This past weekend, I raced the SoCal Spartan in Chino, California. Prado Regional Park was a beautiful venue, the weather was great, and everyone was so excited to kick off the U.S. 2018 racing season for the Spartan Series.
An eight-hour drive on a Friday afternoon through desert roads that reached 118 F. Setting up a tent in the dark. Post-race thunderstorm, and damp sleeping bags from not sealing the windows before we went out. Getting up early on Sunday morning and facing another 8h long drive home. All of these were totally worth it for the chance to run the Terrain Race in Flagstaff on Saturday.
Friday, September 18th I headed south to Salem, Oregon from Spanaway, Washington to participate in a newer obstacle run. “The Inferno” named for it's time of year is is the companion to the winter “The Freeze.”
Insane Inflatable had a huge turnout and it was easy to tell many of them arrived early and hung out after and the festival area was good times the entire time I was on site. The MC did a good job of firing up both the racers and crowd the entire time, which helped make the festival area even more of a good time.
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.
Mad River Mountain is probably one of the few locations in the country where you can run up ski slopes, through the woods, and on rolling hills in the middle of a cornfield all while running a route just over 10km. That alone was going to make the venue worth the cost of registration but the way Savage Race utilized the area made it an event to remember. If anyone was weary of the series’ recent spotlight, being considered as a one of the up-and-coming contenders to the big three of Spartan Race, Warrior Dash, and Tough Mudder, all doubts should now be shattered.
MuckFest MS is a family event, so the festival area was loaded with lots of families, friends, and couples all having a good time. Music played throughout the event and this only helped make for fun times and smiles.
Generally, when people think about the frog in the World of OCR, their thoughts are about the flashier, highly marketed Battlefrog. I admit, I was guilty of these same thoughts. There is no doubt that it is a respectable race and I was all in on that frog, until now. The lesser known race called Bone Frog, founded by Brian Carney (33) born and raised in Western Massachusetts, 13 year Navy and 9 year Seal veteran, is an absolute power house in obstacle course racing.
This was my first Krell Adventure Games and I was very excited to be doing the event with my friend Franklyn Newby. The Krell Adventure games not an obstacle course race but something closer to orienteering event or adventure race. The course did include several obstacles as part of the twenty challenges, but the majority of the challenges were challenges, not obstacles. Franklyn and I were pleased with the course and that it wasn’t your typical obstacle course race.
The 4 mile, over 30+ obstacle course race, Conquer the Gauntlet (CTG) returned to KC at the Grain Valley Speed Way to put on another great race for their second year in a row. Instead of racing this particular event I went behind the scenes of Mainprize Industries and experienced the hard work this family puts into each and every race they promote.
