Wearing hydration pack during an OCR is not something that many consider mandatory, unless you running your Beasts, Ultra Beasts, BFX’s or Burning Hot Race Days. However, using one could be the difference between finishing a race, or being Medically DNF’d (Did Not Finish). There are plenty of choices on the market but the version I decided to move forward with, and use regularly, is the CamelBak Baja LR.

We all know the big players of OCR, but as we look to challenge ourselves more and more, sometimes we need to look at things a little differently. Green Beret Challenge (GBC) is one of those takes, a Veteran Owned-Race Series that will hit Georgia, Pennsylvania and Texas this year; offering a different take on how we view Obstacle Course Racing. Mark Ballas was kind enough to take some time to talk about this great race and the areas it takes on. In addition they partner with a charitable organization in the area they hold an event in. For example in Texas, GBC has partnered with Sean Valigura to support the Chris Kyle Memorial Run, currently held at the Rough Creek Lodge in Glen Rose Texas each fall.

This training plan is the one I developed and used for the Killington Ultra Beast. I raced all year and really wanted to make my way up to Killington to tackle the founder's race with authority.

Whenever I get the chance, I always like to race local. It gives you a chance to see if there is some creativity brewing; as well as seeing a lot of first timers catch the OCR bug. From those not familiar with Houston, Legends is a very successful athletic/training facility featuring a full array of training options for it members. Many professional athletes have made their way through Legends and their staff has always been pleasant to deal with. For me, I typically use Legend’s Batting Cages and tunnels to work on my Baseball Fundamentals, when it s not OCR training time. I didn’t know this until after the race, but they have also been running an OCR boot camp for a few months and their Race Director, Garrick, is a Spartan and BattleFrog participant.

It hasn’t been a strong fall for Spartan, and that trend continued this past weekend at Rough Creek Lodge. Things seemed to start going that way at Killington, a lack luster World Championships, and then there was the mud fest this past weekend.

BattleFrog, this season, seems to be the most talked about/controversial race series of the larger series (BattleFrog, Spartan, TM, Warrior Dash and Savage). They gone have from 5 and 15k course with BFX, to a singular 8k loop for a 1 lap, 16k Competitive/Elite and an all you can take Open BFX. They have also seen some turnover and, while this has been a major highlight, when you look at business norms they are right in line. The OCR community is just a big family, so these changes seem to hit harder. Their focus seems to be on the customer/racer experience. As long as it does, things should work out for the Frog.