OPINION: My Solution to World Championships Overseas

Brenna Calvert and Amie Booth on their way overseas to the Dirty Double Weekend.

Last month I posted an article about, “Do Championships Need to Move?” Check it out if you haven’t read it yet. I assume at some point one or all three of the big championship events (OCR World Championships, World’s Toughest Mudder or Spartan Race World Championship) will move overseas.  If this does occur, it will be a move many of our Eastern Hemisphere OCR athletes will absolutely love. Additionally, Americans that have a large travel budget and a flexible schedule will also enjoy it. However, like I touched on in the article above, recognize there is some risk with moving overseas. Risks like will it provide the same experience and will the events be able to pull in the same numbers of people?  This concern of having similar numbers, translates to profits and ultimately translates to the sustainability of putting on OCRs and/or a World Championship event.

Where I work, one of the things we preach, don’t complain about something unless you have a solution. Well, before World Championships start planning to move overseas, here is the solution I recommend that makes it easier for athletes and minimizes risk to the companies putting on these spectacular events:

If one or multiple of the events move overseas….try to make them on back to back weekends.

For example*:

October 20^th 2018: Spartan World Championship

October 27th, 28th, 29th 2018:  OCR World Championships

November 3rd-4th: 2018: World’s Toughest Mudder

2016 WTM start line.

Conquer the Gauntlet Pro Team athlete Randi Lackey at OCRWC 2015.

Yes, I know I’m asking for three different companies to coordinate. Yes, I realize choosing a race date and location is more complicated than just picking a date on the calendar. Yes, I understand there are numerous complexities involved with putting on a race, some which are beyond my knowledge and would take longer than the scope of this article.  However, as a consumer/athlete, I know I would be more likely to fly overseas to race OCR World Championships and World’s Toughest Mudder if they were on back to back weekends. Even if they are in different locations, a short flight between European countries is more doable than two trans-continental flights.  Furthermore, I'm sure some dedicated athletes would be there for all three weeks of the OCR love fest.

If they aren’t on back to back weekends, I would probably have to choose only one of the three to attend. I imagine most people who are even willing to travel overseas to race in the first place are in the same boat as me. Not to mention if the dates were spread out getting off from work would start to become an issue…because I’m not going to fly across the globe just for the weekend to race.**

So Adrian, Joe and Will (or whoever handles scheduling for the respective organizations), if you are reading this and if you plan to move overseas try to line up the events for the sake of the athletes and to limit risk to your events.  The travel budget and OCR athletes from the US (where all of these companies base of operations is located) would appreciate it immensely.

Leah Hensley, Chris Blaven and Heather Moss at the finish line of OCRWC 2016.

*I listed the events in the general order of which they have been historically run. Furthermore, the two that are brand specific (Spartan and WTM) are likely to have overlap in participants with OCRWC but less likely to have overlap between brands.  WTM must be at the end because anyone who has raced that event knows the toll it takes on your body and the lengthy recovery process afterwards.

**That’s not true. I flew from the other side of the globe for the weekend for WTM 2015…but I won’t do it again…at least I’m saying that now.

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