I, like all of you, felt the urge to throw cash at my computer screen with every Black Friday & Cyber Monday email that screamed with unbeatable deals for the 2019 race season. At one point, I had my bank app open on my phone while I collected an excessive number of RAM-stressing tabs highlighting unbeatable race deals in my laptop’s browser all while sitting just inches from my ever-growing handwritten Christmas shopping list on the table...
Show up to any race in the US and you’ll see them. Teams of Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) athletes representing things like race brands, compression socks, regions of the US or even corporate companies. Depending on the type of team there may be benefits from pay to just having a good group of friends to race with.
They can be seen at every event. Usually clad in brightly colored clothing and mud with a huge smile on their face. No, not racers. I am talking about the amazing volunteers that donate their time at each race to help make everyone’s experience a little bit better.
I have a pretty great OCR "framily" that I run with and hang out with before and after a race and we always have fun. But I also have a really amazing FAMILY and I've always wanted to share my love of OCR with them. I am the proud mom of 16-year-old twin sons and they each have done one Spartan Stadium Sprint with me but the three of us had never been at one together.
Last year just after a weekend that included 2017’s 24-hour long World’s Toughest Mudder and Veteran’s Day I wrote an article about The Success of Military Vets at World’s Toughest Mudder. With the worse race conditions at the event in the last half-decade, not surprisingly vets did well again with one (that I know of) on every overall podium.
This is Part 3 in my mini-series regarding finding Balance between life and OCR. I know that this is something most of us work on, most often on a day to day basis. It's not easy to find a one size fits all approach to and balance things out, and I am hoping by sharing Daniel's story, it might help someone figure out a plan on how to make it all work.
When you find out your child has special needs as a parent your mind goes all over. What did you do wrong, how can you help them? As a parent, these thoughts never really go away, or at least they have not for me. My daughter has multiple diagnoses. Autism, a speech delay called Apraxia, Anxiety, and ADHD.
Next up in my three-part mini-series on how to find a balance between life and OCR, I would like to introduce to you Julie Palamar. Not only is she the nanny to triplet girls, but she also has her own child that she is raising.
Merriam-Webster defines a sport as "a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other". They also describe it in general as "a physical activity (such as hunting, fishing, running, swimming, etc.) that is done for enjoyment." In the broader sense then, obstacle course racing (OCR) is obviously a physical activity…hence a sport.
Aaron Singleton and I had been chatting online this summer quite a bit and decided it would be neat to collaborate on an article. I wanted to show how it felt to go from road runner to obstacle course racer, and how it felt to go from obstacle course racer to road runner.
