Terrain Mud Runs held their Signature Event last weekend in Flagstaff Arizona. Set on Fort Tuthill County Park at 7000 ft in the Ponderosa Pines Terrain Racing offered two course distances of a 5k, 10k, and 1/2 mile kids course. It was a fun and challenging event for all ages and athletic abilities. The perfect weekend adventure for the entire family or as we have come to call it in the OCR Community, #RaceCation.
Most racers on the coasts of America have not heard of Conquer the Gauntlet (CTG) because their race series is held in the center of the US. However, out of all the races I have done, CTG is currently at the top of my list for my favorite race series.
This was my third trip to Canada for a Spartan Canada event and like the first two; I was very excited to be going back to Canada and to another Spartan Canada event. Just like the first two events, registration was super-fast and nice and easy and completed in less than a total of two minutes.
This was a new event that first came to my attention in May. Chris Reese, a Steve Austin’s Skull Buster challenge participant, happened to be at another local race with me and filled me in on his upcoming event. Chris’ OCR background and contacts give him a good insight into putting on an event. I was not going to do this race initially because it fell on a Saturday and I figured I would have to work.
Matt "The Bear" Novakovich burst onto the OCR scene in 2013 with his legendary win over the famed Hobie Call at the Spartan Race in Wintergreen, Virginia. He was quickly recruited to join the Spartan Pro Team and has impressive sponsors such as Reebok. Matt took time out of his busy race weekend schedule to answer some questions for the OCR world to get to know him as a person and athlete better.
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.
This was my fifth trip to Canada in 2015 for an OCR race weekend and this one started out with more drama than the others. I arranged a place to stay via airbnb and arrived in Ottawa just after 8 pm on Friday night, but unfortunately the person I had to meet for the keys to the place was not available and explained via text messages he unavailable until 10 pm. After hours of waiting he was a no show and we ended up having to drive to the Spartan Ottawa venue parking lot around 1 am and all three of us slept in my Prius. An interesting beginning to the trip.
While not a full 6-feet under, 6 Death Racers (or was it 7) were buried alive. Read that again - buried alive. Eulogies from their dear friends wafted through the air as these select finishers were laid to rest in actual plywood caskets laid in the ground, that were nailed shut and even covered by dirt for good measure.
This was my first Spartan Super of the year and would complete my first Trifecta for 2015 of the year, I was very excited. I arrived to the Spartan off-site parking for the Boston Super at about 1 am after driving home for BattleFrog and cleaning myself and clothing up and then driving from NY to the Massachusetts and it was raining cats and dogs and continued to pour almost all night. I ended up getting about four hours sleep and then made my way to the event venue.
After patiently waiting years for Spartan Race to bring their Super event to New England, we were finally rewarded. We were close last year with a pre-registration for the event but it never materialized. However, many New Englanders were thrilled when one showed up on this year’s schedule. Along with the Vermont Beast and the Fenway Park/Boston Sprints scheduled for later in the year, it was our first opportunity to add that elusive blue pizza slice to our multi-colored all New England Trifecta medals.
