Margaret was lucky enough to grab a few minutes with the man behind it all, Spartan Race Founder Joe De Sena - simultaneously the most loved & hated, respected & feared individual in all of the sport of OCR. M covered the new obstacles, new rules, and the difficulty of the new course criss-crossing the ski trails of Squaw Valley.
Yeah, I know we're all just a little nuts right about now, the Spartan Race WC, Warrior Dash WC, and OCR World Championships have already passed, and World's Toughest Mudder is still more than a couple weeks out followed by BattleFrog Series' own WC in December - not to mention Black Friday, winter holidays, and New Year's
Coverage of the 2014 Warrior Dash Men's World Championship from Esparto, CA Some of the biggest names in OCR were on-hand including reigning Worlt's Toughest Mudder Champion Ryan Atkins, Hobie Call, Cody Moat, Hunter McIntyre, and Brakken Kraker along with USA Trail 100k record-holder, Max King.
The 2014 Warrior Dash World Championships women's race consisted of some of the best female obstacle course racers like Rose Wetzel, KK Stewart, and Cassidy Watton along with some of the best running talent in the US: Julia Webb, Renée Baillie, and Kimber Maddox. The hilly 5k course was a challenge at the extreme pace set by these ladies - check it out!
Participants can qualify for the Warrior Dash World Championship by signing up for a competitive wave at any of the 30+ events internationally and placing in the top 25 of their gender. “Since Warrior Dash’s inception in 2009, the obstacle racing industry has seen tremendous change and growth, and is becoming an internationally recognized sport,” says VP of Marketing at Warrior Dash, Tad Jenkins. “After a remarkably successful first Warrior Dash World Championship, we’re pleased to bring back the premier 5K competition for a second year in Tennessee and continue the challenge for our elite Warrior athletes.”
Beginning at 10am PT on Friday, October 17, Mud Run Guide will provide extensive coverage of this event on social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. A live tracking tool, for aggregating the latest news and updates across all channels for convenient consumption, will be available at https://www.mudrunguide.com/wdwc. Warrior Dash and Mud Run Guide are also encouraging the use of the official hashtag, #WDWC, for all photos & updates from the event.
Since earlier in 2014 when OCRWC announced their intentions to develop a world championship that isn't tied to one specific brand of events, there have been a few jabs that have been thrown in their direction from Joe, in conversations and interviews he has used variations of "we only acknowledge one OCR World Championship, and it's held in Vermont each September." This was completely to be expected, Joe and his ever-growing team has sunk millions of dollars into developing and advertising the Spartan brand all over the world, it only makes sense that he would protect his investment when asked about a direct competitor. He's spoken with so much vitrol in the past about his distaste for the tactics of Will Dean and Tough Mudder's when both races were fighting to develop a foothold in the industry. His dismissive comments when asked about OCRWC clearly didn't seem like he was lowering the boom on the fledgeling event. Or did it?
