OCR World Championships 2017 Report
Where do I start!? Competing in the Obstacle Course Racing World Championships was one of the most amazing experiences of my life to date. Held on a ski resort in The Blue Mountains, Ontario, Canada the course utilised the ski slopes to maximum effect. But let me take a step back... This whole adventure started last year when I watched my Facebook feed light up with stories of amazing times at the OCR World Championships. I knew I had to be there. I then ran the UK Championships at the end of 2016, losing one of my bands on the final rig. At the time I was gutted but I then sat down to work out what I needed to improve on. Grip strength and rigs were clearly areas for improvement but endurance and and general fitness were others. A lot to work on! Having managed to qualify at Spartan in April I had 6 months to get into the best shape of my life. I took on a programme which demanded 5-6 days and 45km of running a week. It was tough going fitting it all in but I was focussed on my goal. I wanted to go to Canada and have no regrets.
I took part in 3 races on consecutive days. The 3k short race (with 14 obstacles), the 15k (with 43 obstacles and over 1000m of ascent) and the Team Relay. The format of these races is that all obstacles are mandatory completion. Every competitor starts with a wrist band. You can attempt any obstacle as many times as you like but if you are unable to complete one then you have to surrender your band. This means that you can’t place in the main rankings. Keeping your band is a massive deal for most of the non-pro competitors.
3K Course
The 3k race was a fast and intense race with 14 obstacles. Having arrived late the night before and only having had 4 hours sleep I wasn’t feeling in top form. However a rousing speech by Coach Pain to start the race I was fired up and tore off up the hill. I was passing people on sections of running and flying through the obstacle such a monkey bars and inverted walls. I even felt good on the sandbag carries up and down hills. Then came the final ‘gauntlet of obstacles’ which included 6 upper body obstacles in a row. I flew through the first rig and approached the green Battlefrog rig, this looked tough. I’d trained for such obstacles and I’d even scouted it out earlier that morning, so I had a strategy. I got to the 3rd from last attachment and stalled, my grip was failing and I had to let go. Back to the retry lane for me! I then attempted another 4 times to complete the rig, each time getting now further. I was getting tired now and my grip was getting weaker with each attempt. With a heavy heart I surrendered my band. Finishing the race I was disappointed and didn’t feel the elation I had hoped for. Later that day I watched 2 of the top contenders in the Pro wave fail the exact same obstacle. They both tried multiple times but lost their bands as I did. This offered some consolation, this must have been a tough rig as I never see the Pros fail an obstacle.
The Platinum Rig
The Battlefrog Rig
After failing the Battlefrog rig I went back after the race and watched other competitors tackle it for an hour or so. I analysed what worked and what didn’t. I would change my strategy for the next race. The next morning I lined up for the main event, the 15k race which included 43 obstacles. After the disappointment of the previous day I decided to try not to focus on whether I kept my band or not but to try and race smart and above all enjoy the occasion. I’d trained hard for this but I was determined not to come away with a negative experience.
15k Course
Let me start by saying this - The 15k was the toughest single race I’ve ever done. I heard many other people say the same thing over the weekend. The steep and endless hills and multiple technical obstacles were nothing like anything I’ve experienced.
The race commenced and we were immediately running up the side of a mountain. After 15 minutes we were on our hands and knees scrambling up a muddy hill trying not to slip back down. The route took us up and down the side of the Mountain for the first 4kms with a few climbing obstacles along the way. This is where the real testing obstacles started to come in to play. This event had some of the most technical and innovative obstacles I had ever encountered, some of which I’d never attempted before. Some of my favourites included Stairway to Heaven, La Gaffe du Draveur, Urban Sky, Floating Walls and Skull Valley.
Skull Valley
Urban Sky
La Gaffe du Draveur
Stairway to Heaven
Floating Walls
The course winded up and down the mountain with the steep climbs sapping your energy. The obstacles were well placed and I was getting through each one first time. Then came the carries…I hate carries. I should probably train more for them but I usually slow right down on a sandbag carry. There were 2 carries in this race, a 22kg sandbag carry and a farmer’s carry of 2 large bags of sand. Both of these were up a steep hill. In fact there wasn’t much of the race that was flat! I’m not saying these carries were fun, they were not! However I plodded through them without stopping, my main thought being if I put the sandbag down I’d have to pick it back up again!
