So much happens during a 48 hour event that it is overwhelming and hard to capture in a short article. I feel like I have enough funny and unique experiences to write a full chapter on the topic, so I’ll briefly cover the purpose/results and then do a quick comparison to World’s Toughest Mudder since that is most people’s only 24 hour Ultra-Obstacle Course Race (OCR) experience.
Mandatory obstacle completion (MOC) courses like North American Obstacle Course Racing Championship (NORAM) are designed to challenge you. If you are not highly proficient at obstacles or have never had to do a MOC course, you may have found yourself stuck at an obstacle. Add in some bad weather like rain and the exhaustion of climbing a mountain and your race may not have gone according to plan. So what now?
Last week I covered what I am physically doing to prepare for Endure The Gauntlet, but that is only half the equation or less as you. I touched on mental strength a little last week with “motivation”, but if you haven’t faced similar challenges, you are going to need a lot more motivation to overcome some of these problems.
I make a lot of poor decisions when it comes to endurance events. This year I announced I was going to run Conquer The Gauntlet (CTG) for 48 hours straight, which I call Endure The Gauntlet. The event piggybacks off CTG Tulsa and has 100% of race registrations going to the charity Folds of Honor (which provides scholarship money to children whose parents were killed or wounded in military service).
Warrior Rush is a 5k Greek-inspired Obstacle Course Race (OCR). The race had several divisions including an elite wave, an open wave, a 6-hour race and a 24-hour race. This meant that regardless of your ability level or interest, there was something for you.
When I think of the epicenter of Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) progress, you imagine someplace in the United States with brands like Spartan, Tough Mudder, or OCR World Championships. What I don’t think of is a small country in the Middle East called Lebanon, but they have made two huge leaps in the sport that is unmatched globally.
I have been a fan of Atomik Climbing Holds for about as long as I have been doing Obstacle Course Racing (OCR). One of the aspects that make OCR challenging is certain movements are hard to make progressive (it gets harder as you get better). Luckily for me (and you), I found Atomik’s Peg Receivers to allow for a versatile training solution that helps you prepare your forearm and back muscles for even the toughest obstacles.
I took a trip up to Minnesota to check out Warrior Dash in between binge-shopping at The Mall of America. As a bonus, they now offer a kids race for ages 3-9, which means my daughter (who is three) would get a chance to play on some obstacles.
Green Beret Challenge, an Obstacle Course Race (OCR) series that includes a normal OCR style race (Operator), a four-person team challenge/race (Commando) and even endurance challenges that are 12 hours (XII) and 24 hours long (Behind Enemy Lines). However, they only run one event per weekend, and recently I got to experience the Operator near St. Louis, MO.
Last year Tough Mudder rolled out their eight-hour overnight Ultra-Obstacle Course Race (Ultra-OCR) series Toughest Mudder. Having done three events last year as part of the Toughest Mudder Series, I signed up to do the same thing this year, which concluded for me at Toughest Mudder East (Boston).
