OCRÂ World Championships 2018 Report
When I heard that this years OCR World Championships would be held on home soil I had conflicting emotions. On the one hand it was great that I wouldn't have to shell out a lot of money to fly abroad again but on the other hand I was worried that it wouldn't have the magic that the event village in Canada had. I guess not having jet-lag would also be a plus.
Lets rewind to last year though. In Canada I had lost my band on the 3K and kept it for the 15k and team races. Analysing my performance it was clear that my obstacle game had to improve. Why had I lost my band at the rig in the 3k? Inexperience in a major race and specifically on rigs was clearly a big factor. But my mental game was clearly at fault as well. When running at full pelt on a short and fast course I was blowing too hard to be focussed coming into a technical obstacle. I also knew that although I had kept my band on the 15k I could have pushed harder during the race (although had I pushed harder would my obstacle game have suffered and maybe not kept my band?).
In the lead up to Canada I was on about 30-35kms of running a week. I wanted to up that so I signed up for a Marathon in April. This turned out to be a really bad idea. Reaching around 30kms in a training run I suddenly had knee pain that stopped me in my tracks. Diagnosis? Patella Tendonitis. Severely reduced mileage, strengthening exercises and a complete deconstruction and re-build of my running form. The reduced mileage was bad enough but the new way of running was tiring and made me long for the days I would just run without thinking whether I was overstriding or lifting my knees high enough.
Finally at the point of getting on top of the Patella Tendonitis I was looking forward to getting back to training hard. My body had other ideas. It saw my Patella Tendonitis and raised me ITB pain. I won’t bore you with my months of recovery but suffice to say it was not fun. My physio warned me against increasing mileage too fast as ITB issues are prone to coming back. So coming into the World Championships I had run a maximum of 11kms in one go since April. Not the best prep.Â
Thankfully I had also signed up to a training programme held at the PT Barn. The Road to Worlds training programme was run by 3 fantastic coaches who each brought a differing skill set to the coaching. The course focussed on every aspect of OCR training that a racer needs to be successful in OCR. This included specific obstacle technique, skills and strength analysis, race preparation and race strategy. It taught me how to asses a race down to the finest detail. It also helped me to identify mental traps that had hampered my racing in the past. So whilst my race endurance was nowhere near where I had wanted it to be, my obstacle strength and performance as well as my mental game were better than ever. On the advice of the coaches I had also added an OCR Specific workout to my weekly regime, my hope was that this specific training would partially offset my lack of mileage. I have to admit I got some funny looks from the neighbours running out of my garden every 10 mins and doing a lap of the area with a sandbag on my shoulders! So...back to this year’s race....
This year’s race was held on the permanent site of the award winning Nuclear Races. The course was billed as packing in 100 obstacles over 15kms.Â
Ok so it wasn't really 100 obstacles. 6 of them were a continuous wreckbag  carry and many obstacles listed were logs, trenches or streams. In any case, this was going to be very different from last year’s race which was up and down a ski slope with not much mud and no water obstacles. This race was going to be pretty flat with lots of mud and a fair amount of water including a full submersion.
Due to my lack of mileage in training all year I knew that there was no way I would be able to keep up a decent pace for the 15km course so decided the 3km was many target race. The plan was to go all out and I said to myself if I didn’t cross the line exhausted then I hadn’t gone hard enough. I’d ‘pre-rigged’ the course the day before so I knew all the obstacles and had decided on my techniques through the rigs. I’d decided which attachments to use and which to miss out. This is something that the Road to Worlds course stressed. Just because an attachment (such as a ball, nunchuck or rope) is there it doesnt mean you have to use it. I saw so many racers out there using small and tricky attachments on a rig just because they thought they should.
Stood on the start line they had replaced Coach Pain with the MC from the UK Spartan series, Spartan Phil. Ok so he’d replaced his spartan helmet with a cap so I guess he was just regular Phil. As much as I’d loved  Coach Pain’s rousing start line speeches it was probably wise to use a more UK friendly style for this race.
