There are massive amounts of young individuals out there, full of energy and ambition that have yet to participate in obstacle racing. For someone who wants to create exposure for the sport; and get college students out of bars and parties and on to the obstacle course, the low participation numbers are frustrating.
Sean Corvelle asks “When was the last time you did something for the first time?” as he fires people up at the starting line of a Tough Mudder. I want to go a little deeper with this: “When was the last time you tackled something so big that it changed your life?”
Spartan Race kicked off its 2016 season in Southern California last weekend with back to back races at Vail Lake in Temecula. Immediately obvious on arriving at the venue was the distressing lack of water in the lake; with a drop of at least 10-15’ of depth since our last visit back in September, it was clear that the long California drought is far from over. This also left exposed a vast mud plain that was once the lake bottom and would play a role in the race.
As part of an agreement with ESPN, BattleFrog, the nation’s leading outdoor fitness event and obstacle race organizer, has secured the title sponsorship of the 45th Annual Fiesta Bowl. Featuring two at-large, top-ranked teams the game, now coined the ‘BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl,’ will be played on January 1, 2016, at University of Phoenix Stadium.
Hard to believe that the sport of obstacle course racing (OCR), as we know it today, is only seven years old in the United States. In the afterglow of the Obstacle Course Racing World Championships (OCRWC) and the upcoming "off-season" for US OCR races, it seems an appropriate time to look at where the sport is right now and what is brewing for 2016...and beyond.
The 2015 OCR World Championships is in the books. Over 1600 athletes from 26 countries made their way to the small town of Oregonia, Ohio to compete. Some champions retained their titles while other new ones were crowned. This year, the biggest obstacle for many became the weather.
The Mud Run Guide team is on site at the 2015 OCR World Championships. We are bringing you all the action and special behind the scenes footage all week long from Mud, Guts, and Glory, the site of the 2015 OCR World Championships. Monday we caught up with Race Director, Garfield Griffiths, tests out one of the obstacles his team created.
The story of the weekend was the crowning of the new Spartan Race World Champion Robert Killian. While most of the obstacle racing world had their eyes on Lake Tahoe around the rest of the country a number of other races were taking place with new challenges and obstacles for competitors who couldn't make the trip to Squaw Valley.
Leading up to the Spartan World Championship, and the International Obstacle Racing Federation’s first World Congress, there has been a lot of talk about the “sport” aspect of obstacle course racing.
As the Spartan Race World descends on this former Olympic venue don't miss out on any of the fun over the weekend.
