Obstacle Race "The Freeze" Race Report

Background:

Although I love triathlon, towards the end of last season I was feeling burned out after five years straight of just swimming, biking, and running. As a way to mix things up I returned back to my weight lifting roots and started focusing more on strength and conditioning. Over the course of 4 months, I healed my body of the all damage caused by triathlon, put on some muscle, and did 10,000 kettlebell swings for fun. Coincidentally in this time frame of trying new things, obstacle racing was entering my radar more rapidly. Prior to this year I always though obstacle races were something crossfit people did for an excuse to post more about how awesome they are on social media. Little did I no it was actually a competitive race that is now attraction some high level athletes.

When I was invited by Team Red White & Blue to a race called “The Freeze” which was a 4.5 mile obstacle race with 25+ obstacles, I signed up and after some research realized this is something I could get into. In fact with my new found strength and triathlon endurance base, I felt this was excellent timing for this type of event.

The Training:

As you can see in my training updates, I really didn’t train specifically for an obstacle race. In fact I only did two workouts with obstacles in the them (see one of them on video HERE). I spend almost all of time finishing up the 10,000 kettlebell swing challenge and running when I could (which was usally just 10min before the kettlebell swing workout).

The Race:

Given this was my first obstacle race, I had mixed feelings on how I would place. I knew I was in decent shape as an athlete but realized this event was completely new to me. No matter where I finished I was excited for an opportunity to test myself and find ways I can improve. After visiting with all the awesome veterans of Team RWB, the competitive heat was called to the start to the line. Mind you, at this point I had a rough idea of the obstacles ahead, unlike a triathlon the race was full of surprises… Once the gun went off (like in every race I’ve ever done, ever) the entire pack sprinted ahead of me leaving me running behind at a conservative pace. Not surprisingly after the first few obstacles (low crawl, burpees, a few wall climbs) the pack thinned out. Once I got to the uphill sand bag carry obstacle which required a turnaround at the top of the steep hill, I realized I was in 3rd place overall. This being said there was a guy and a super fit chick literally steps behind me. Over the course of this race I found myself in state of not being tired but not wanting to sprint between obstacles in fear I would be too tired to perform them correctly, this was weird to me. Anyways, as the race progressed past the halfway point, the 5th place girl drifted farther back and I was passed by the guy previously behind me putting me in 4th place. As we neared the last row of obstacles (about 5 obstacles literally back-to-back) before the finish, something interesting happen. The the 3rd place guy ahead of me had gloves on (a common thing in these races), but with wet gloves he just couldn’t grip a nylon rope to climb a vertical wall. He was gripping it so hard, using all his energy but just couldn’t get a grip (pun intended). I of course didn’t wear gloves for that exact reason and as I eased up the wall passed him, I could tell he wasn’t going to catch-me. With 3 more obstacles before the finish I gained almost a minute lead coming in 3rd place overall.

The Obstacles:

Not one obstacle was particularly hard for me in fact I didn’t fail, misstep, or mess up on any of them. If I had to point out the hardest obstacles, two in particular come to mind. First the cinder block drag where we had to drag a cinder block on a rope through thick grass and mud uphill. Secondly the atlas stone roll where we had to roll a 145lb round stone about 60 ft total (30ft down and back). This one was difficult becuase the stone was perfectly round and wet making it hard to grip.

I was very pleased to see a kettlebell swing obstacle (even though the volutneer explaining the obstacle had no idea what a proper kettlebell swing was), a box jump obstacle, and even a battle rope obstacle. I literally trained with all these things for fun not even thinking I would be doing them in a competition. The rest of the obstacles basically consisted of sometime of weighted carry (draggin a cinder block, carrying a sandbag, carrying a tire, etc.) and wall climbs (A good 10 obstacles were sometime of wall climb). All-in-all the mix of obstacles was very good.

Overall Thoughts:

In the end I had a blast in this race. I crossed the finish line with a time of 1 hour and 1 second, what's cravy is it felt like I had only been racing for 20 minutes. Unlike a triathlon I wasn't counting down the miles towards the finsh, in fact I was excited at every new obstacle.

At the finishline I kept thinking to myself what I could have done to come in first and honestly I think the answer was simply run faster. The 1st and 2nd place guys didn’t get through the obstacles any faster than I did, in fact I know was faster on the box jumps and kettlebell swing obstacle. They just simply ran faster between obstacles.

After this race, my motivation for competition has been reignited in a new way. My 2015 is looking to have more obstacle races than triathlons. Stay tuned as my journey unfolds...

Check out the final results for the competitive heat HERE.

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