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