OCR World Championships 2017

I watched all morning as my friends and teammates ran in the earlier heats for the short course. What made me most nervous was seeing strong teammates struggle at the Battlefrog rig as well as the impending rain in the forecast. Sizing up the obstacles, I thought I’d be able to handle Skull Valley easily this year, and I was hoping to finally get the hang of Skyline.

12pm came and it was time for us 40-49 year olds to run. The rain was holding off and I had hopes that I’d be able to complete the course before it started. After some hills, hurdles, an inverted wall, and monkey bars, it was down to the festival area for the warp wall and a new Northman Race obstacle. Both went well! There were a couple of carries that sucked, but I got them done.

Then came the platinum rig. I slipped off the rings on my first try because I tried to 1-hand them without warming up. I’m not sure how long I was here, but I got better and better at the beginning transitions to the chunky rectangular attachments. I kept getting stuck trying to make my way under the low monkey bars while keeping a foot in one of the low rings. I was so tired, this is where I finally gave up my band. I still had the rope climb that I had been too tired to complete the year before and several other upper body and grip strength-intensive obstacles to go.

Rope climb, check. Battlefrog rig came next and so did the rain. I managed a couple  of tries before the monkey bars were soaked. I made it to the second set of ropes before being too low and losing my foot grip. At this point it was pouring buckets. I made my way over to Skull Valley. Had this one been dry, I have no doubt I would have completed it with ease. With my teammates standing by and giving me advice, I managed to figure out how to launch myself over to the second skull using the ring. On my second try, I linked my elbows over the monkey bars to stay on, but lost my strength and momentum at the end of the first set of bars. I was done.

Skyline was next. I couldn’t figure this one out last year and I was so tired at the end of the 15K, that I only gave it a couple of tries. I can honestly say this year that I spent a good amount of time there trying various things and throwing my weight around. A friend took video of one of my attempts to show me what was and wasn’t working. I was able to kip to get myself up, but not forward, so I was never able to clear the stoppers. I tried probably 5 times hanging for about a minute each time, but never got it. At least my grip strength has clearly come a long way this year. I also didn’t get thrown off into the hay this time.

Next to last were the floating walls. I gave up on these too easily last year. This year, I breezed through them. Even when they were wet, the hand grips were easy to hold onto and the foot holds were big enough to feel secure on.

Last was The Knot. These walls have a steep incline and the ropes were pretty high up. I kept running at the wall, but probably not fast enough. I thought about stepping up as high as I could and jumping, but I wasn’t quite making it each time. Then the rain began again and it became impossible. My friend and I took the penalty and finished together with smiles.

I guess you could say I got lucky on Saturday that it wasn’t raining all day long like it was originally supposed to. I didn’t start my heat until 1:45 pm and I knew it was only a matter of time before the sky opened up. We started off with so many hills. The slopes were so slick from the previous day’s rain and earlier runners that there were times I was literally digging my fingers into the ground to keep me rooted in place as I moved my feet.

No issues with the first part of the course with some hurdles, walls, barbed wire crawls, monkey bars, a warp wall, and a sandbag carry (only 1 for the 15K). I hit up the Northman obstacle again thinking I’d nail it a second time, but I wore my Icebugs and they were slipping off the hockey pucks at the bottom of the wooden pole. I was quickly getting fatigued and about to give up my band there when three of my M.I.T Tough Team teammates arrived and helped me figure out another approach. I got up higher on the first pole and came at the wooden pole from the side wrapping my legs around it and ignoring the pucks. I finally made it to the final pole and only had to climb it to ring the bell. I got one pull up and couldn’t move anymore. They encouraged me to rest. I came back down and took some breaths while wrapping my upper arms around the pole to give them a break. I tried one more time and pulled myself up twice to ring the bell. There were tears. I couldn’t have done it without them.