The MC counted down..3....2...1....GO!! As it was a short course the pack went off at a fast pace. We were straight into some ditches which immediately got my heart rate through the roof. Next it was a crawl under barbed wire and then into a Wreckbag (sandbag) carry and then a crawl with the sandbag. This was a crazy way to start a race and didn’t allow you to settle into any kind of pace. I was thankful that I’d done a decent warm up so I felt able to push on. Then it was straight into 3 rigs back to back. First up was the platinum rig. Having done my prep I knew that I wanted to miss out a few attachments which made it a simple rig of rings and monkey bars. My heart rate was high which might have made me rush things in the past, but not now. I flew through but with barely 30 seconds of running I was at the next rig. This rig, named Varjagen Saga had been brought over by Strong Viking, a European race series. It consisted of 3 parts each with various things to hang and swing from. Through my prep I knew the technique to use for each section and flew through to hit the bell.
With hardly any time to regain my breath I was hit with another grip strength sapping rig. The Force 5 Rig was something I’d never seen before in person. However having watched videos of the North American Championships I had a feel for how to approach the rig. All of the attachments swung from front to back, which made it easier to reach the next attachment. This rig was also housed by part of the huge event tent (it was massive!) which was cool and meant there were loads of spectators cheering on the racers. Surprisingly I got through it first time.
After a couple of jumping type obstacles I approach the Ninja Rings. This was a traverse where you had to get to the other side using plastic rings that you held in your hands and moved from bar to bar. I’d been practicing this on my home rig for months so I was ready and flew across.
After this followed some squats under bars whilst carrying a log, a quarter pipe and another hanging obstacle called Trapeze. I then arrived at a new obstacle called Skitch. The aim was to traverse to the end of a hanging bar using hooks that you held in each hand. The tricky part was that you had to lift both hooks across a chain attached to the middle of the bar. This was a difficult obstacle and many struggled (even some pros). As part of my training I had some hooks fabricated for me and I mocked up a version and practiced at home. This paid off as I nailed it first time.
Now I just had 3 obstacles to go! First up was a bomb carry, which was exactly what you think is. A metal bomb that you had to carry in your arms but not on your shoulders. The bomb had a moving weight inside so if you carried it at an angle all the weight shifted to one side. This obstacle in itself was fine but it tired your arms and grip out enough to make the penultimate obstacle that much harder.
The penultimate obstacle was the wonderfully named Skull Valley. I’d conquered this obstacle in Canada so was confident I could do so again. Thankfully I had just enough grip left to get through.
The final obstacle was a giant slip wall to get over. Thankfully the ropes were a little lower than in Canada so this was no problem (it got tougher on subsequent days due to the mud).
Crossing the line in 65th place out of 202 in my age group I was in the top 32%. I was happy with my obstacle performance and effort. Band kept, but this was just race 1 of 3.....
The 15km race was going to be a different beast. As I said, I hadn’t run more than 11kms since April so a tough 15kms Obstacle race was going to be a test of my fitness. The race set off at a less frantic pace and after the ditches we were treated to a nice long Wreckbag carry through the forest. The carry involved ducking under and going over beams. Being short means ducking under beams was nice and easy but going over them not so much!
After another carry and some other minor obstacles I hit the Nuclear monkey bars, thankfully just the short section. After this came possibly the worst part, around 5 sets of cargo nets to crawl under. I hated these, they were quite tight and you had to crawl on your hands and knees. I’m pretty sure this was responsible for the scrape on my knee.
About 5kms in and after a zip line we got into some proper mud. I mean the kind of mud you have to crawl through. Thankfully I then got completely soaked by the deathslide which cleaned the mud off. Whilst obstacles such as zip lines and deathslides are fun I’m not sure they have a place in a World Championship race. Saying that many racers I ran past told me they loved the zip line. So what do I know.
