ocean City, New Jersey for the annual Memorial Beach Challenge. I finally ran the race this year and can confirm that by far the hardest obstacle was the sand. Soft, deep, sand.
Today was Try the Obstacles Day (TTOD) at Goliathon. Participants had the opportunity to get on six of seven (nearly half) of the course obstacles before the main event day coming up June 2. We got about 20 minutes of unrestricted time to try out techniques, twists and sometimes tumbles, on some very tough obstacles.
I travel a lot for my job. So when a ninja gym opens up in one of the remote places I work, three things happen: first, I get excited. Second, I go there to work out and review the site for Mud Run Guide. And third, I secure the feeling that this whole ninja/OCR thing is here to stay for the long haul.
The Marine Corps Half-Marathon has been around for about 30 years. To keep up with the latest sports trends, Marine Corps Community Services Lejeune-New River started organizing local obstacle course races. Now they offer an east coast season-opening trifecta of races in what they call the USAA Grand Prix Series.
David Magida has this thing about coming out of retirement to win Spartan Races. Then he goes back into retirement. Sort of. When he is not the face and voice of Spartan Race on TV or live-feed, he is back home in Washington, D. C., where he owns and operates Elevate Interval Fitness. Now that he podiumed his first race of the 2018 season, he may go back into hiding as he preps to open his third shop.
When OCR was relatively new, we really didn’t seem to know what to do with it. We just slapped together a lot of extreme workouts. We one-upped each other to push the envelope of crazy. Thankfully, the purists and coaches emerged from the chaos, treated the injured, and got most of us into training rather than just working out.
Jedi Markowski got on my radar about two years ago while he was at Pinnacle Parkour in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Since then, that gym successfully spawned three additional locations. That helped launch him onto the national scene as a contestant on American Ninja Warrior. In his “free” time, he volunteers at the Goliathon, where I picked him up again last October. This past weekend, he started his own gig, the Obstacle Training Academy: a Mobile Ninja/OCR Experience.
The look and feel of the place took me back many years to when I started OCR at ABF Mud Run. The gym is tucked into an industrial park. It also reminded me of iMETTLE. They are OCR training heavens. All the basic stuff is there. But the Endurance Factory has more.
