Bridging Abilities Obstacle Challenge Review

Photo Credit: Henry Marte

So a wile ago a friend of mine (Amy Reichenbach) had an awesome idea, one that is no small feat. Starting her own charity ocr. Her decryption of the event is as follows:

About The Bridge Center:
The Bridge Center is a non-profit that specializes in affordable, year-round therapeutic recreation and equine-assisted therapy programs for individuals with disabilities. All proceeds from this event will directly support the participants that take part in Bridge Center programming.

About the race:
This spring, The Bridge Center is challenging runners, racers, and walkers of all ages and abilities to take part in our 1st annual Bridging Abilities Obstacle Challenge! This event will include a kids' race, an all-abilities fun run for individuals with disabilities and their families, and also a 5K obstacle race that will have racers jumping, climbing, and crawling around our property!

Highlights include:
· All participants awarded a medal and t-shirt!
· Course length options to suit anyone from children to elite runners
· Guest speaker adaptive athlete Geoff Krill, free childcare while you race, vendors, raffles, and food truck!
· Prizes for placing in our 5K Obstacle Race
· Opportunity to inspire and be inspired by our amazing young athletes!

she also had a virtual 5k, and  all to benefit the bridge center, in bridgewater, ma. Their web cite can be found here it is a great place. A while lot of work went into this event, with help from race local favorite F.I.T. Challenge,  and Gladiator Training Grounds (They both have races later this year). They had free child care, a food truck, a guest speaker Geoff Krill, as many laps as you wanted and carnival games for the kids. Needless to say there was a whole bunch going on that day.


So the race was one that was family friendly, and yet, you could still have a challenge, it was not too easy.
So the obstacles were a bunch of fun as well:slatted walls, tunnels, log balance beams, log carries, mud crawls, cargo net, a water bucket carry, a plank walk across a pond (I think about a 2x6) pull/paddle back across the pond, pick your poison, rock carry, wheel barrow weave, spider bars, hay bales,wall jump, big slatted wall,over under through walls, tire walk, more walls, a double up, and an 8 ft wall. So some of the big things are the Pick your Poison obstacle, which was great. It was an option of traverse rings, heavy overhead pull, with no pully, peg boards, various fourms of weighted, or unweighted box jumps, or step ups.

Double up Photo credit: Henry Marte

Spider Wall was also pretty cool, think a low hanging monkey bar, but they took out a bar to add to the challenge. Spider video here

Peg board Photo Credit: Jeanine Peirce

Traverse rings Photo credit: Jeanine Peirce

The course was 5k distance, and all flat, around the facility, and through the woods. There was plenty of mud, mostly ankle deep. The one spot that it got real muddy, was where you were supposed to crawl through for about 5 yards. Then across the water twice in fun ways, one was the short bridge, the other swim/float across. followed up with more trails, then into the barn, and back to the main area.

Muddy Crawl Photo Credit: Brianna Palardy

So now on to how it went, I got there after a few waves went out, and herd about a bunch of people getting lost. now this happens, but what doesn't happen you may ask? a volunteer walking up to somebody who just finished, asking for feedback, and then putting volunteers right where my friend said he got lost. So where he got lost, when I went around, an hour later, The course had the volunteers standing in the right spots, guiding s the whole way through! At the stat line, Stephen Mello, (who helped with course design, as well as other things I am sure) gave us the rundown of the courser, and where people were lost, kept an eye on us, over looking what was going on in his general area. So keep this in mind next year, it is an ocr, that is a whole bunch of fun, and helps to give back to a wonderful facility. Amy's hard work has payed off, in my opinion, she did a good job, and it did not feel like her first race.

So in summery, a good local ocr, that is fun, challenging, and helps with a great cause, and i hope this continues to be a success, in a world that can be challenging to make a charity ocr, she seems to have done it, which is no small feat!

