“Murph” World Record Attempt – “Average Joe”

June 28, 2020 By

Murph World Record Attempt

Joe Crowley aka “Average Joe” will attempt to break the  “Murph” record, recently set by Hunter McIntyre.

Murph is: 1 Mile Run. 100 PullUps. 200 PushUps. 300 Air Squats. 1Mile Run. Wearing a 20 pound vest. Joe will do the workout unpartitioned.

The event will take place at Power In Motion Fitness in Phoenix Arizona on Thursday, July 2, 2020 at 7:00am local time.

You can watch Obstacle Racing Media live stream the event here.

Hunter completed the workout in 34:13 on May 23, 2020. You can watch Hunter’s attempt here:

 

 

Filed Under: Featured, OCR News

Spartan Race Holds First Mass Participation Event Since COVID-19 Began

June 15, 2020 By

Spartan Race Pandemic

Spartan Race put on it’s first obstacle race since early March on Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida. Spartan, had cancelled 22 events to date, losing millions during the 2020 Pandemic. On May 13, while much of the country was still operating under “Shelter In Place”, Joe Desena proudly announced a “return to racing“, when his company got the go ahead from state and county officials.

Spartan produced a smaller event with their Trail Series on Friday the 12th which had just under 150 participants, but the real test came on Saturday. The Saturday 5K obstacle race had 1253 finishers, sending out waves of a maximum of 24 people between 8am and 4pm. While the company typically averages 8000+ participants on an average weekend, Spartan Race considered the event a success of testing their new standards and protocols in a COVID-19 world.

Spartan’s next scheduled event is for West Virginia on August 29, 30. Last year’s event at that location had over 10,000 in attendance over the weekend.

The video below has more on this past weekend in Jacksonville.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Featured, OCR News

Spartan Vermont Events Cancelled

June 5, 2020 By

Spartan Race Cancel

The cancellations and postponements of races continues to pile up, as the COVID-19 pandemic takes it’s toll on the OCR and Endurance Race industry. Below is a list of races that have been cancelled or postponed. We will keep this page updated as more information becomes available.

Update June 25, 2020 

The Utah event is BACK ON. The event is moving back to Solider Hollow in Midway UT, where the event took place for many years before moving to Huntsville last year. The event will now be a trifecta weekend and will offer an ULTRA as well. The Super distance will be part of the USNS. There are some space constraints at this venue which is making for some interesting decisions. The Beast will be 2 laps of the Super course. The Ultra will be 5 laps of the Super course.

Some other updates include:

The Big Bear Event that was to take place in May has now been moved to October 3rd.

The Vermont Beast and ULTRA scheduled for September 12 are now cancelled. These love/hate events will NOT be happening this year. The 24 Hour ULTRA Championship scheduled for Sept 19, is also cancelled. Spartan let us know they will have more information coming about a new location for this championship event.

In addition, Spartan is cancelling Citi Field, TriState, and Indiana which were all scheduled to take place on October 3. Along with Ocean City and Citizens Bank Park on October 17th and 31st respectively. The Virginia Super, Sprint and Trail scheduled for November 7th has also been canceled. The last two scheduled Stadion events at Fenway Park on November 14th and Oracle Park on December 5th also went away for 2020.

Here are the events that Spartan is confirming WILL occur at this time:

August 
8/29  Utah Trifecta and West Virginia Trifecta – (Utah Super and WV Beast are part of the USNS)

September
9/12 Seattle North Trifecta – (Super is part of the USNS)
9/12 Michigan Sprint Super
9/26 North Lake Tahoe Beast – NA Championships, and ULTRA

October
10/3 Atlanta and Palmerton – Sprint/Super
10/3 Big Bear -Super/Beast/ULTRA
10/17 Palm Beaches Sprint
10/24 San Diego City
10/24 SoCal and Dallas Sprint/Beast/ULTRA

