After years of missing this event due to conflicts in personal, business or racing schedules, I was finally able to take on Warrior Dash Oregon, a muddy 5K that continues to attract thousands of participants each every year. It’s always a great day for OCR when you can eat breakfast before and shower after the race at home.
Savage Race returned to the Chicago area over the weekend for another strong showing for the series. The race took place a little over an hour north of the Chicago metro, close to the Wisconsin border, an area not particularly known for rough terrain or hills so participants knew they were in for one blistering fast race
In a world where OCR events have become a dime a dozen, it’s hard to take a new race series seriously. A lot of us have fallen victim to events fresh to the market that fell extremely short of their claims, or were downright dangerous due to lack of experience or foresight, or both. Let me be clear when I say that Frontline OCR is NOT one of those events.
I had the pleasure of making my way across the Pacific Ocean to the only active 24-hour Ultra-OCR event in the Southern Hemisphere, True Grit Enduro 24. The trip was part of my quest for a high ranking Ultra-OCR Grand Slam (see link for details if you would like to know more).
Goliathon put on their annual spring event and OCR photographer Bob Mulholland was on hand to compile the action for this photo essay.
I started my Spartan Race journey in Tuxedo NY back in 2013. I went into that race having no idea what to expect and with no “special” training. Fast forward 4 years and I returned to do my 12th. Spartan Race. There were a few things that made this different from all the other years..but more on that later. This is one of my favorite venues for two reasons. It is super close to my house and the terrain makes for one of the hardest sprints Spartan puts on.
Every so often you find a race that really does fit your personality. For me, it is Mud Hero, and yes, I like getting dirty, I like romping around with lots of obstacles to keep me entertained and I love a flat course so I don’t overdo it. This race returned to Commando Paintball located just outside of Ottawa.
As the racing season swings into high gear, we traveled 4 hours East to Owl’s Head in Mansonville, Quebec, Canada for the Spartan weekend. This challenging location offers a vertical incline of 540 m (1,770 feet) with a top elevation of 756 m (2, 480 feet). The base elevation alone is 216 m (709 feet).
Back in March I shared the upcoming Memorial Beach Challenge 2017 by interviewing one of the race founders, Mike Vaules. This 2+ mile OCR is all on the beach of Ocean City, NJ. The tide was high this morning so in some spots, the beach was very narrow due to severe storm erosion over the winter. But that funnel did not stop the 425 runners from doing this course. No. What stopped them was exactly what Vaules said to me back in March. The hardest obstacle here is the sand.
Being used to the competitive atmosphere in most of the OCR races I have participated in, I thought I would start off the 2017 racing season with the race that is made to get the first time OCR runners into the fold, Tough Mudder.
