I heard about a small local OCR through my friends with the North Star Spartans, and decided to give it a try.

Temperature at the starting line was 16 degrees, and the first few obstacles were big piles of snow that we had to climb over. (Makes you feel like a kid at recess again.) Small tunnels to crawl through and chest-high walls to go over.

Somewhere in the first half mile, a runner in front of me rolled an ankle. I and one other runner stayed with her until race medics could arrive and helped her into the car. As I stepped back and started running again, one of the race directors called out, “Keep it up, you’re still in this!” I smiled and yelled back, “There’s a whole wave left behind me, I’m not in last place yet!”

More walls, low cargo nets to go under, scrambling over a huge pile of tires, and an interesting block carry. The block had to go with you under a low net and over several piles of snow. About this time I noticed that the extra weight was not slowing me down, and I was starting to pass people. I’d say my off-season training is working so far.

The most fun obstacles were in the last mile, a ladder frame with wide-spaced horizontal members and tall walls with a rope to climb, a series of fire jumps and a sprint to the finish line.

Overall, one of the easier courses by obstacles, but the snow and ice added a different type of difficulty. It was a lot of fun and likely a race I will do again.