#1 - SIGN UP EARLY! The absolute best way to save the most money is signing up early. Events that are held once a year usually have an EARLY BIRD sign up period where you can save a lot of money when you register right after their event for the next year's race. By signing up super early, not only are you saving money, but you are also helping the event, as there is a lot of planning involved and those funds help get the ball rolling.
#2 - Volunteer. There are several ways that you can volunteer and earn yourself a FREE race. You can help during build week. Tasks that you can help with during build week can include things like filling sandbags, mowing, helping set up festival area, and things of that nature. You can volunteer on race day by being an obstacle attendant after you do your own race. That's a place we are always short on volunteers and races desperately need you to help put on a great event. Lastly, you can volunteer post-race. You can help with things like pulling course tape, packing away materials, and other parts of the tear down. Every race is different, but typically two shifts (10 hours total) earns you a free race.
#3 - Refer your friends to sign up. A lot of races have referral discounts. For example it could be something like when you have 5 people sign up for a race using your referral code, you get "x" amount of dollars refunded back to you.
#4 - Try to find OCRs that are local or local-ish to your area. You can download an ap called OCR BUDDY and search by dates / location to help you find events. Fuel and other travel expenses start adding up real quick so if you can find events near you, that'll cut costs and you may find some local OCR gems! Plus, local brands tend to be more innovative in their obstacles. If you are traveling, try to buddy up to split the travel costs.
Hope that helps and can't wait to see you on the course!
If you have other ways you know of to help save money, please share!
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Here's a link to the one we have been using https://amzn.to/3O6KD4N (Also, this is our affiliate link so if you end up going with this one, it helps us if you use our link when ordering.)
Now, let me tell you why we like this target. First off, it's inexpensive (under $50). While it comes in two sizes, we use the smaller one which is 16" x 16", because if you can consistently nail this small target at home, the big spear target on race day is going to be easy peasy. Aim small, miss small right? We also like that there is a handle on the top of it. One of the ways we hang it is by attaching a thin rope to it and hanging it from our monkey bars. We've seen others tie the target around a tree, prop it up on things to get it to the height similar to how it is at the race, and even build an actual wooden stand that the target fits into. All that to say, you don't need anything fancy to get your spear practice in. Also, being that the target is small, it's easy to take places just in case you live somewhere where you can't get outside and throw it across your yard.
So hope that helps in showing you how you can practice for the Spartan Spear Throw right from home, because ain't nobody got time to be hanging out in the burpee pit on race day.
]]>People ask us all the time, which one is better: Twister 2.0 or Mini Twister. It really comes down to what size space you have, if you have access to a few basic tools, and will it be something that you mount in a more permanent location or will you need to take it to places like your gym or local park to be able to use it.
There are basically two differences between our two Twisters. One, obviously, is size. Twister 2.0 is an 8FT Twister, which is one section of Twister at a Spartan Race. Depending on if you're doing the Spartan Super or Spartan Beast, will depend on how many sections of Twister they use. Typically a Spartan Beast has a 3 section Twister. While Twister 2.0 is a total of 8FT, we make them in two 4FT sections that mount together. The only reason we do this is to save you money on the shipping cost. Shipping suppliers go by dimensional weight, so to ship an 8FT box is outrageously expensive, which is why we designed a way to make it in two parts, and it takes less than 5 minutes to attach the two sections together. Now, with that being said, Twister 2.0 needs the inner pipe to rotate around, and because the inner pipe cannot be cut into two sections, we can't include it. But it is something you can pick up at your local hardware store, Lowe's Home Depot, etc. Once you have your inner pipe, it has to be cut down to the correct length for your Twister, and you have to drill out holes for the eye bolts so that it's ready to hang. Don't worry, we include the directions for all of this when you order a Twister, but this is why I mentioned above, that you'll need a few tools. If you have the space, and you're looking at a more permanent home for your Twister, then Twister 2.0 is a great option.