November 
11/7 Monterey Sprint/Super
11/14 San Luis Obispo Super/Beast/ULTRA (Beast is part of USNS)
11/14 Laughlin Trifecta
11/21 Sacramento Sprint/Super
11/21 Carolinas Sprint/Beast/ULTRA

December
12/5 Austin Sprint/Super
12/12 Los Angeles Sprint
12/12 Central Florida Sprint/Beast

UPDATE: June 5, 2020 2:35 PM EST

Following yesterday’s announcement about the US National Series, The Spartan Zendesk was updated to reveal additional cancellations including AT&T Stadium in Dallas, and Fayetteville. Both of those events had initially been postponed from their original date. Other races no longer taking place in 2020 are Hawaii, Denver, Tri State #2 , National Park and Kissimmee City.

 

UPDATE: May 21, 2020 2:00PM EST

This afternoon Spartan made an official announcement about postponing the Fayetteville, NC event. As we approached the end of May, many participants were hoping this could be their first Spartan 50K of the year. It won’t be.

Similarly, the Palmerton, PA Super/Sprint weekend scheduled for July 11 and 12 was moved to October. The following was sent out by Spartan:

You are registered for our Fayetteville 50K Ultra, 21K Beast and 5K Sprint on June 27-28, 2020. Due to current executive orders in the state of North Carolina, this race has been postponed. We are going to make sure you can still get back out on course as soon as possible: NEW DATE: August 15-16, 2020. Your registration has been automatically moved to the new event date. No further action is required.

You are registered for our Palmerton 10K Super and 5K Sprint Weekend on July 11-12, 2020. Due to current executive orders in the state of Pennsylvania, this race has been postponed. We are going to make sure you can still get back out on course as soon as possible: NEW DATE: October 3-4, 2020 (10K Super Saturday, 5K Sprint & 10K Trail Sunday). Your registration has been automatically moved to the new event date. No further action is required.

In addition, Spartan also announced the cancellation of the following events: Washington DC, Boise, Ohio, Indiana, Asheville, Fort Campbell- Nashville. 

UPDATE: April 2, 2020 12:30PM EST: We have updates from Spartan and Hyrox on postponed events. Spartan’s Seattle Race, scheduled for this upcoming weekend, has now been added on to the Fall Seattle North event September 12-13, 2020 and will now be a full Trifecta Weekend.

Hyrox has also announced the new date for their World Championship event. The new date will be October 10th, 2020 and the event will now be held in Amsterdam.

UPDATE: March 27, 2020 9:00AM EST: Spartan has rescheduled their Tri-State NJ Ultra, Beast Weekend that was slated originally for April 25-26. These events will be moved to the October Tri-State NJ Weekend and will now be a Trifecta Weekend, with the Ultra and Beast being held on Saturday, and the Mountain Series Super will be moved to Sunday.

UPDATE: March 20, 2020 9:00PM EST: Spartan emailed customers tonight announcing their intent to suspend all races through May 15, 2020. This comes one week after announcing a 30-day stop on all events.

Spartan stated in their email that they have full intention of attempting to reschedule these events for later in the 2020 calendar. They also state they’ll be hosting “virtual races; Same day. Same intensity. Different obstacles. More details to come.”

UPDATE: MARCH 19, 2020 12:15PM EST: Tough Mudder has now announced the delay of their first US race of 2020. Tough Mudder Virginia has been postponed from May 30-31, to August 29-30.

UPDATE: March 17, 2020 4:00PM EST: Tough Mudder has communicated upcoming changes to their schedule between April and early July. Our grid below has the full list of impacted events.

UPDATE March 15, 2020 10:00PM EST: Rugged Maniac has announced the cancelled of it’s first three events of 2020 – South Carolina, Arizona, and North Carolina.

Rugged Maniac is offer its customers the option to either switch their registration to any remaining events in 2020 or compete in a “Virtual Fitness Challenge” where you can run your own 5K, and compete a list of workouts, to earn your medal and t-shirt. You’ll also get a code for a $24 registration for another Rugged event, regardless of which option you opt for.

