I always get excited for the new season of OCR to start, and one of the reasons is that I know Savage Race is going to break out a few new obstacles to challenge the masses and 2019 didn’t disappoint. Three brand new obstacles were added to this year’s Georgia race that would test even the best competitor. Held on March 30-31 in Dallas, Georgia the gently rolling red clay hills played host to the 6.3 mile course with around 900 feet of elevation change. Morning temps in the mid 50’s made the water obstacles nuts up inside you cold and the ice cubes inside the Shriveled Richard left you almost hypothermic. The grounds supported a few large horse stables, so you really needed to watch your step, both on and off the course. But the scenic views more than make up for the excrement piles laying around. So much so that my wife made the comment that she would be happy to move to the area. But enough with the basics, time to get down and dirty.
After the seemingly endless hoopla in the Savage starting corral athletes were released into a section of the pasture which zig zagged back and forth serving to thin out the heard. The first obstacle faced was a barbed wire low crawl, I actually heard a first-time racer next to me ask “Is this shit real barbed wire”? Yes, oh yes, it is! The trail then circled around leading to the Barn Doors wall climb. Racers then came upon the Shriveled Richard, which basically came down to a choice of freezing to death or not if you ran Open class, and I saw quite a few participants just pass on this one. The Big Cheese, which looks like a large hunk of Swiss, needed to be traversed before climbing over The Great Wall. One last obstacle, a log over and under, ended the tasks that the public could view in the festival area as the trail now led into the wooded countryside. The course picked up an ATV trail from this point as the hills became more pronounced, finally ending at the creek than ran through the property. I know water freezes at 32 degrees, but this water couldn’t have been much warmer than that as Savage plunged racers in knee deep for a few hundred yards of shivering shuffling. The elevated shoreline, along with frozen feet, made the line to climb out long causing some racers to attempt to climb out wherever they could find a foothold.
Shaking off the cold, racers continued making their way through the woods finally ending up at Thor’s Grundle. This low crawl required racers to once again submerge themselves into frigid water while ducking under two wooden planks. Finally breaking free of the woods, the course wound towards the back edge of the festival area, which made a perfect viewing area for the fan favorite obstacle Wheel World. Twin Peaks, a set of double inverted walls, was also set along the back edge of the festival area before sending racers on a long loop through woods and pasture land towards the back end of the property, another barbed wire low crawl and a set of hurdles along this stretch did just enough to break up the running monotony before another long section of trail running leading back to the festival area. If all that trail running made you tired you were in trouble, as my personal nemesis Twirly Bird was next up. This combination of rings and bungee cords always makes for one of the more difficult suspended grip traverses in all of OCR. If you managed to swing your way through Twirly then Savage had a bonus for you as situated right after it was the new for 2019 Piece of Queso. This grip killer also tested your body control as the setup consisted of floating walls separated by tennis balls hanging from above nestled inside of sheets. These two obstacles placed back to back, in clear view of the festival area really made a statement as to how serious Savage is about their OCR.
The race director was somewhat kind after that as Savage allowed the racers upper bodies to recover by inserting another long stretch of trail running here before sending racers on a brief loop carrying a wooden 4×4. After dropping your wood, it was time for a hike up a steep hill where the Savage version of a slip wall was located with another barbed wire low crawl immediately following. What would cool you down after a long hike? Yeah, jumping off a high dive in the form of Davy Jones Locker! Thank you once again Savage Race team for pumping cold lake water into all your obstacles! Once you got out of the water pit you needed to get your hands dried quickly as grip strength again came into play with Battering Ram, a type of slide suspended over the ground, and Sawtooth, the best set of Monkey Bars in the racing industry.
If you did happen to fall from Sawtooth into the water below Savage again took racers well-being into consideration by placing their fire jump a short distance away. All that remained now was one last loop leading away from festival central. Savage’s Big Ass Cargo Net climb was tucked into this loop along with Pedal for the Medal. This unique obstacle required athletes to lay down and drag a tire on a chord to them, all by using their legs to peddle a wooden wheel to which the chord was attached. The balance beam was thrown in between here and two more new for 2019 obstacles. Inversion Therapy, which broke down to be a horizontal pole of varying thickness suspended over yet another water pit. The goal being to shimmy across the pole while hanging upside down. A bell tap on the far side signaled obstacle completion and Chop Sticks, which consisted of a row of 2 X 12’s hanging vertically. Each of the sections was on a swivel with only small foot hold nailed into each side of the bottom of the planks. Savage added to the difficulty hanging some of the planks long ways while hanging others short ways. Again, a bell tap on the far side singled completion and I applaud Savage for their ingenuity designing it. The massive wall climb and water slide, appropriately named Colossus, was the last obstacle presented on the course as the finish line was situated directly behind the massive beast.
Scott Brackemyer
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