Our Mini Twister, is a 4FT version of Twister, and because of the size, it DOES include the inner pipe. So because I'm able to ship it with the inner pipe already attached, it's ready to hang immediately. The Mini Twister is great if you need to take it places because you have no place to hang it from home. It only weighs about 35lbs, so you can put it in your backseat, go to a park or gym that has monkey bars or some other place that you can hang it from and get to work.
So if you're ready to up your Spartan Race training, and save yourself some burpees on race day, get yourself a Twister so you can BE READY ON RACE DAY!
]]>There are many different companies that put on OCR events.A few of the well-known ones include Spartan Race, Savage Race and Tough Mudder, but there are many local OCR events all around the country. In fact, a few of my absolute favorite ones, such as Frontline, Highlander Assault and Abominable Snow Race are all within a couple of hours from where I live, near Chicago. Check your area for local OCR events and see if any are near you. But for now, I'll share some of the differences between them and what I think are the best ones for beginners.
First off, there will typically be competitive and non-competitive divisions. For your first race, I would recommend running non-competitive, also called the "open wave", to get a feel for how the race is, plus in the open waves, racers can help each other with obstacles. Get a group of friends to go with you and it's a really fun time. When you're registering for a race and you see divisions or waves that say "pro", "age group", or "elite", these are all competitive, so look for the wave that says "open".
As for the different race brands, I think Savage Race is an excellent race for your first OCR. In the Savage open division, this is a fun wave, meaning you run your own race. If you get to an obstacle and you fail it or just absolutely don't even want to try it, then you just walk right by it. Although, I always say try it, it's okay not to be able to do everything. A lot of these kind of things take practice and training, like anything else. Why do you think I sell obstacle grips and OCR training equipment? And what's even better, at Savage, you can try as many times as you'd like on the obstacles. I choose Savage over Spartan because unlike Savage, at a Spartan Race, you only get one attempt at obstacles and a failure results in either 30 burpees or a penalty loop. And while I don't have personal experiences from a Tough Mudder, I do know they are more team oriented and several of their obstacles require you to have help going through them, so they would be another good one to start with and in OCR there is ALWAYS someone willing to help you. That's one of the wonderful things about the obstacle course racing community. It is a group of some of the most supportive people I've ever met. So even if you sign up and are running alone, you're never really alone on the course. There will always be someone there to help boost you over a wall or grab your arm to help pull you up that slip wall.
I hope this encourages you to sign up for a race and remember just go out there, do the best that you can and have fun, because that's what it's all about.
]]>First, you'll want to incorporate trail running into your training regimen because you can guarantee you'll be running through the forest, creeks, and other technical terrain throughout the race. Which brings me to my next tip: Make sure you're wearing the proper shoes and socks. You'll likely be going through mud and water, so you don't want to be wearing your normal tennis shoes. You'll want to wear trail shoes or some sort of shoe that has some grip to them. Some great OCR specific shoe brands are Inov-8, VJ Shoes, and Altra just to name a few, but really any trail show will work just fine. You'll also want to be sure you're wearing compression socks. I personally prefer the ones that are knee-high to help protect my legs during rope climbs and rope traverses.
Aside from trail running, the best thing you can work on is grip strength. Almost all obstacle course races have monkey bars, rope climbs, and other hanging grip which all require a good amount of grip strength. While I make race specific OCR equipment and grip attachments that will most certainly help you during a race, you don't need any equipment to work on strengthening your grip. If you don't have your own backyard rig or OCR rig at home, go to your local park, find some monkey bars and get to hanging and playing around on those. If you have a pull up bar, dead hangs and pull ups are great for grip training. Now, there are some things such as the Spartan Twister and Anchors Aweigh at Savage Race that will be very difficult to successfully complete without training on the real thing, and in those cases, that's where my OCR gear comes in.
Finally, something that most Obstacle Course Racing events will have are heavy carries such as a bucket carry, sandbag carry, or Atlas Stone carry. For these, you simply will want to find heavy things to pick up and run/walk with them. You can go to your local hardware store, buy a bucket for a few bucks, fill it with rocks and you've got a bucket carry.
