After living in the Midwest for my whole Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) career, I recently moved to the northeast of the US and was excited to check out some of the local brands. The first on my list in the New England area was the Naticook Challenge 5k OCR at the southern end of New Hampshire in Wasserman Park (part of Merrimack Parks and Recreation). Here’s a quick run down of the event by topic:
Venue: This was a small event with 150 participants allowing it to be held in a park. This meant no big crowds, no bus transport from the parking lot and a quick check in. It was nice to be able to pull your car up to within 50 feet of both check in, the bathrooms and the start line.
Terrain and Route: The course used a mix of mountain bike trails, fields and short sections crossing unimproved roads. My favorite part was the back 1/3 of the course which was on their new mountain bike trail that had a ton of zigs and zags along with angled banks allowing you to take turns a lot faster than you could on a normal trail. Overall, they used their property great weaving through all parts including a portion that involved a balance beam over the lake.
Obstacles: This race is a great example of if you have space you can put together some fun obstacles. With more multi-state brands added to the OCR graveyard, brands like Naticook Challenge continue to feed the sport bringing in new people and providing a fun event for local competitors.
Included in the lineup of obstacles was a tyrolean traverse, two balance beams connected to floating docks over water, a tunnel, a ring swing, a tire carry, long crawl and a finish line wall. One of the cool things they did was have Rocket Fitness, host an obstacle (workout station) that involved air squats, high knees, jumping jacks, and running in various ways between cones. This was a great way to not only highlight a business but give a good workout and guarantee an enthusiastic volunteer at that obstacle (other brands takes notes).
Several of the obstacles utilized existing infrastructure including over/under of a boat storage rack, overs/under/overs of benches in the theater, a football gauntlet, two sets of bleachers to climb over and using fencing as part of the course markings to guide the path. While some experienced racers might turn their nose up at this, I would ask you, what does it matter what you are climbing over/under as long as it is a physical obstacle in your way? In other races I’ve gone up/down bleachers, climbed in/out of empty dumpsters, jumped across the hood of cars, climbed across flatbed trucks and they all were fun. In fact, I can remember those obstacle more clearly than I can the hundreds of walls of climbed at this point in my racing career because it was something out of the norm.
Swag and Price: For the price, this can’t be beat. Entry was $35 all the way up until race day and you got one of the most unique medals I’ve ever received in my 150+ OCRs, a wooden, layered “medal”. Plus, a synthetic race shirt many people chose to wear on course.
Overall: I first heard about Naticook Challenge from Mike Stefano from Obstacle Running Adventures podcast and added it to my list. It’s one of the few times I’ve heard about OCRs from a podcast instead of the OCR Buddy app (which is now updated to include Naticook Challenge….go download the app now so you don’t miss any events in your area).
While I don’t recommend you stop attending the big brands with their high-priced entries and sometimes massive obstacle builds, I do recommend you continue to support local brands. It’s a great way to improve skill, get experience and test out techniques from my book “The New Strength & Speed’s Guide to Elite OCR“. Whether you are using it as a tune up race for a bigger event, bringing someone new into the sport, looking to burn some calories or just want to support a race director who is a long standing part of the OCR community (James Golisano), it is worth the entry.