Until next time,
Keep training
Stephen

500 For the Fallen Relay

So ever since I started running more, I have realized how awesome runners are, this week was just another example, it is another in a line of charity events that I was pleased to take part in. 500 for the fallen is a relay benefiting the children of fallen soldiers. By now I have become used to running with a group of people, and with several flags. the leg me and my friends ran was from wellesley town hall to framingham center. We followed 135, and we got so many honks of the horn and a few questions. But the high lite of this 6.8 mile run though?, as we were driving, a random woman driving by, in her pt cruiser. As she passed, she yelled out the window what we were running for, we explained for the children of fallen soldiers education and help, she pulled up just ahead, handed us a 5 dollar donation, and then honked as she drove away. That moment to me, made the event, a passing inquisitive comment, and a thank you from her, as well as many others! So this is not the first time I  have been out raising money for a cause (I did both Carry the Fallen and Cupids Undie Run) and you get used to the weird reactions, and questions, but that is the point, as well as raising money we want to raise awareness as well, otherwise we have only done half the work! So I am Posting this Asap for a few reasons, one to help them raise awareness because they are still doing this, I believe somewhere in ct at 11am on 5/22/15. and that it is coming up on Veterans day weekend, and we should never forget the things our soldiers have done for us.

Bonefrog Tier 1 Review

Because ya know, Proof!

So this race is truly grueling, on a great mountain venue in western mass (Charlemont). The Tier 1 challenge was a combo deal, one lap of the challenge, and as many sprints as you could do. The Challenge was 10.2 miles long, with 51 obstacles, and they were hard! The sprint was bout 4.2 miles long, and 51 obstacles. This race also offered on site camping as well, and it was pretty cool, it was real close to the course, ad not far from start line. The venue left a close by building open for us, and it had a giant bathroom were allowed to use, it was creepy as hell, but it was nice to have an actual toilet and sink near by, seriously It was great, but i have to describe it correctly. Also they offered a dinner the night before at the mountain venue, but for 15 bucks the pasta dinner did not seem worth it, it was typical of a race venue, so it did not look horrible, but we chose to eat don the street, as did many others, the closest restaurant was overclouded, and had trouble keeping up, but the food was good and service was nice, so it worked out in the end, even though we waited forever.

Race Map

The Challenge:

This course was a blast and very tough, (but had more of a varying terrain than the sprint). I really do like the local races, you get some really unique obstacles. there are too many to remember, especially when the race has so many. They had the typical walls of various levels, plenty solid, some slotted, several inclined with ropes, some declined, and the over unders, and through walls as well.. One problem I saw with the rope climbs, they did not have anything bracing you if you fall, no water, hay, or anything. hat goes with the tough territory, but if you are new and do not have the technique down yet, that can be scary. I loved that they tarped over a few obstacles to make you go under them in the dark, which was awesome! One of them was a short trench. But the really cool one was pretty long, filled with glow sticks for light, but it didn't really light up much, the cool part? 3 through walls. 2 Shorter ones, and a big one in the middle, really fun! They had2 sandbag carries, and two other heavy carries. They had a few low crawls, but no barb wire, it was an awesome change from all those other ocrs out there. Another cool thing you will not see at many other races was the amount of rig style set ups, they had a rope climb to monkey bars, then slotted wall down. They had a few other rigs like this on course. They had a few sets of monkey bars, and a few styles of them. I loved the traverse rope, they had it marked off to about midway and then drop into the water, and had 2 racers on each rope at a time. I can not swim, and the water was deep, so i just traversed the whole way across, which was not too bad because they did not burn out your upper body yet, and it was in the first few miles, (if it had been 5 miles later, it may have been an issue for me). After the traverse rope, then a traverse wall, then what they call "cliff hanger" and that was a beast of an obstacle! luckily the wait was not super long wait, the boat crossing over the water "assault craft" then to the drunken monkey (which is a great explanation for the amount of unevenness on the pegs you traversed) along with the "uss mami traverse" (rope traverse) all added up to a wait, so you were not all stuck at the cliff hanger (the boat crossing took about20 min in the sprint, and the rope traverse got up to 20/30 min as well in the later waves) The cliff hanger is like the handles for the cable weight machines at the gym, but picture over a hundred hanging from different levels, and such, for roughly 15 to 20 ft. Also there was one spot at about mile 8, that I was in heaven!

