Wet, muddy, humid and hilly. These four words perfectly describe the Terrain Race in Slinger, Wisconsin. This race was held at Little Switzerland, a small midwestern ski resort located about 30 miles northwest of Milwaukee. When we pulled up to the venue, the hills really did not seem too intimidating, especially considering the standard 5k distance of this race.
There’s some good news and some bad news about the Palmerton Spartan Super last Saturday. The good news is that I will only write one more cliché. Here it comes. The following picture tells a thousand words. This picture told me everything I needed to know about this race.
My apologies for being late to the party with this Spartan Sprint race recap outside of Washington DC. Unfortunately, I’m not independently wealthy and I’ve yet to find anyone interested in sponsoring a recreational but also average OCR athlete. In other words, I’ve been out of town traveling for work.
On July 7th, 2018 I traveled to Lawrenceburg, Indiana to run the Spartan Sprint. The event was held at Perfect North Slopes, where Spartan has consistently held their Indiana event for the past few years. Typically a winter hot spot for Midwest snowboarders and skiers, Perfect North Slopes provided a hilly yet fast venue for the summer Spartan race.
if you’ve never heard of or experienced the Indian Mud Run, you’re missing one of the finest and most challenging obstacle course racing events in North America. Located in central Ohio, the Indian Mud Run utilizes some of the most difficult man-made obstacles and natural terrain in a way that truly raises the bar on obstacle course racing.
The weekend of the summer solstice welcomed obstacle course racers to the first ever Black Ops 12 hour race at the Boneyard OCR Compound, just south of Barrhead, Alberta, Canada. Although it was the weekend with the most sunlight of the year, racers and crew still had to grind their way through 7 hours of caliginous night.
I took a trip up to Minnesota to check out Warrior Dash in between binge-shopping at The Mall of America. As a bonus, they now offer a kids race for ages 3-9, which means my daughter (who is three) would get a chance to play on some obstacles.
While arriving at the Terrain Race on June 23rd, 2018 in West Virginia few indicators stood out about how this race was going to go down. Mud was the theme of the day. From participants covered in mud to a festival that looked like a war movie set in some remote jungle.
June 23rd, 2018 I found myself in Payette, Idaho and 2 years ago to the day, this is the race that gave birth to my love for the sport that is OCR. It is also one of only 3 Spartan Sprints that can be run in the Pacific Northwest (Yes, the PNW isn't all rain and gloom, we have deserts and sun as well) so it is always one of my home area races that I try to get into the roster.
Tough Mudder Whistler holds a place in my heart when it comes to OCR since it was my first one four years ago. The drive up from Seattle is always full of amazing views you get to take in along the way. The venue itself is still the same and it never disappoints.
