Last Week In OCR – 8/1/16
Ninja Swords, Green Berets and Tree Huggers - just a few things that make our sport great, if not a bit weird...
Ninja Swords, Green Berets and Tree Huggers - just a few things that make our sport great, if not a bit weird...
For BattleFrog Xtreme and other multi-lap events, nutrition can make or break your performance. Unlike a short 5k or 5-mile race where nutritional mistakes can easily be overcome, the effects of nutrition on race day are crucial. Furthermore, a mistake early on can have a compounding effect as your body depletes muscle glycogen and desperately tries to refill your fuel tank faster than you are emptying it.
The summer continues to roll on with obstacle races across the globe taking place every weekend. This past weekend OCR was everywhere from the Spartan Race European Championships, Terrain Races in Flagstaff, Arizona to BoneFrog Challenge in South Carolina. Rugged Maniac made a stop outside of Kansas City while Tough Mudder was outside of the Big Apple, with both a full course and a Tough Mudder half. With over 40 obstacle races and mud runs taking place this weekend around the globe, that is a lot of muddy, wet, and challenging obstacles to overcome.
After our third kid, Emily (my killer awesome wife) starting working out hard in the most inconvenient times (early morning and late night) to lose the baby weight. She proved to me that it can be done and that health is important. The “I need to change” moment occurred in my parents’ kitchen. My dad squeezed my shoulder and said, “That extra weight looks good on you Rick. Makes you look like a man.” I wear my weight well, and he was sincere. I looked stronger, but it was just a layer of fat. It was the first time that someone, excluding Emily, acknowledged the “extra weight.”
It was another stellar race weekend, and Hills, Heat and the major Elite were out in full force. We had another Canadian BattleFrog terrain use triumph, some much-loved smaller races like CTG and Mud Endeavor bringing in some impressive numbers - but the weekend belonged to Spartan Race, with three races in two locations and a true battle of the big names. The entire top twenty in Palmerton, PA. looked like a veritable who's who of OCR!
Last weekend, Battlefrog Series made it's second stop in the Great White North with the Trois-Rivières BattleFrog about two hours outside of Montreal, Quebec. Longtime obstacle racer and Olympian turned race director Marco Bedard created a truly unique course and experience for all in attendance.
Last night BattleFrog's CEO Ramiro Ortiz joined ESPN's SportCenter host Darren M. Haynes to talk about obstacle racing and the upcoming ESPN League Championships Season 1 which premieres on ESPN on August 2 at 9pm ET. Ortiz and Haynes talk about what OCR is and how it has progressed in the United States and beyond in the last couple of years.
Obstacle Racing fans will be setting their DVR's tonight as two action packed Obstacle Racing shows hit the airways at Primetime tonight. On NBC the Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge airs at 9:00pm and on ESPN at 9:30pm the BattleFrog College Championships Season 2 debuts on ESPN. College teams from around the United States will try once again to take home the championship title. Tonight kicks off the three night event on ESPN.
For years, the obstacle racing industry has talked about the short course time and time again. The most famous and vocal proponent of the concept has been OCR racer Hobie Call. His vision of the sport in the future is a short course laid out in a stadium where people can watch all the action. Over the weekend, at the Spartan Race Dallas Stadium Race after the main heats were complete a version of that vision was realized. The IORF revealed a standard stadium format course, in conjunction with USA Pentathlon and delivered by Spartan Race.
I realize I may be talking to a very small group of people in this article, but I thought it was worth writing anyway. Most people enter BFX with that elusive third lap in mind. They are looking to get through three laps of some of the roughest obstacles in OCR. Fifteen miles and around 75 obstacles are no joke and anyone that walks away from a BFX event clutching that big black X of their newest medal with three stars on their ribbon should be proud.