Today, Spartan Race released the official teaser for the Spartan Race Agoge. The Agoge is an extreme endurance education program pushing athletes to find more about themselves while acquiring new skills along the way. The Agoge dates back to ancient Sparta and according to the Spartan Race website brings those ideas into the modern age.
Terrain Race Dallas was an excellent race to kick off our OCR racing season after taking the first two months of 2016 off. The race was held at Village Creek Motorcross in Fort Worth, TX and they offer both a 5K and 10K distance with competitive waves in both distances. We chose the 5K race. I was a bit apprehensive about the race being held on a motocross site because I envisioned endless loops on a dirt course up impossibly steep climbs and barreling down the ensuing declines.
I was super excited when I found out I would have another chance to race in the Middle East. Timing for international races does not always pan out, especially when a country only has one race series. The Hannibal Race held their first race of 2016 in Awkar a neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon.
Spartan Race announced today the new US Championships Series. The series will highlight five races including all three distances. These races also tie in with the NBC "Road to the Championships" television programming, culminating at the World Championships in Lake Tahoe.
This was an inaugural race in a few ways. First, it was the inaugural Warrior Dash of the 2016 season. It was the first Warrior Dash qualification method for OCRWC after making the decision to drop their individual Championship event. Finally, of all the races I’ve competed in, it was actually my first Warrior Dash. This event left me dizzy (more on that later) and a tad underwhelmed since they are considered one of “The Big Three”.
As OCR facilities pop up throughout various towns, it is nice to see that we are finally getting a few permanent outdoor facilities up and running. The Ragnarok Run was held at OCR Land in Smiths Falls, Ontario and attracted racers from Ontario and Quebec.
BattleFrog Series launched another first over the weekend for the obstacle racing industry with BFX24. This 24-hour obstacle race or OCRX took place at Virginia Key Beach just outside of Miami, Florida. Over 120 athletes toed the line on Friday afternoon in preparation for the one of the toughest 24-hour obstacle races to date. Athletes from around North America and beyond took on this 5-mile looped course with 26 obstacles.
Now that BattleFrog Xtreme 24 is over, you may be thinking it is time to take other aspects of your Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) life to the extreme. Recently, you have been lining up at Obstacle Course Races and started to notice something spreading amongst the athletes in the front of the field. It began as an isolated overly excited ex-triathlete who transitioned into OCR and has spread to other athletes.
OCR Warrior at Season 2 kicks off with Qualifying for the SoCal event! Dozens of athletes took to the course looking to qualify for the Knockout Rounds, only 8 men and 4 women would advance. As the day gets later, the times get lower - and some BIG NAMES had to dig deep and try to qualify!
With races spanning beginner-friendly to truly “Xtreme”, and temperatures ranging from brisk to cloyingly humid, we saw an exciting array of events this last weekend. Spartan Race had a brisk send-off in Atlanta, BattleFrog Series held their inaugural BFX24 endurance event in Miami, Terrain Racing, Warrior Dash, and Dirty Girl Mud Run brought the party to Texas; in Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio!
