This past weekend Conquer The Gauntlet (CTG) kicked off their 2016 season with their first race in Wichita. Not surprising, CTG brought out some of their toughest obstacles to the start of the season off with a bang.
Over the weekend, BattleFrog Series made their first appearance in Tennessee as part of their 2016 nationwide expansion. Tennessee is not often thought of as a hotbed for obstacle racing. However, Tennessee is not new to Obstacle Course Racing as it was the home for the 2015 Warrior Dash World Championship. The challenging course was designed by the infamous racer and race director Ryan Atkins.
Last year, my favorite Mud Run Guide Editor in Chief and Dirt in Your Skirt owner Margaret Schlachter posted an article about “The Dark Side of OCR: When Hobby Turns to Obsession”. Her article was thoughtful and well written, but it brought up the question in my mind. Where is the line between unhealthy obsession and dedicated athlete?
You line up for the start of an event that boasts the most obstacles per mile with advertised numbers of 100+. What should you be expecting? Dozens of rigs? Fifty different low crawl obstacles? The large variations in what constitutes an obstacle and what that means to the course may be overwhelming, confusing and even misleading to athletes, new or experienced.
Now that you have adopted your spandex shorts and are feeling race ready you take a look in the mirror but something does not seem right. You do not look like those elite racers lining up on the starting line from last weekend, so what gives? It is not that something is missing, it is that you still have something…body hair.
I was super excited when I found out I would have another chance to race in the Middle East. Timing for international races does not always pan out, especially when a country only has one race series. The Hannibal Race held their first race of 2016 in Awkar a neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon.
Now that BattleFrog Xtreme 24 is over, you may be thinking it is time to take other aspects of your Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) life to the extreme. Recently, you have been lining up at Obstacle Course Races and started to notice something spreading amongst the athletes in the front of the field. It began as an isolated overly excited ex-triathlete who transitioned into OCR and has spread to other athletes.
At the bar. 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're reading this article which you are, chances are you have an obsession with Obstacle Course Racing (OCR). However, not everyone in your family wants to hear details about all your calluses that were torn off on your last set of monkey bars or how many burpees you did last night while watching a playlist of OCR Warrior.
I chose the title for the article knowing well in advance there will be a string of comments on Facebook that says things like “No! Who cares!?!” Just like most posts, you should probably read the article first. So, should you care how much you can lift if you are an OCR athlete?