found randomly on google

They also had a spot with a giant poster with 31 names on it, fallen soldiers, you had a 35lb wreck bag, and did an overheard press, followed by a burpee with a wreck bag. One of the worst parts of the mountain we climbed had the best view, which was nice considering the fact that it felt like an 80 degree incline up, and then right back down, with plenty of rocks flying down as you make your way down the mountain. So at the top you see 2 things, the beautiful mountain surrounding you, and a memorial for those killed in action, with markers to add a name if you wanted.

They also had an interesting memory test on course, they put up a sign with the names of the charities that they support (31 heroes, one team one fight,  and the navy seal foundation) then several miles later they asked you to name one of the charities, if you didn't know one, you ran an extra maybe 1/10 of a mile total to a sign, then told the soldiers who asked you, then you ran another 1/10 mile to another sign with details about a rifle (I loved that the decryption said rate of fire "pew and pew, pew, pew). The finish was cool, and obstacle heavy, they had a heavy carry, wall, log traverse, gut busters (jumping up and forward onto logs like at shale hill) then the rig with the rope straight up a wall to monkey bars then slotted wall down, finished up with a roll through water, and then sand, so much fun!

The Sprint:

This course seemed to have literally all of the inclines of the challenge, so it took forever, and was brutal, I could only do one of these (so could my friends that I went out with, I know 1 that did two, Never mind my 3 friends that did 2 laps of the challenge, talk about beasts!) This course was interesting, not at all what I would expect from a sprint. They did have a bunch of issues with the trail markings, and volunteers not knowing where to go next, having a, overlapping course on the same day is hard, and they had all of us confused, volunteers and racers. You still got two heavy carries, a bunch of upper body heavy obstacles, that were all fun. The boats you cross over the water on were backed up horribly, and the traverse rope did not have any life vests and that is annoying, the offer was a 2 min wait as a penalty, but I am sorry, that is really not cool if you can not swim, like me, and after my first lap, I was not pushing it to go all the way across on the second lap.

Tier 1 Challenge:

So the challenge that was offered was that one lap around the challenge, and as many as you wanted around the sprint. Also a part of this package was a pair of sleeves (seen in photo above). The sleeves are pretty cool, and to get them you had to earn them, by finishing both courses. It was a cool little addition, and was actually provided but one of the running teams. Only problem with that was that nobody knew about it. and the person running the merch tent was very hostile about it, other than that, no issues to be had. Gotta get those miles in for Race local!

Cool Pic I found online

One problem I ran into on race day was an abundance of bugs! obviously no fault of the race, but has to be said the long trail run was the only real break all day I had from swatting the little bugs out of my face and around my head. Also there were some demon spawns that feasted on my calves, the one spot that was not covered in clothes, and they are worse than any bugs bites i have gotten to date, oh well, it is a reminder of an awesome day right? 

The Volunteers were pretty cool, except the ones on course that had no idea were people were supposed to go. But hey it happens, they were all really nice. The thing I want to emphasize about the volunteers though? The fact that they had a bunch of ex armed forces (and paid employees as well I am sure) That were actually pleased that you showed up and did the race! The older gentleman that was at the finish line, the ones that handed out the medals, and the ones that handed out the shirts, they were sincerely happy that you showed up and ran, and thanked me! And nit just by saying the words, they looked me in the eye, and were very sincere, and they loved that we enjoyed the race! I have had plenty of interactions with volunteers, and employees from all kinds of races, hell even if you throw in all the various establishments i have been to, that stood out, It seemed to touch these guys that so many people showed up! Now I could totally be reading WAAAYYYY too much into it, but the interaction i had with those guys, however brief it was, it was very real, and refreshing, and they really put the right people at the finish line!

