The Bi-annual running of Savage Race Georgia is rapidly becoming a tradition for OCR athletes who want to run in a truly fun and challenging race that seems to test all facets of a person’s athletic abilities and mental toughness. This past race did not disappoint anyone who was lucky enough to be there.
This past weekend marked the end of this year racing season for me and I finished it with a small little race, The Dirty Girl. I had done this race a couple of years earlier and this is one of those I called a startup race and perfect for those who just want a taste of obstacle racing.
The Mighty Run was developed to raise money for care provided on The Masonic Care Community campus. The Mighty Mites course rose over $12,000 to benefit its Child Care Center (the Center cares for children ages 8 weeks to 5 years old from all over the community). The Mighty Run raised almost $38,000 for its rehabilitation center. Everyone connected with the Mighty Run, clearly felt a great deal of pride on Saturday, despite the rain and cold, participants ended the course with smiles and energy!
Spartan started with the obstacles right from the get go on this race. After the initial climb, you had a ridiculously long barbed wire crawl through mud and water. It felt like a quarter mile, but the water felt great with the heat. My arms and knees were torn up after this one. The next obstacle was the monkey bars. I gave them a shot, but I couldn't hold on, since the “bars” were more like pipes, and I have tiny hands. So on to the burpees for me.
Ever since they entered the scene in the Spring of 2014, they have been everything you can could ask for in an OCR. The staff embraces everyone at every level, creating a friendly environment for everyone participating, making you feel like part of their B-Frog family.
This was the fourth straight year BoldrDash was being run at Yawgoo Valley Ski Area & Water Park in Exeter Rhode Island and it was easy to see that BoldrDash had a great idea how to best use the ski mountain as an obstacle course. They designed the course to use the mountain in a zigzag (snake) pattern which took you up and then down the mountain many times. This was great for several reasons as it created a course that was a challenge, and as well used every inch of the mountain to its fullest potential. The four mile course consisted of over twenty five obstacles on a mountain that has some very challenging vertical ascents and descents.
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.
Brian explained the NY course is very different from the New England course, for starters almost every inch of the course is on some form of micro terrain, meaning there are almost zero flat spots on the course except for a few and that is where they are placing most of the obstacles so runners legs are going to be smoked early and often. The course is going to be 8.7 miles long, and packed with the hardest obstacles they have. The actual race will take place on three separate properties that all connect to each other.
As I was reflecting and perusing photos from this weekend's Reebok Spartan Race World Championships, I couldn't help but visibly notice the lack of standardization in a race where so much was on the line. Spartan Race, I do sincerely love your events and believe you guys put on some of the most difficult and awesome physical sporting events in the entire world... this is a constructive piece of criticism that I've been distilling with my observations over the past few years with the growth of this company and sport.
