So I did my first ever “obstacle race” this weekend in Windham, NY (Catskills) and really really had a blast. Very awesome race experience. Very difficult and it was over in an hour. Like a trail running version of cyclocross.
The race was an obstacle race but with no artificial obstacles. I saw a story about on Outside Magazine’s facebook page - the race directors of the O2X series wanted to create natural obstacle course races using the natural features of the mountain only. They had 4 this year in the Northeast at ski resorts.
This sounded like it was going to be a trail run, but it was much more intense than a trail run and much more fun. Start was fittingly 1 mile down the road from a famous trail run, The Escarpment Trail Run, at the Windham ski resort. It surprisingly became more than trail run right away as the course went off the trail and up the mountain. Short section in a small cave got my heart rate way up. There was a section of scrambling that was very difficult and they even had us run up a stream coming down the mountain. Parts of the run went up ski slope with a grade that was surely at least 30%. On some sections, they had the soundtrack from “That Last of the Mohicans” blasting from loudspeakers. It is very cool running through the woods up a mountain to that soundtrack and put a big smile across my face even though I was redlining. The finish was on top of the mountain and then we took a chairlift down. My wife (who, like me, has done many triathlons of all distances) and I rode the chairlift down already planning on doing it again next year despite being totally spent.
The company also did everything very well, I think. Bonfire at the finish/start area. A gourmet food truck with a kind of flatbread pizza from the border region of France and Germany (I had mine with garlic sausage and sauerkraut; my wife had her’s with bacon.). Logo for race organization was cool. Race swag was great - expensive shorts and shirt and nice bag. Even the pre-race music they chose was great (Unlike IM, which almost ruins my day every time by playing U2’s awful song "Beautiful Day just before every start). Demographic was much younger than a triathlon which seems to be aging up with me. My wife and I looked around at the scene on the bottom of the mountain and partly lamented that we might be seeing the death of triathlon. While I think that fear is overstated, an event like this requires a very high level of all-around fitness to do well (like triathlon does, but unlike single sports like cycling or running by themselves), but does not require spending a ton of money or squeezing every available hour into training, like triathlon does. I have raced triathlons on 4 continents, and the O2X race was as well organized and slickly produced as any race I have done. I encourage my fellow triathletes here on slowtwitch to give this race series a try. I have never done a Tough Mudder or Spartan Race, and don’t have much of a desire to do one, but this race seemed much different because it just used the natural features of the mountain. Like I said, I had a blast doing this race and can’t wait for my next one.