So in case you have not guessed yet, You should really put this race on your radar, it is run by Navy seals,  they support 3 charities, and put on a great event, if you are up to the challenge, go for it, and it will be one of the harder ones you do (think worse than a spartan super, maybe on par with a spartan beast)

*Update*

It has just been brought to my attention, that as a part of biggest team, we get a 15 credit, and you guessed it, the New England Spahtens got biggest team yet again we killed it with the numbers! just another reason you should join the best team around! check out our fb page New England Spahtens

Ragnar Relay Cape Cod

Some of the team at the second big exchange, no sleep for most of us

So this past weekend has been jam packed with some of the most fun I have had in a long time. I joined a team with a bunch of my friends, and fellow New England Spahtens (seriously the best OCR team or group of people). I love this race, it is a relay race company, and they are typically about 200 miles long. To gauge when your team starts they get a mile time based on your 10k race pace. Our team took about a day and a half. We started in Hull and ended in Province Town. I lucked out with an awesome team, I could not imagine spending that much time in a van, in between runs, and on little sleep, with any other group. From the time when we got to the hotel, to the moment we unloaded the van, it was all laughs!

The teams decided to do chest bump with baton passing, more ragnar fun (Aaron and Jonna)

My friend (Cathy) doing a great job, in a scenic part of the race

Aaron finished the half leg, earning a medal for it, he destroyed that leg btw

The standard race is based on a 12 person team, with 2 vans of 6 runners. They divide the race into "legs" of varying miles. I was runner 8, and I did about 16 miles (I think). This race is unlike others in that you are encouraged to "kill" others during your race. A "kill" is when you pass another runner, and makes it way more fun, and adds a little excitement to your leg as well.

Kill count, color coded per leg!

To say that our van was over prepared is an understatement, we had waaaay more food than needed, but hey, it is better to have to much than too little! We supported our runners by check in on everybody during their legs, giving out water, or in my case a cookie, and a high 5, whatever it takes to give that extra push! Constant honking of the horn (during appropriate hours, teams did not stop running just because it was late!) or yelling out the window. One van even parked the van and danced for their runners, that was pretty cool! Ragnar's motto is "Run, Drive, Sleep?, Repeat" and that is what we did, well sort of, most of the team could not sleep much during the race. I on the other hand, crashed hard after my second leg, after my shower, and the team got to rest, I was first to pass out, and got an amazing 5 hours in the van. The whole over prepared thing was great, I didn't bring a blanket, but a friend brought some, also i forgot a towel, again, good thing a friend had me covered. This Is one of those things, that you really do for the experience, time does not matter if you do not want it to, what does matter you ask? FUN, and Friends, like I said, you are in close quarters them for about 2 days, and if you have the right team, it is 2 days in paradise! On the other hand, this can be a great tool to push each other past comfort zones. My team absolutely pushed some of our less confident runners, and then they blossomed! My friends that were going for time? Put up new P.R.s more than a few I believe, and on little or more than likely no sleep. Just another example of what can happen when you have a good team that pushes each other, sets the bar high, and gives it their all!

Second leg, at night, because BATMAN!

First leg, repping both Spahtens and RWB

Just after receiving my medal, after the team crossed the finish together

This is the team, the awesome team that I got to be a part of (photo thanks to Jesika Lee Da Silvia)

As for my leg #8 started off with a 8.1 mile run I got 11 kills, and that was a hilly run. My next run was 5.6 miles, at night I got 4 kills, and I forgot to turn on my blinking light on my back, luckily, my friends pulled over and turned it on for me (great team work). My final leg was 2.3 miles I got 2 kills, and man that last run was brutal, I pushed hard, and after all the miles, and running hard on hills, I slowed down more than desired.

The medals form together on the back!