I was looking forward to the low rig having trained specifically for this type of obstacle. So I was a bit disappointed to find it was simply two bars with a ring in between. Boring! Oh well. Shortly after this came Stairway to Heaven, an A frame with horizontal planks which you had to climb and ascend on the inside with only your arms. This was only the third time I’d ever attempted this obstacle. The first time was Canada last year and the second at a Road to Worlds training session. It was at this point that I caught up with my wife Jo who had set off in the wave before me. After a quick hug and checking how she was getting on I quickly ascended and descended the stairway without much thought (I think you can overthink this one easily). I found out later that Jo managed to get to the top of Stairway but was unable to make the transition. This was the furthest she had ever got on this obstacle so she was really happy with her progress.
The race used a lot of the permanent obstacles on the Nuclear site but added a number of World Championships specific obstacles as well as obstacles from other races. After a section of Nuclear obstacles I was back in the event village and the gauntlet of rigs. The Platinum rig had been changed up from the previous day and was marginally more complex. Yet again though there were attachments that I had no intention of touching. It now started with 2 rings followed by a T-bar. There was no way of skipping the T-bar so I decided to grab it with a couple of fingers either side and effectively treat it as a ring. A rope, some monkey bars and a couple of rings and I was through. I sailed through Varjagen Saga again and was actually starting to enjoy the flow of this obstacle. It was then on to the Force 5 rig. Although I’d smashed this obstacle the day before I was getting tired. I wasn’t focussed and therefore fell off the middle wheel and had to go back to the retry lane. I knew my grip was still ok so decided to take 5 minutes and regain my focus. I took the time to clean the mud off my hands and managed to fly through. Phew!
After this it was back into the forest and a rope traverse over water. Now I hadn’t seen a rope traverse in a race since the UK Championships back in 2016. For some reason I had a feeling we’d see one so I’d been down to Mad Mike’s, my local training centre, to practice. Theres also no better impetus to hold on than the threat of dropping into cold water. So hold on I did.
With around 4kms left I could feel my lack of mileage in training starting to tell. I was slowing and could feel my legs tiring. I took in another gel and pushed on.
Nailing Skitch and battling through the bomb carry I was faced with Skull Valley for the second time in 2 days. Having had no problem with this on the 3K I was surprised to feel my grip failing before the second set of skulls. As I reached for the first skull my hand slipped. For a moment I felt doubt creeping in. I’d trained my grip endurance and to feel weakness was disheartening. But I reckoned that I just needed a quick rest to let me recover. When I slipped off I also ripped some skin off my hand. This was bad news as I now had a red raw section of skin where I would need to hold the skulls. Arse. But wait...ripped hands were always going to be potential risk at such an obstacle heavy course. If only I had put something in my pocket for such an eventuality. As my coach Scotty PT says, ‘fail to prepare and prepare to fail’. I’d prepared for every other element so of course I was ready! I’d thankfully packed some WOD & Done hand protectors. These are sticky strips that go over your fingers and protect your palms. I carefully applied the strip to my right hand and took some deep breaths. Arriving at Skull Valley I’d met Team UK honorary captain Stuart Neail and he was having to retry as well. We were both taking our time and ensuring we were recovered enough before taking a second go. This was an obstacle that most racers could probably complete when fresh but after 15kms and 100 (ish) obstacles it suddenly felt a lot harder. Seeing Stuart get through I knew it was my time. It was now or never. I flew through the first set of skulls and onto the swinging monkey bars. The tricky bit is the transition from the monkey bars back up to the second set of skulls. Thankfully I nailed that and as soon as I started swinging I could feel that the rest had the desired effect as my grip felt solid yet again. I was so happy to hit that bell!
The final obstacle was again the slip wall. This time things were made a bit harder by mud caking the wall and ropes. Scrambling over the top and running over the finish line I was thrilled to have kept my band again. I definitely had to work for it towards the end of the race.
I ran the team race with 2 fellow Road 2 Worlds members, Leanne and Claire. Like last year the team event was divided into 3 sections, Speed, Strength and Technical. However this year the sections were much more even in the length of the sections plus there were some team obstacles that we had to complete together. I was on technical again although I was feeling pretty beat up by now as the 15k had taken it out of me. Before the race I realised I wasn’t at all focussed so a I was hoping a coffee and a caffeine gel would wake me up.