UPDATE March 13, 2020 3:00PM EST: Spartan Race has announced the postponing of all US-based races effective immediately. The temporary suspension will last through April 12, 2020.

This temporary halt on all events will impact races all over the country, including the second stop of the US National Series in Seattle, and the kick-off race of the US Stadion Series at CitiField in New York.

At this time all races scheduled after April 12, 2020 are still considered to be on schedule.

The decision to suspend these events comes after the sudden and abrupt cancellation of the San Antonio Super & Sprint weekend that was scheduled for March 14-15 as well as the postponing of the San Luis Obispo weekend. San Luis Obispo has already been rescheduled for November 14-15, 2020. A full list of impacted races in the US and across the world can be found below.

As the COVID-19 virus continues to impact races all over the world, we will continue to update you here with the most timely information available.

Spartan Race

Date Location New Date
2/15 Hung King Memorial Park, Vietnam 5/16/20
3/13 San Antonio, TX cancelled
3/13-14 Riyadh, Saudia Arabia cancelled
3/14-15 San Luis Obispo, California USA 11/14-15
3/21-22 Las Vegas, NV Date TBD
3/21 Paris, FRA 11/28
3/27 Spartan ME & Africa Championships, Abu Dhabi, UAE cancelled
3/28 Maggiora, ITA 10/24
3/28-29 Okinama, JPN Date TBD
3/28-29 Melbourne, AUS Date TBD
4/4-5 Seattle, WA US National Series Race #2 USNS Status TBD 9/12-13
4/4-5 CitiField, NY US Stadion Series Race #1 Date TBD
4/4-5 Charlotte, NC Date TBD
4/4-5 Atlanta, GA Date TBD
4/4-5 Veszprem, HUN Date TBD
4/6-7 Latrobe Valley, AUS Date TBD
4/11 San Diego, CA Date TBD
4/11 S. Korea Stadion 11/7
4/17-18 Munich, GER 10/30-31
4/25-26 Palm Beaches, CA Date TBD
4/25-26 Tri-State NJ 10/3-4
5/2-3 Bigfork, MT Date TBD
5/2 Jacksonville, FL Date TBD

Deka Fit

Date Location New Date
3/21 Denver, CO Date TBD
5/2 Dallas, TX Date TBD

Savage Race

Date Location New Date
3/14-15 Dade City, FL 11/14-15
3/28 Dallas, GA 9/26
4/11 Cat Spring, TX 10/10
5/2 Kennedyville, MD 9/12

Tough Mudder

Date Location New Date
4/17 Tough Mudder City – North London – Finsbury Park 10/9-10
5/9-10 Tough Mudder London West 9/19-20
5/30 Tough Mudder Virginia, USA 8/29-30
6/13-14 Tough Mudder Midlands / Europe’s Toughest Mudder 8/22-23
7/4-5 Tough Mudder Scotland 10/3-4

Hyrox

Date Location New Date
3/28 Los Angeles, CA USA 9/13
3/21 Munich, GER Cancelled
4/4 Hyrox World Championships – Berlin, GER Amsterdam 10/10

OCR European Championships

Date Location New Date
6/11-14 Val de Fiemme, Dolemites ITA Cancelled

Tough Guy

Date Location New Date
3/29 Wolverhampton, UK 2/21/21

Monster Hydro Stadium Blitz

Date Location New Date
3/14 SMU Stadium, Dallas TX Cancelled
4/18 Ohio Stadium, Columbus OH Date TBD
4/25 Booth Stadium, Kansas KS Date TBD
5/2 Rutgers Stadium, New Jersey Date TBD

Epic Series OCR

Date Location New Date
3/28 Fresno, CA 5/23

Abominable Snow Race

Date Location New Date
3/14 Devil’s Head Resort, Merrimac, WI Cancelled

Rugged Maniac

Date Location New Date
3/21 Ravenel, SC Cancelled
4/4 Chandler, AZ Cancelled
4/11 Rockingham, NC Cancelled

FIT Challenge

Date Location New Date
4/4 Cumberland, RI Date TBD

For any information regarding the postponement, cancellation or rescheduling of your event, please reach out directly to the race via the “Contact Us” option on their websites.

