To anyone familiar with this race venue, many images immediately appear in the mind of the competitor. Oregonia Ohio is the home to Kings Domain; a 120-acre park which would normally host conferences, weddings, and leisurely hiking. Today it was to host the venue known to many: Mud Guts and Glory.
I went to the Spartan Race AT&T Stadium Sprint over the weekend to test my knee out that I had scoped 5 weeks earlier. Also to see where I was fitness wise, after not working out for a few months now. I thought to myself could I choose a worse race to test a knee out than at a stadium race? Too late...let's do this!!
We decided to register for the XMan series and see what all the hype was about. We had heard that they provided a well-organized event with some creative obstacles to challenge us in the three key areas: strength, agility and speed. This would be their first time in Ontario and we had wanted to give it a try for quite some time.
Overall this is one of the best races around, aside from a great race, the proceeds go to providing clean drinking water to areas of the world that are in need. Aside from a few waits at obstacles, and with selling out 1,000 racers that can be expected, really can’t say anything negative about this race.
Race companies cannot control everything but they can control some things like parking, site layout, obstacles, lines at registration, timing of the event, and festival. The one major one they cannot control is the weather. The weather wreaks havoc on the course which may have taken weeks to assemble but can be destroyed overnight. This was the case with BattleFrog Kansas City. A wicked storm crushed the course, raising streams and making some obstacles almost impossible.
Savage Race again returned to the beautiful Moonlight Stables and Equestrian Center, while some would think that this being the only place that Savage has held its events here in Georgia that they might want to change things up, having done each event here they always find ways to change things up, so the course is never the same.
BattleFrog continued their action packed 2016 with a regional qualifying event in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 23rd. On par with BattleFrog standard, they came through with a memorable experience for competitors of all levels.
This would be my first Armageddon Ambush in Hialeah, FL (think City of Miami and go west a bit). But it wouldn't be my first trip to Amelia Earhart Park. Several races have been held there. With this in mind, my first challenge was to keep my expectations in check. I didn't know much about this race, and I didn't want to influence the experience by comparisons to other events there.
Rugged Maniac kicked off its 2016 season with about 5,000 participants in South Carolina on Saturday. It was a beautiful day in the low 70’s – about 30 degrees warmer than last year! The venue, historic Boone Hall Farms, was the same but the event had a distinctly different feel this year compared with the previous four years I’ve run this course. The new vibe this year wasn’t just on the course, but off the course as well.
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.
