Moving into their 6th season, Bonefrog (formerly called Bonefrog Challenge) continues their sponsorship with Hesco and adds many new elements to the only U.S. NAVY SEAL owned and operated obstacle course race. New for 2018 are venues in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Barre, Massachusetts, and Stanhope, New Jersey.
OCR keeps me active and is a fun community to be a part of. It gives me something to push towards and keeps me reminded there is always room to grow. OCR forces you to be adaptable and constantly seek self-improvement. I think all of these things are important for a balanced life.
Last week, Facebook was a blaze with comments after obstacle race company The Urban Trails took over the old BattleFrog Series facebook and other social assets last Wednesday afternoon. BattleFrog ceased operating a few months ago and sold off all the assets. The Urban Trails which held one event in 2015 acquired Battlefrog’s social assets and rebranded the facebook page last Wednesday.
A new rivalry is budding in the sport of OCR and is in part it is due to the Battlefrog Series removing its weekend races. That has caused a lot of races to move their primary series to Spartan races. With that move, a very athletic and fast group is moving to Spartan Race, the Masters Division. This past Saturday at the Spartan Super at the Wintergreen Resort (The Vertical Mile Monster) was a debut to showcase just what the Battlefrog Master division will be bringing to Spartan in 2017.
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.
This morning news that BattleFrog Series had something big brewing. Early in the day, Mud Run Guide caught wind of a major restructuring of the organization. For a brief time this morning all the social media accounts seemed to have disappeared and all signs were showing that BattleFrog Series would join the OCR graveyard. This has quickly become the story of the day for the industry, as it stands now the twitter account, website, and Facebook page are still up and running. The Instagram page has been taken down. Since the initial rumors hit the obstacle racing world Mud Run Guide has spoken with CEO Ramiro Ortiz as well as received an official statement from BattleFrog Series.
It is always so lovely to be in the swing of the season and see the OCR calendar come to life all over the world. In Australia, the bucket-list worthy True Grit had an amazing weekend, while in Canada, the XMan Race brought in impressive numbers. Dirty Dozen weekend in England, Warrior Race in South Africa...the entire planet appears to have been getting muddy this week!
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.
I was super excited about BattleFrog Series coming to British Columbia, as it was going to be the first time it came to western Canada. If my memory serves me correctly, I had signed up for this in September / October of 2016.