Hope this helps give you some ideas for your OCR training, but most importantly go out there and do the best you can and have fun, because that's what it's all about. And if you're going alone, don't stress out, because the OCR community is the most supportive and helpful group of people out there. If you get stuck at an obstacle, more than likely there will be people there to offer help, and you'll make friends along the way. Have fun and remember you're never really alone out there.
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Below, are a few that are worth adding to your race schedule if you haven't already.
I'll start with Frontline, because while this is a race I've ran over the years, I got the opportunity to be the Race Director for earlier this year, and will be again for next years race. While I have always liked the fact that Frontline is a race that honors our military and first responders, the race in general is awesome. While it is a race for everyone with open waves, endurance, competitive and even a sweet kids course, it has the ultimate challenge for Elite racers, because it requires you to go through the race while wearing a weighted vest, approximately 20lbs. It's a mandatory obstacle completion race, but instead of losing a band for not being able to complete an obstacle, you lose your vest. If you can make it through the entire race with 100% obstacle completion, you get to keep the vest. It has some pretty epic obstacles like a warped wall, a couple of different multi-rigs and it's become known for an obstacle I've built called Kraken. Plus, I'll be introducing some new obstacles at the 2022 race.
Next up is Highlander Assault. This is another race that has something for everyone. It offers 4 distances ranging from a 4 mile course all the way up to a 26.2 mile course...aka the King Arthur's Challenge. The venue is a perfect place for an OCR event because it features a lot of trails, technical terrain, creeks and even has a small lake, where they make good use of by having a water slide obstacle there. Because who doesn't like water slides, am I right? They debuted a really rad obstacle I built called Tilt-A-Kilt at their race and have several other great obstacles and even more new ones planned to come out in 2022. It's Scottish themed, so you'll see a lot of people come out in kilts and the festival area is always fun.
For all of you that get tired of running in the heat, then Abominable Snow Race needs to be on your radar. Obstacles in the snow make for a very unique challenge and it's a blast. Not to mention they have a pretty epic tube slide. You're going to want to make sure you're doing your hill training for this one, because you're going to be running up and down them all race long. They usually have two different distances to choose from ranging from around 4-8 miles.
If you like obstacles, but don't like the mud, then you'll really like Hartfit DOA event. While this is an EPIC OCR gym, they put on one heck of an event every year and they pretty much have every obstacle you can think of. If you've seen it in a big named race, chances are Hartfit has it and you'll do some crazy obstacle combos that include multiple grip obstacles in one go. People tell me I put together some difficult rigs, but trust me, I don't hold a candle to what Hartfit's owner, Ryan Hart does. Go follow his Instagram and you'll get a pretty good idea. And if you're near the Chicago area, this is the place that you would want to train.
Indian Mud Run. Talk about some gnarly terrain for this one. Steep cliffs, hills, and some of the most technical terrain I've ever seen on any course. There's a sign at the beginning of the race that says "This is gonna hurt." And it did and it was awesome. This is also a great race to help you prepare for OCRWC as it has several of the obstacles you'll see there.
Battle of the Lions and Battle OCR. While these two are events I've never personally got the chance to do yet, I know the guy in charge of building and designing the obstacles and course lay out, Sid Morris. And if he's involved then it's going to be a great race. He's one of the most innovative obstacle builders I have met so you're always going to see some very unique obstacles and they're going to be a challenge and probably make you suffer a little..or a lot. But that's what we're here for right?!
There you have it. I'll mention one last thing that I like about the local events. The race owners and organizers from these particular events, and I bet many others, are all about building the sport of OCR. They share each others events on their social channels, support each others events. come out and help during each others build weeks, and just all around good people. For more local events, check out OCR Buddy. It's an app that you can search for events by location, date and so much more.
Hope to see you guys out on the course and please share other local events that you love to help spread the word!
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