Never let someone else tell you, “This is what you have to do.” You’ll most likely fail. Get angry at yourself. This is the best drive you will ever get. Self-motivation was my secret weapon in becoming who I am today. I’d be a VERY, VERY rich man if I had a dollar for how many times someone told me, “You should probably lose weight,” and I never went to the gym the next day.
I will be honest and say I have a lot of anger, or did. I couldn’t figure out why bad stuff kept happening to me. The child hood stuff was still painful, the divorce ruined me, and then I tried to date and it just got worse. I finally realized I needed to work on myself before I was ever going to be able to love someone else. I hated myself. So, I turned to lifting.
I played football for a few years in high school, but that’s where my athletic career began and ended. My focus turned more towards music, videography, and photography. After high school, I began shooting and editing music videos for local bands around town. That eventually evolved into photography and through various contacts, I started shooting sports around town ranging from high school all the way up to college and professional MLS and NHL teams.
When I moved to Colorado my friends introduced me to Spartan and Tough Mudder. I had never run anything like this before. I never had the desire, but I needed something in my life to motivate me to get out of bed and get to the gym and improve my health. I compete in OCR not only because it has turned into a passion, but it keeps me fit both mentally and physically.
Almon R. Cox is this week's Faces at the Races spotlight. Cox hit rock bottom when he found himself in jail for substance abuse. Since that time he has used obstacle racing as a path to a fit and healthy life. Read his story in this week's spotlight.
OCR is great physical and mental challenge and every race feels like an adventure. There’s an element of surprise where you can’t predict with absolute certainty how everything will play out.
I began my fitness journey in August of 2013 by going to the gym by myself, walking the treadmill, or slowly easing along on the elliptical. I decided to set a goal to give myself something to look forward to. I signed up for a colorful 5k and also started dabbling in yoga because I was so fascinated with inversions. I am now 4 sizes and 60 pounds down from when I began, and I continue to train and work on my physical fitness.
I am a 52-year-old leukemia survivor who is in the middle of a major life transformation. I just discovered obstacle course racing this year and it has become my new passion in life and a major factor in my losing over 40 pounds in the past year. I am married to my awesome wife, Sandy, and have three awesome sons, Grey, Seth, and Kade, who I am trying to share my newfound passion with. I am a Software Solution Architect with a focus and passion on the power of leveraging data and advanced analytics to better the world.
My favorite way to train is going on trail runs while I push the baby in the stroller. I take yoga, strength train, and take jiu jitsu classes. I believe that trying new things pushes your training to the next level. I also host free hikes and workouts a couple times a month. Everyone’s favorite event is my moonlight hike that I host every full moon.
In a broad perspective, my favorite part about the sport is how literally anyone can get involved. Since some courses are only three miles, it doesn’t take much training to be able to be complete a course. An amateur strongman, bodybuilder or triathlete has to put in many hours of training and dieting to even complete one event.
