OCR is back! Yes, you read that correctly. The State of Florida has opened up and allowed a pair of races to take place on the weekend of June 13th. I traveled all the way down from Illinois to Plant City, Florida to take on the Mud Titan 12 course and it didn’t disappoint.
This was one of the first post Covid races to take place so I’ll explain some of the things that have changed before getting into the course breakdown. First thing I noticed was that in the festival area everything was spaced very far apart with hand sanitizer stations situated throughout.
Secondly, the race packet you received had your medal inside, saving someone from having to get close to you after the race to put it around your neck. Post-race refreshments were self-serve to further limit personal interaction. I even think they spaced the parking out some on purpose. In fact, the only two times people were packed together was while waiting in line to retry failed obstacles, and at the starting corral.
Since the race was chip timed I solved the social distancing problem in the corral by waiting in the back and letting everyone leave before I did. But once you started the race there was nothing placed along the way to disinfect your hands until you finished, although I’m guessing that if you were concerned about getting sick you wouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Mud Titan released racers out onto the marshy trail for about half a mile, where the only obstacle encountered was a set of hurdles. This served to thin out the herd before crossing a creek and heading into the woods which was thick with mosquitos and Spanish moss. A rope traverse over that same creek provided the first of numerous agility tests. A set of over/under/through barriers was then placed along the soft trail leading up to the first wall climb of the day. This wall was a 10 footer with a few feet of rope dangling down over the edge for assistance. A 10 rep box jump onto a tractor tire was the next functional movement along the trail followed up by an inverted cargo net traverse.
I personally found this much more difficult than the normal inverted wall because the net moved, leaving you nothing solid to brace your feet against. Still in the woods now, Titan then suspended ropes down from a tree branch and placed boxes on each side. The goal being to grab the rope and “Tarzan” from one box to the other while sticking the landing. This was tougher than it looked and ended up being fun!
Balance tests made up the next two obstacles, the first being a teeter totter, the second made up of board’s zig zagging and laid on the ground vertically. After the balance test Titan decided to test your grip. First, by making you traverse from one side of a wire placed horizontally between two trees to the other. Two rings were placed on the wire, requiring you to torque your body in different directions to get the rings to slide while a rope climb made up the second grip test.
The trail now lead back into the festival area where racers were greeted by a giant warped wall. Your way down was made wet and slippery by a water slide, and having wet hands was not what you wanted at that point in the race as the Titan rig was next up. This rig set-up proved to be difficult even with dry hands as a mixture of rope, balls, straight pipes, and monkey bars tested even the most experienced racer. Hope you had some skin left on your hands because the next obstacle was another rig, this one using only rings.
The last three obstacles not only tested whatever grip strength you had left, but also your agility as the next traverse consisted of a series of low rings and suspended planks with tiny foot holds at the bottom. This reminded me of obstacle Savage Race has, only this one was made tougher because there was two support beams in the middle that you also had to negotiate your way around.
A side to side hop, like you would find on American Ninja Warrior’s floating steps, led you to the last obstacle of the day. This was a type of stairway rig with a rope and ring placed at the top to get you from one side of the stairs to the other, and it was suspended over a pool of water. Most of us just stumbled to the finish line after that, luckily it was placed just a few yards away.
Mud Titan offered a Competitive wave with awards, an Open wave, and a small kid’s race. I found the 5K course to be extremely challenging. With all the overhead rigs and no heavy carries I felt it was a course that benefited smaller, lighter weight athletes.
Not that larger athletes wouldn’t enjoy it, because I certainly did. I also feel this was one of the better permanent OCR facilities that I have been to and would come again. All obstacles felt sturdy and were manned by volunteers, and plenty of photographers were on hand to film your physical battles. So, if you are looking for a smaller race that offers you plenty of bang for your buck I’d highly recommend this one!
Results can be found here and here.
Scott Brackemyer
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