This Training Tuesday we are mixing it up with a look inside the training of two of obstacle course racings most accomplished athletes. Tough Mudder put together this mini-documentary of the training and lives of both Atkins and Webster. It's a candid look into the world and training or this OCR power couple.
The 2016 Spartan Race World Championship took place this weekend in Lake Tahoe, California. We have video highlights from the race.
Since the beginning of the Spartan Race World Championships in Glen Rose, Texas back 2011 one constant has been the drama of the sport. Over the weekend, this year's Spartan Race World Championships was no exception. The obstacle racing world saw Hobie Call become the first three-time Spartan Race World Champion as well on the women's side the first two-peat champion Zuzana Kocumova. The drama continued as the second and third place women Lindsay Webster and Faye Stenning battled it out in a burpee off finishing eight-hundredths of a second between each other.
It is no secret that the Canadian couple Lindsay Webster and Ryan Atkins have been a dominate force on the North American OCR scene this year. The couple was recently married this summer but marriage hasn't slowed down the two. Over the weekend, both individually added another notch to their belts as they individually clinched the 2016 Spartan Race U.S. Championship Series besting many of the top obstacle racers in the world.
So to say this week was an emotional one for OCR is a bit of an understatement.... with some of the best racers we have out there giving it their all - those of us at home followed the action like the Olympics weren't over.
BattleFrog kicked off their season also in SoCal a week before Spartan at an unknown venue off the beaten path, straddling the Mexican border in a relatively sketchy-looking neighborhood. As a racer on the grounds, the estimate of 350 participants seemed a little generous. Those who made the trip enjoyed a well-designed, fun, & challenging course.
If we were to pick two words to sum up this last week in OCR, I would have to say it was "Spartan" and "Beard". One crushing it with nationwide domination and growth, and the other...for its lack thereof. (RIP chin curtain)
Fires, tires and barbed wires... OCR does it again.
This year has been exciting for the endurance OCR community with the expansion of BFX, the first BFX24, the promotion of Spartan Endurance, the beginning of the Spartan Agoge, and now Tough Mudder’s new event type that was just announced: Toughest! (Not to be confused with the European Obstacle Race Series) So what is this new thing and when can you get involved? Well, that’s what I’m here for.
It was another stellar race weekend, and Hills, Heat and the major Elite were out in full force. We had another Canadian BattleFrog terrain use triumph, some much-loved smaller races like CTG and Mud Endeavor bringing in some impressive numbers - but the weekend belonged to Spartan Race, with three races in two locations and a true battle of the big names. The entire top twenty in Palmerton, PA. looked like a veritable who's who of OCR!
