For the fifth consecutive year, the Reebok Spartan Race brought their 3+ mile event back to the New England area. The wildly popular race series spanned two days and was also being filmed by NBC for a future broadcast. After putting in a full day volunteering on Saturday, I was excited to return on Sunday to tackle the course that many were claiming was the toughest sprint distance race every held in the area.
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.
I was never a sporty kid, never an athlete. I was the chubby girl too afraid to even try bowling as I was convinced I would fail or embarrass myself. Until I found obstacle racing…
New Jersey based MudManX held it’s second event of the year on August 9th in New Windsor, NY at the sight previously used for Survival Race, Cousins Paintball. With this location having a mixture of permanent structures and those brought in by MudManX, the course was slammed packed with obstacles at every turn. The rolling hills through a variety of different terrain was challenging enough to keep your heart pounding through this 3.1 mile course.
I hope my being completely honest can help even just one person that reads this, I truly know what it feels like to feel hopeless and helpless and not want to live life that way anymore but I promise you its better spend every day killing yourself a little than to call it quits and remember... The only easy day was yesterday, embrace your beast and always be insanely focused.
The flagship race for Adrenaline Rush Sports LLC is the Black Swamp Dash, located near the banks of the Portage River in Oak Harbor, OH. This was my first trip out of the state for an event, so I was excited to see some new territory, and a new event. Throughout the week, a warning of impending weather was upon me, but that’s up to the weather gods, and not the OCR world. I imagine all/most of us have experienced a little “extra” in the way of weather when it involves our events. Hot/cold, rainy, windy, snowy? Once we are signed up for an event, it’s all hands on deck, regardless of the weather.
Sometimes your small regional races can literally kick your butt. Rugged Maniac is one of those. This race has been coming to Denver for the past 4 years. I believe they do a lot of things right.
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.
The Dirty Dash racing series recently brought their 5k fun run to the New England area for the first time. Leading up to the event, a few other national races of similar ilk had fallen on tough times. The female only Dirty Girl race series, which held 50 events last year, cut that number in half for this year and recently cancelled a few upcoming races. The 5k Foam Fest that was affiliated with the same company as Dirty Dash also announced that they were closing its doors. This led to speculation on social media that the Dirty Dash race was in jeopardy. However, about a week before the scheduled event, we received an email with race logistics which quelled some of the fears.
“Tough Mudder participants have been sharing their photos in record numbers on social media,” said Gameface Media CEO David Lavallee. “For brands like MET-Rx, this engagement allows participants to promote their involvement with the brand in a very authentic and legitimate way. They sample terrific MET-Rx products at the event and then extend their engagement with the brand on social media once they get home.”