Did I mention I hate carries?
Running down to the foot of the mountain for the last time I still had my band intact however I knew that I still had to encounter the final gauntlet of rigs, I wanted revenge for the day before but did I have anything more to give? I’d found the rigs tough after 3km but now I’d been running for nearly 3 hours and I was feeling pretty beaten up. The configurations on the rigs had been changed from the day before, just to make things harder for the main race. I’d managed to scout the changes before the race and I had a game plan. It was all about flowing through the rigs as quickly as possible and maintaining a good swing. Approaching the first Platinum rig I took a deep breath to centre myself and swung off the first ring. The main change from the first race was that a low ring had been removed. This meant the transition from the low monkey bar section now was up to a high ring. This was tougher for sure! The rig finished with a climb under and over a cargo net to ring the bell on the other side. Ding! Phew, on to the next one. As I approached the Battlefrog rig I stopped and took a few minutes to let my heart rate calm down. This was my nemesis. I hated this rig for taking my band the day before. I remembered my game plan –‘forget foot locks on the ropes. Flow through the rig’. I knew which holds I was planning on using and those I planned to miss out. I jumped up and started to swing. Ring to ring to rope to ring to rope to rope to ring and hit the bell. YESSS!! I’d done it! 4 more obstacles to go and I still had my band! I didn’t want to be complacent though, I was exhausted and my grip was shot so I maintained focus. I flew through the final few obstacles and was left facing the final wall, titled The Knot. This was one tall and seriously steep wall with some knotted ropes to grip onto.
The Knot
I took a run up and with a few grunts I was over. Before descending I took a second to soak in the moment. I ran over the finish line to collect my medal, high fiving the official on the way whilst screaming ‘COME ON!!!!’
I immediately went to phone my wife Jo. On unlocking my phone I saw the stream of messages from her asking how it went. At that point I broke down in tears, the emotion of the moment overwhelming me. I’d trained hard for this for 6 months, visualising that very moment of crossing the line with my band intact. After losing my band the previous day I’d been resigned to likely not being able to keep it on the 15k. But I had. I cannot tell you the elation that comes with achieving your goals after so much hard work. It is indescribable. There’s a Facebook post of me crying straight after the race and I’m not ashamed at all. This was my raw emotion, no pretences, no guards.
Team Relay
Day 3 was the team race which was a relay with 3 legs. I ran in a co-ed team with 2 women, 1 from Scotland the other from Australia. One did a running leg, the other a strength leg (the heavy carries up hills) and I was doing the final obstacle leg. I was feeling pretty confident on the obstacles by now however after 2 consecutive days my arms were pretty sore and I wasn’t sure how I would fare. Natalie ran the first leg in a good time and handed over to Leanne for the strength leg. Leanne was a machine climbing those hills with ease and handed over to me for the final leg. I smashed through all my obstacles and headed for the final obstacle. This was where the team had to work together to climb the final wall. The difference here was that the lower ropes had been removed so you had to work as a team to get over. A light drizzle had already made this wall pretty slippery but as we approached the heavens opened and the wall became a torrent of water. We decided to form a ladder with both girls on my shoulders. With the 2 of them on the top of the wall I used what little upper body strength I had left to grab one of their arms and they both helped me over the wall. We crossed the finish line hand in hand with huge grins on our faces. We all had our bands and we finished a respectable 48th out of 139 co-ed teams (unofficial results).
To compete for Team UK and be out there with athletes from all over the world (67 Nations competed) was simply incredible. The camaraderie out on course was second to none. No matter which country you were from there was support from other competitors and spectators alike. I met some awesome people out on those hills. After my races I was out on course supporting other members of Team UK feeling their pain and cheering their success. OCR is like nothing else on the planet. This is our sport’s Olympics and I feel humbled to have been part of it. But now I want more. Next year I will be better prepared, faster and stronger. Bring it!
