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?”
OCR World Championships Short Course Reaction First off, I want to try and clear up a few red flags that some may start waving after watching my video. Different distances in OCR and track/running (two of the examples I used in the video) aren’t clear-cut comparisons. In our sport, we obviously have obstacles scattered all [...]
Getting sponsored is an awesome feeling. However, most people have mismanaged expectations. The bottom line is your sponsor will provide you with product or entry to things that costs them little to no money. Their return on investing in you needs to be greater than the cost. Otherwise, it is not worth it to them. So if you are expecting your local gym to pay you hundreds of dollars just for exercising at their location, you need to adjust those expectations.
As athletes get sponsored, people start asking, “Why am I not sponsored?” Over the next couple of articles, I will explore this question and other aspects of sponsorship. If you are a lower end of the pack, age grouper, I encourage you to stay with me because I think some of this will be eye opening and the final article in this series will have some lessons that you can take away to improve your race performance.
As an Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) athlete who typically is better at longer events, I often am asked the question “When are you going to do the Death Race (or insert other similar event)?” The answer is probably never…because it is a different sport. Death Race and events like it such as The Ultimate SUCK, The Brutality, GORUCK Selection, Fuego y Agua and SISU Iron are not OCR events. They fall into a category on their own that lies in a region between OCR and Adventure Racing but closer to the latter.
As a sports performance coach, usually the first question I get from a potential client is something like, “how can I get faster”, or “what can I do to get better?” My simplest answer to this question is “chase or be chased!” Let’s face it, all the training in the world is nothing without passion! The easiest way I know to bring out an athlete’s passion is competition.
This is not the first time and unfortunately will probably not be the last time this subject is written about. It has become far to common to see this at obstacle course races around the global. The problem, littering. The majority of the littering is from energy gel packaging’s being discarded on the ground. The bigger the race, the more garbage finds itself on course.
While you meet people from all walks of life on the racing circuit, the growth of obstacle racing over the years has allowed for a number of distinct groups to emerge. If you have been racing for a while, chances are you have run into one of these folks on the race course. [We love and need them all.]
But still how many of these obstacles are truly unique? Sometimes it feels like there aren't any other obstacles than what we already see. However, at the recent OCR World Championships speaking with racers from around the globe we have only hit the tip of the obstacle iceberg.