I didn’t really do much of a warm up as I was standing around for nearly an hour waiting for my team mates to complete their legs. Finally I saw Leanne coming up the hill and after completing her last carry she handed over to me and I was straight into the Platinum rig. My arms being tired from 2 days of racing I made sure to go two handed on rings when possible and make sure I landed each hand where it needed to be. I could hear coach Tony Leary shouting ‘make it safe Fabian, make it safe!’. It was then straight into Varjagen Saga and again I sailed through this obstacle.
It was then on to the Force 5 rig. I lost concentration at the last moment and doing an Appleton (sorry James) I missed the bell by millimetres. Back to the retry lane for me. Fatigue was definitely the main reason that I missed the bell but I think I let the initial failure the day before get in my head a bit. After a few minutes of recovery and some encouragement from another Road to Worlds member Jonathan I had a second attempt and nailed it.
It was then on to the Dragon’s back, Ninja Rings and Weaver. The final obstacle of my technical leg was Skitch. Noticing that my WOD & Done hand protectors weren’t that grippy against metal I tore most of them off to ensure I had the best grip. My grip was fine thankfully and I hit the bell and ran down to tag my team mates for the final section of the race. I have to say that by this point my arms were burning!
The final section included 3 team obstacles. The first was transporting 2 atlas stones on a metal gurney. Leanne and Claire carried the gurney whilst I steadied the stones and ensured they didn’t fall off.
Next was a rope climb over a metal A frame. We all had to go over the same rope but could help each other. Claire wasn’t keen on this at being afraid of heights. Leanne waited at the top in case she needed help but Claire was amazing, faced her fears and conquered the obstacle.
It was then on to the final Slip Wall. This time there were no ropes! We had a plan which was to form a human ladder. I went at the bottom, Leanne climbed on my shoulders and Claire then climbed up both of us to the top. Claire then helped pull Leanne up. Leanne then hung down whilst I ran up and grabbed her leg to reach the rope. We were over! Crossing the finish line with your team is an awesome feeling and we were all buzzing after the race.
So 3 races and 3 bands kept. That’s one more than last year so I guess that’s progress. I had hoped to be a bit more competitive this year but that wasn’t to be. I was really happy with my performance on the 3k and I reckon if I can get back to the kind of mileage I was at last year coupled with the functional OCR workouts I’ve been doing this year I can get a lot quicker. My obstacle game is streets ahead of where it was last year as is my grip endurance. So speed and running endurance is my focus now.
So as I said I was concerned that having the Championships in the UK it wouldn’t match the heights of Canada. I really shouldn’t have worried. The race village was great and from a spectator point of view there were a lot of obstalces to view. I thought the course was well designed and challenging. Yes there was more mud than some competitors were comfortable with but this was a good representation of what UK OCR is about. We were also ridiculously lucky with the weather. It was around 16ºC for the first 2 days and by the Sunday I was lying around in a t-shirt with a high of 20ºC! Madness for October. A week later it dropped to 5ºC so we were very lucky. Also had it rained instead of hanging around spectators would have had to huddle under the tent or go back to their hotels. But it didn’t rain, so it was glorious.
Special mention needs to go to Tom Nash, Stuart Neail and the many others who have worked to make Team UK a unified team. Having the team kitted out in Team UK racing tops, jackets and shorts was a wonderful sight and made it easy to support our fellow countrymen on the course. I have to say that the support for Team UK out on the course was amazing. Not only that but the support I received from fellow Road to Worlds members was incredible. Hardly 10 mins would go by without hearing a ‘Go Team UK’ or ‘Go on Fabian!’ It was wonderful and nearly made me a bit emotional at one point. No crying for me this year though. Just lots of smiles. What a weekend! 🇬🇧
Oh I also took loads of photos over the weekend, feel free to check them out here!
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