This season has been action packed and Rugged Maniac was one the remaining race series I was really looking forward to. I have participated in four other events at this venue. So coming to Englishtown for an OCR has become a habit for those of us racing in New Jersey.
Ramiro Ortiz, an experienced business and sports executive, has been appointed chief executive officer of BattleFrog LLC, the obstacle course race series inspired by Navy SEALs. Ortiz previously served as a business consultant to the BattleFrog board of directors and, in that role, performed a thorough analysis of the organization’s operations.
Going into Tough Mudder Whistler I was scared. This was the biggest event I was going to take on, and of course you always hear horror stories and those that freak out when you mention its name. I had only done a few smaller races (Spartan Sprint and the Dirty Dash), and I had no idea what to expect.
I have been anticipating and looking forward to them for many months. Based on my experience at last year’s Tri-State BattleFrog event/race at the same venue I had lofty expectations for this year’s event/race to be amazing and even better. Unfortunately, the 2015 Tri-State BattleFrog did not deliver.
I anxiously jump out of bed early and check to see what the weather has in store for us; this is one of the first challenges when racing outdoors in a Canadian climate. The ideal weather is one that is not too cool so we can reduce our layers and not too hot so we can push through without the worry of dehydration. We were in luck, warm and overcast with the risk of showers later in the evening. We loaded the car and headed off to Commando Paintball in Ottawa.
This weekend, I went to the Irvine Lake Mud Run, a semi-annual local event in Southern California. This event makes no claim to having the best, newest, or nastiest obstacles. It doesn't have a huge amount of elevation gain, and there are no penalties for skipped or failed obstacles. There are few shirtless studs or their female counterparts in tight compression shorts and sports bras showing off their spectacular abs to onlookers. In fact, other than a single heat in the early morning, there were no timing chips at all. And boy, was it fun!
The Mogollon Monster Mudder a 5k race with over 30+ man-made and natural obstacles returns to town of Payson, Arizona at the rodeo grounds for another great race for a third year in a row. Last year in only their second year they had 345 participants. This year was proof this race is definitely growing in the OCR Arizona community.
This was my second Down & Dirty event since last year and both events had a great festival area in common. The turnout for Down & Dirty events (at least the two I have gone to) is high and varies from friends and families hanging out which makes for a good time and lots of smiles and celebrations throughout the event/day.
This past weekend was another busy weekend in obstacle racing and the entire OCR industry. BattleFrog moved north up to New Jersey. Spartan Race was in both Boston and Dallas. Shale Hill celebrated Father's Day with a relay race, and Tough Mudder had participants climbing to new heights in British Columbia.
Since Warrior Dash runs races about every other weekend, I hold them to a higher standard. As an established race series with so many events nationwide, Warrior Dash should have most of their problems fixed through trial and error. Chances are if you are reading this, you have done at least one Warrior Dash before, so I will spare some of the details normally associated with a race review instead focusing on aspects specific to the Illinois race, planned for both Saturday and Sunday. Of note, I ran in the competitive wave, so my comments reflect the experience around the first half of Saturday’s race.
