Obstacle racing is, in fact, divisive before we ever get on the racecourse.
Open vs. Age Group vs. Elite/Pro
Brand vs. Brand. One race or the other. Which team should I join on Facebook?
Over the past 18 months, I have changed OCR Buddy to a community (see:The Evolution of OCR Buddy ). I had this vision very early on after creating OCR Buddy that this should be a community, working together for a common goal. However, besides the fact that it takes a lot of work to gather the information I need, I did not have a lot of traction within the obstacle racing world.
Who needed an app for a calendar while everything seemed to be just fine. Someone told me once that I shouldn’t “rock the boat.” I did not understand how trying to help people feel comfortable and working together is rocking the boat, so I kept my mouth shut.
Through time I would speak to people like Justin at Medal Addicts, Yoda at Viking Obstacle Race, Jacob of The. Supercast with some of my ideas, and I was always told, “when you are ready, count me in.” I was never ready. I guess I just felt that without traction of the people in the community, ideas to help the community would fade away.
Since the beginning of 2020, some fantastic things have happened in obstacle racing in the United States. The community feel has started to swell. The “Facebook Team against Team” feelings have faded. There have been charity organizations that have stepped up their participation. It seems that when all saw the sport starting to fade, many people began to realize what life was like without our passion.
I did the same thing. As I said above, I wanted OCR Buddy to become a community. While the basis of what I do is the events, it is the people that set up the events, that work the events, that volunteer the events, that participate in the events, who advertise in the events, and who talk about the events. Brands, Race Directors, Volunteers, Athletes, Sponsors, Businesses, Podcasts, Media, and anything remotely related to obstacle racing make up our community and our sport.
What would I want to see happen? I would want to see the #ocrcooperative happen.
The #ocrcooperative would work to promote obstacle racing and the obstacle racing community of the United States positively, joining together to promote the sport and all who participate, put on events, or work within the OCR Community.
I had a similar idea in the United Kingdom in April with something I called “Race UK”. Others took the idea and started “Share the Mud,” a cooperative working together.
What are the goals of the #ocrcooperative? Promote the sport positively. Help one other achieve goals. Work to minimize counter-programming and event counter-booking. Try to determine issues in the sport and work to improve those issues. It would be whatever people want to work on together.
There are soma amazing people and groups out there crushing it in so many ways. Maybe it is time to bring people together to crush it together.
Is anyone interested?
