I can hear the walls creak from the quick drop in temperature (-28C) outside. I roll over and it’s almost time to get up. It is so warm in bed and I have to force myself to venture from underneath the covers. Today’s adventure will take us to Ottawa, Ontario. The plan is to rendezvous at a common area and carpool to save on parking costs. We are registered for the Polar Hero Race and have about a 2 hour drive before our heat at 1000 hrs.
As soon as the first snowflake falls, I begin to look for activities that will last me through the tough winter training months. I was fortunate enough to have heard of the Dion Snowshoe Race Series and thought that our group would participate in the recent Ignite the Night race at Upper Canada Village.
Charity Fick shares her and her husbands experience this past summer at the Dirty Dash in British Columbia, Canada. Find out if their superman and superwoman costumes game them superhuman skills on the obstacles.
As we wove our way in and out of the vineyards obstacles became apparent. Some of the obstacles were hay bales, cargo climbs, walls, monkey bars and tunnels. None of these required our Burpee pass so we continued on in hopes of using them at the more advanced obstacles. There were tire drags, spider webs and sand bag carries
Participants were immediately faced with a deep and slippery mud pit that had people laughing and taking melfies (mud selfies). The trails were well marked and the terrain was fantastic with streams, hills and trails cutting in and out the conservation area. With over 1200 acres of woodlands, there was a lot to choose from.
As you descended the first mountain face the view was breathtaking and the base camp kept you motivated to continue towards your next obstacle. Over a 9’ wall we went and then down a slippery mountainside to repeat the climb 3-4 more times, each one adding elevation and difficulty to the challenge. Some of the standard Spartan obstacles were present, cargo nets, crawls, barbed wire and fire; they also added some new ones like the rotating monkey bar grab and others that await you in secrecy.
It's one week before the first obstacle race of the season, I check the weather and UGH, it's gonna be cold and damp! Welcome to racing in Canada. We are the only country it seems where we can go from frost bite to sunburn in one day. We load the car and head off to the Hamilton/Niagara region, about a 4 hour drive.
As if it were not exciting enough with challenging obstacles and live demonstrations featuring U.S. Navy SEALs and a McDonnell-Douglas 600 Special Mission Bird helicopter, leaders of BattleFrog today announced that its NY-NJ-CT event is shaping up to be a United States of America vs. Canada challenge with top-ranked obstacle course race athletes from both nations announcing that they will compete on Saturday, August 2, 2014 in Englishtown, New Jersey.