I lost my band exactly where I knew I would: the stairway to heaven. My goal this year was to get a step or two higher up than before, but I couldn’t even accomplish that. I was definitely disappointed. I’m honestly not sure what it’s going to take for me to build the right strength for those. I made my way up to the top of the mountain just hoping I’d get a good shot at Urban Sky before the rain. As luck would have it, the rain began just as the obstacle was in sight. I got a few tries in before it became too slick. I was having trouble in the first section reaching the last set of bars. I think I could have handled the 2nd and 3rd section.

At this point in the race, it was pouring. I ended up bumping into my friend Mel by Dragon’s Back (my favorite!), but it was so muddy and wet we couldn’t even get up the first wall to where we had to jump. So we took the penalty, but climbed up the backside thinking we’d do it for fun anyway. Both of us thought the better of it when we realized how slippery the bars were. We got to the low rig. It took me a few tries to figure out the right approach that didn’t make me feel like I was going to rip a hip out of a socket, and I rang the bell. Then it was time to go back down the mountain.

The biggest task of the day ended up being the wreck bag carry. We got there before they rerouted it. The incline was up a very steep, wet, and muddy hill. It was so slick, my feet went out from under me a couple of times and the sand bag came flying over my head onto the ground. Getting on my back again seemed impossible at first, so I tried dragging it and that was not going to work. I muscled it back on and kept trying to make progress. People were riding their wreck bags like sleds down the hill, and some poor race volunteer was yelling at them to stop because 2 people had broken legs on the course that way earlier. Meanwhile, another competitor was yelling at people that it’s a carry, and to have some integrity because it’s OCR World Championships. I had to agree there. By the time I got to the top, the race volunteers were directing everyone to cross over the course tape and carry on the grass for the downhill portion. That was a huge relief and I’m not sure we would have made our time cut-off had we had to struggle down like we struggled up the hill.

I spent a bit more time flailing around on Skyline to say I tried, and then we nailed the floating walls. Watching Mel doing this for the first time was probably one of the best parts of my day because I knew it would make the race for her. We had also failed to get up the slick wall before the finish the day before, but this time, one of the awesome volunteers talked us through how to use two ropes and one of the bolts at the bottom to get ourselves on the wall and then how to use the ropes to anchor our feet on the way up. How can you not feel happy after that? The rain made some things unmanageable for me at least, but I feel like I did what I could out there under the circumstances.

I went into the final day of OCRWC feeling good about my ability to successfully and without complaint lug a sandbag and a wreck bag up and down two different ski hills. Yay for strength (my forte). My teammate Adam crushed the super muddy and dangerous 5K run and I was off on my first carry.

I handed the timing chip off to teammate Ryan for a quick run over to complete the Northman obstacle before returning it to me before the wreck bag carry. He was so quick, I barely had 2 seconds to catch my breath. Thankfully, they had rerouted the carry loop from the 15K the day before so it was mostly on grass vs. all out mud. I had worn my chunkiest Inov-8 sneakers, so I had great traction. I handed the chip off again to Ryan so he could complete the technical section.

Adam and I decided to run out to the rigs to cheer him on, but as I saw him blast through the Battlefrog rig, I realized I was going to have to sprint hard just to meet him by the final wall for our finish. I made it, but Adam did not. We were shouting his name to meet us as time ticked by. The wall posed a challenge. It was slight wet from the rain. Ryan got up there first and I got up with a boost from Adam. When we tried getting Adam up, it wasn’t working, so Ryan went back down to let Adam get up before him. Ryan pretty much saved the day here getting most of the way up completely on his own. The two of them dragged me across the finish line as I was trying to keep up. It was a good feeling to finish with one band at least for the weekend. I know what I’m good at, and it’s raw strength and overall endurance.

The Make a Wish race was the way to end this amazing weekend. Going out as a team and just playing on the course even in the pouring rain made for some much needed fun after so much seriousness. I knew when I joined this team, I had found a group full of great people who would never hesitate to help a fellow human being. That was evident during the charity race where we worked with other groups on the walls. I’m sad we only get this many of us together once a year. Someone said it best when they said, “I may have lost my band, but I leave with a band of brothers and sisters.”