Sarah Fox enthusiastically recommended I interview Jesi Stracham for my Badass Women of OCR Article Series, and I was ecstatic! I had just recently read all about her Toughest Mudder Chicago adventure, and was eager to learn more about this adaptive athlete – I felt truly inspired. You often hear people use the words “I can’t” and that bothers me.
I always get excited at the opportunity to learn about new people within the OCR community. I first heard about Ami Sawran on the Dirt in Your Skirt Podcast. She is quite the interesting lady – she is well-known on air personality for the popular Mudstacle – Obstacle Racing Website, and a vet by trade.
Cassidy Watton to me in her own right embodies the term “Badass Woman of OCR”. She is all about training hard, playing hard and not taking herself too seriously in life. Cassidy has quite the impressive OCR race resume, including a number of podium placements, and she is currently the season 3 and 4 defending champion of the Steve Austin Broken Skull Challenge.
Kate was brought to my attention for this article series by a friend of hers. He noted to me in his initial email that she was a “cut above the rest”. I was intrigued and looked into Kate a bit before asking her to be profiled for my Badass Women of OCR article series. From the information I garnered from her friend and from Kate directly, I felt that she was a good fit for this series due to her strength, determination, and humility when it comes to being in OCR.
It makes me super happy to get to know the strong, powerful and passionate women in the sport of OCR. Sara Knight is no exception. I have been following her fitness and OCR journey for a while now (behind the scenes). To me, Sara has emanated the words “Badass Woman” for a long time.
Primarily, this article series was focusing on the individual efforts of the Badass Women in OCR, but when Amanda’s name was brought up to me as a nomination, I was excited. As I learned more about her and the group from River City fitness, the words that came to my mind were: motivation, teamwork, community, family, and strength.
In the OCR community, I find that more and more people are getting together from all fitness levels and backgrounds to form teams. The teams then take a course by the horns, ensuring that each team member starts and finishes together. I find teams of women empowering, and when I think of the UK Mudd Queens, three words come to mind: Empower, Encourage and Teamwork. I first heard about the UK Mudd Queens (an all women's obstacle racing group based in the UK) from members of the Canadian Mudd Queens and I was intrigued.
I was fortunate enough to have Brenna brought to my attention by one of her teammates, Evan. I had fun learning a bit more about this Bad Ass Woman in the OCR community. Not only has she taken on many exciting challenges, but she is a strong voice for OCR and love for our community.
All women have an obstacle in life that they need to overcome. For some, it is the pressure of society to act and be a certain way, for others, it’s the obstacle of being perfect. The main thing I love about the OCR community is that no one is perfect, and we are all strong in our own ways. For Kelli although she is strong, has done 105 races in over 5 years and wants to push for more, has to deal with Panic and anxiety on a daily basis.
Cynthia has had quite the interesting career within the OCR community. She started her journey in 2012 and has since tackled many OCR and running events, letting no perceived fears get in her way. Initially, as I started to learn more about her, I was intrigued. Not only is she a mom, but she was able to in 2014 at the Spartan Sprint in Toronto chase down Helene Dumais (and we all know that is a feat within itself).