We will update this list as more information becomes available.

Click here for – All obstacle racing covid-19 related articles.

Filed Under: Featured, OCR News Tagged With: , , ,

When 4.99 = 5 || Obstacle Discourse With Davis and Chace

June 4, 2020 By

Listen To ORM On iTunes
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Obstacle Discourse with Davis and Chace

Obstacle Discourse with Davis and Chace – A weekly news show with Josh Chace and Matt B. Davis discussing items of the week for Spartan Race, Tough Mudder, and all other OCR related news.

This week’s topics: When NOT To Engage. UltraVirus II Recap. Yellow Starbursts.

Show Notes:

Support Us On Patreon

Join the Discord

Davis and Chace theme music composed by Charmian Lee!

Listen using the player below or the iTunes/Stitcher links at the top of this page. 

Filed Under: OCR News

Spartan Race USNS Shakeup – Utah Now Postponed

June 4, 2020 By

Spartan Utah

For ALL Spartan Covid-19 updates – Click here.

Update June 5 – Utah is now “suspended” –  Spartan sent us a message (screenshot below) that they passed along to their Pro Team this afternoon.

We asked what this means for the rest of the points season and were told:

USNS point layout will remain the same – 300 points for first place, 264 for second place, 236 for third place, and so on. We intend to hold a full 5 race USNS, so in this case we will allow athletes to count their best 4 out of 5 races. If the scenario exists where 2 USNS events take place on the same weekend – there would effectively be 4 weekends of racing – athletes will be allowed to count their best 3 out of 4 races.

 

 

 

We just came across an email sent out to the 250+ plus member Spartan Pro Team. Spartan Race will be changing the scoring for the United States National Series to racers best 3 races out of 5 possible events. This looks to be because Utah and West Virginia are both USNS events and fall on the same date. The email goes on to say that North American Champs in Tahoe, World Championship in Abu Dhabi are currently still a go:

US and Canada Pro Team Athletes:

I hope this finds you well. On a positive note, I’m particularly glad to see so many athletes on the roster have found this unplanned pause in the season as a great opportunity to adjust training plans, take on new athletic challenges, focus on weak areas and recover from injuries, as well as get fired up for the return when it comes.

On the Spartan management side, the team has been working long days and nights pivoting to offer incredible content 24/7 globally, to virtual racing, establishing SOPs and operations planning for the entire world’s events, to designing training content that so many of you have been part of.

That being said, emails will be going out shortly with the news that several upcoming events will be cancelled, and the Utah event will be postponed to the weekend of August 29 and 30.

There are many moving parts to opening events that change literally on a daily basis. Health officials’ decisions, permitting, venue availability, timetable clashes, staffing, travel restrictions, SOP compliance, new laws and legislation, and many other factors play a role.

For those that are concerned with the USNS structure, as you may have noticed that the updated Utah date is the same weekend as West Virginia: For the first time in Spartan history, we are going to host two US National Series events on the same day, in two different locations – Utah and West Virginia. Both will be held as Sprints on Sunday, August 30.

We strongly considered several restart scenarios. While there are many reasons the decision was made to host both events on the same weekend and shift the distances to Sprints, it boils down to this: this is a restart to the season – events are coming back online in the US and Canada, it’s looking to be a very full September and October racing schedule, and we want to give you every opportunity to compete in as many of the biggest events in the shortened time frame.

We intend to schedule 2 more USNS events (either 2 Supers or 1 Super and 1 Beast), for a total of 5 US National Series events across 4 weekends, and will be counting your best 3 events – more details to come. Same goes for the Canadian National Series – it will remain a 3 race series (1 Sprint, 1 Super, and 1 Beast), and we will be counting your best 2 events. Locations and dates to be released soon.