All of this fun was planned by a friend, I was so pleased to join in on this team. My captain deserves an honorable mention. She managed a few teams this year and last, did all the logistics, and filled the teams with wonderful runners. All of her planning made for an absolutely wonderful time. And to show how much we car, one of my teammates entered her into a contest to win a free entry, to vote for Jess click here (thanks in advance)

Ariel view of the finish line

Some things to keep in mind for your ragnar experience

• Keep organized whenever possible, you will be spending so much time in a van
• Bring plenty of food and water
• Pack clothes for each leg (in gallon sized ziplock bags, with a dryer sheet to minimize smell)
• Have cash for gas, and all the snacks you may want (and for showers or whatever)
• Pick good team mates, you will be in a van sweaty, gross and smelly, and you will have a whole bunch of down time for shenanigans
• Tagging is a fun past time (team magnets you put on other vans, but slyly, not one can see you do it)

An awesome example of the humor in the form of a tag

• Kills are encouraged, remember this is more about fun than time (they do not have prizes)
• They have hilarious safety videos, seriously, they did a good job!
• you will have some of the worst post race depression you have ever had on monday, its a thing, not just me, it went around my facebook news feed all day (even worse? I have a kickass race on saturday, I look forward to bonefrog! but still bummed, good thing I had harvard)

Another fun van we saw a bunch

creativity in van design, I am jealous, !

Because when everybody got home, everybody posted about post race pizza

If you are contemplating this race, all I can say is do it, find some kick ass friends and go run!

So until next time
Keep training
Stephen

Boldr Dash Race review

So this past weekend, I did Boldr dash, it was a fun race, but it had its disappointments (I will get to that later). This race is unique in that it was run on the beach, and a fair amount of it at that, more than i realized, and It made for unique challenges with the terrain. They had several walls, and crawls on the beach, trust me it is harder to hop a 10 ft wall in the sand, hell even the 8 ft wall was harder. The course was just shy of 4 miles, and if you are new to ocr, don't let that number fool you, it is still doable! This race had a bunch of cool obstacles, like the spider wall, (think ninja warrior, you slide plank between two slanted walls) over under through walls that never end, slanted walls, a wall climb, cargo tube crawl to fireman pole down. a bunch of fun stuff. most of the obstacles had ways to make it so that all levels could complete the obstacle. For example, the A frame wall with rope (you needed it, the sand, and slick walls made this one hard) had 4 levels, no kicker board, and then various amounts of them. The 10 ft wall had no support, 2 kickers, and then squared 2x4's you climb over. There was also a really long section of boulder crossing, the part of the beach past the sand and all through the rocks, then some trail running, only to be dumped out on the sand again. One of the things that got to me on my third lap (going for race local mileage) was the burlap sack hop, my calves were cramping bad (even worse on my 4th lap). Most of the crowd there was pretty new to the ocr scene, which made for a crowd that was all about the fun, and that is refreshing, because some ocrs have that attitude about them (looking at the crazy's that go to the spartans). The volunteers were really nice, and supportive, they definitely helped to make the experience. I think the obstacle count was a little under 30. The finish line was great, plenty of volunteers, plenty of bottled water, bananas, apples and oranges. The timing company had a printer, so you could print your time as well, which is pretty cool as well. Plus parking was free and on site, plenty of vendors, but I didn't pay attention, I spent all day running. The main problem I had was with the multiple laps with racelocal. So I showed up an hour early to make sure I was all set before the first lap, and that was a good thing. The multiple lap for more mileage is new, and this is only the second event that has done multiple laps, but it was a complete failure. I along with everybody else i talked with, and waited in line with waited for about 45 min to get our bibs squared away. We were told "I don't know" every time we asked, even though they pretty much knew what they had planned. Their idea was good, they had your sealed bib packs at the finish line, with a volunteer, and a list of names, and corresponding bibs. so the time I waited, I was 5 min late for the first wave. Also I know some of my friends got stopped at the start line to wait for the next wave when race local participants were told they could run all day. I never stopped to talk to them, and they understood when the course passed byt the start again, some communication needs to be improved there if they do multiple laps again. But this race can be great for newcomers that are a little afraid to start somewhere.

Until Next time
Keep training
Ragnar is next!
Stephen