The major events – North American Champs, Ultra World Champs, Trifecta World Champs, and World Champs are still tracking to take place.

I don’t have more information regarding Mountain, Stadion, or Ultra series at the moment – it’s something we are tracking on closely and as soon as I am able to provide an update, I will.

We appreciate your understanding and flexibility during these trying times as we work tirelessly to get back to racing. If you have any specific questions, please reach out to me directly and I’ll provide as much information as possible.

Filed Under: OCR News

Boston Marathon Cancelled

May 28, 2020 By

Boston Marathon Cancelled

The 2020 Boston Marathon has been cancelled. Boston Mayor, Marty Walsh made the announcement this afternoon in conjunction with the Boston Athletic Association. Last Friday, Mayor Walsh said the final decision on whether to hold the race in 2020 would be made soon.

The race was postponed for the first time in history earlier this year. On March 13, The April 20 date was moved to September 14 due to COVID-19.

Boston Marathon Cancel Mayor

The next Boston Marathon will be run on, Monday, April 19, (Patriots Day) 2021. Those Boston Marathon participants registered for 2020 have an option to run a virtual version of the race to receive their medal.

The race has been run for 124 years without interruption, prior to today’s announcement.

Some news for those interested in other major races in the US:

For a virtual race, you can run this weekend, check out UltraVirusRace.com

For the latest Spartan Race cancellations – click here.

For the first Post COVID -19 Spartan Race, to be held in Jacksonville, Florida- click here.

Spartan Race Jacksonville, Florida

Below is the email sent to all 2020 Boston Marathon Participants:

Dear Boston Marathoner,

We hope this message finds you healthy and well. Today, we write to notify you that the 124th Boston Marathon will be held as a virtual event, following Boston Mayor Martin Walsh’s cancellation of the marathon as a mass participation road running event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual Boston Marathon will be complemented by a series of virtual events throughout the second week of September.

“Our top priority continues to be safeguarding the health of the community, as well as our staff, participants, volunteers, spectators, and supporters,” said Tom Grilk, C.E.O. of the B.A.A. “While we cannot bring the world to Boston in September, we plan to bring Boston to the world for an historic 124th Boston Marathon.”

All participants who were originally registered for the April 20, 2020 event will be offered a refund for their full entry fee associated with the race and will have the opportunity to participate in the virtual Boston Marathon, which can be run any time between September 7–14. The B.A.A. will also offer a series of virtual events and activities throughout September’s Marathon Week in an effort to bring the Boston Marathon experience to the constituencies that the organization serves here in Boston, across the United States, and around the world.

Virtual offerings for participants during that week will include exclusive panel discussions, champions interviews, and a downloadable Boston Marathon toolkit that includes signature race elements such as a printable finish line, winner’s breaktape, and more. Further details will be sent to all entrants in the near future.

Participants in the virtual 2020 Boston Marathon will be required to complete the 26.2 mile distance within a six hour time period and provide proof of timing to the B.A.A. All athletes who complete the virtual race will receive an official Boston Marathon program, participant t-shirt, medal, and runner’s bib.

More information, including a list of Frequently Asked Questions, can be found at our website, www.baa.org.

The B.A.A. 5K scheduled for September 12 has also been canceled due to coronavirus. All participants who were originally registered for the April 18, 2020 event will be offered a refund. More information will be sent to participants.

The 2020 Boston Marathon, originally scheduled for April 20, was postponed to September 14, 2020 by Boston Mayor Martin Walsh due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The B.A.A. has been regularly communicating with city and state officials to discuss all efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus. For the 35th year, John Hancock will serve as principal sponsor of the Boston Marathon.

We appreciate your continued support, and look forward to bringing the Boston Marathon to you in September.

Sincerely,
The Boston Athletic Association

Filed Under: Featured, OCR News
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