Portland Rugged Maniac 2018

Portland Rugged Maniac 6/31/18:

As I am trying to venture out to the other OCR race companies.  As someone who had only done Spartan Races until the beginning of 2018 I was excited to try new races with different obstacles.  I will say that Rugged Maniac was by far the most fun race I have done to date.  Everything from the obstacles, venue and the announcers all just showed that this race was for fun and nothing else. 

The Portland Rugged Maniac is held at the Portland International Raceway (PIR).  I’m sure as most people hear a racetrack isn’t really the best place to have an OCR event, but thankfully PIR also has a motocross track in the middle of it.  This allowed for rolling hills and some elevation changes, however as far as OCR events go this would be considered a flat race.  I didn’t mind the flat course as someone who grew up watching racing and racecars it made for childlike laughter as I ran across the racetrack. Rugged Maniac counters this flat course with the fact that pack in twenty-five obstacles and many of them unique and different. 

With obstacles for OCR events, there are what I like to call the usual suspects.  Rugged Maniac had what most events have like barb wire or rope crawl through water and or mud, a hanging obstacle with rings or rungs, a few walls to climb over and a fire jump of some sort. 

It was the other obstacles that made Rugged stand out for me.  The Gauntlet and Frog hop where obstacles that had you run or jump on items that were floating on water.  Since they were only held on by a few points caused them to tip and flip which made for very entertaining falls into the water.  Antigravity was another obstacle that was unique as it had trampolines that had you jump from one to another and then grabbing onto a rope cargo net. 

The other standouts were off the rails and a warped wall.  Off the rails was fun as you had to run jump and grab onto a rope on a rail.  The rail was positioned, so you had to slide up and hit a bell before falling into the water.  If you didn’t get enough momentum you didn’t make it to the bell and would stall in the middle of the rail, but no matter what you were going to get wet because there were still several feet of water past the bell.  A warped wall from a certain TV show was always something I wondered if I could do.  I am happy to report that I was able to do it and what made it even better was that after you scaled the warped wall, you climbed a cargo net to the top of a huge inflatable water slide. 

The other impressive ones were the ladder tilt and the crag.  The ladder tilt was another TV show obstacle but was incredibly difficult due to the rungs being so slippery that they seemed to have been greased.  The Crag was another inflatable that had three levels at chest height that you had to climb over.  An adult sized inflatable is something that also gave me childlike laughter as I was able to bounce my way up and down the inflatable.

The Beasts OCR team was out in force for this race with over thirty-five members at the race.  Beasts OCR was proud to have lots of members in the competitive race and even had several places in the top ten or better top three.  Including first place finisher Jeremy Kaufmann, second place finisher Taylor Overmiller, Lorenzo Contreras in eighth place finisher, and Patrick Olson in ninth place.  Tasha Overmiller was the sole female top ten Beast with a fifth-place finish.  There were several Beasts that ran the course several times including Myke Thompson who was just a mile short of a marathon of Rugged Maniac laps.

In the end, this was by far my new favorite race to date.  It is a great race for beginners, elite level athletes and everything in between.  With the unique fun obstacles and even new obstacles this year and hopefully for years to come.  This will be a race that will have a permanent spot on my calendar every year.    If any Beasts haven’t done a Rugged Maniac, I highly recommend it.  Look at how much fun people are having.

Terrain Race 2018

June Terrain Race 2018:

While I normally run early morning heats, I had to run a much later heat for the Portland Terrain Race.  Thankfully, Beasts OCR had the largest registered team for the race, which meant we got to set up and hang out under a tent provided by the race (complete with chairs, a table, and a large tank of water).  Having a communal space to congregate and BS made waiting for my heat to start enjoyable.  It felt like Terrain Race really wanted to treat the biggest team with a sort of reverence as they didn’t rush us to pack up and head out, even though they had rolled up several of their other tents, drained the pools, and were well on their way towards cleaning up by the time the last of our members decided to leave.

At the starting line of the race, there were three large above-ground pools that participants had to climb in while receiving safety instructions and waiting the last few minutes for their heat to start.  The starting tubs where great fun, even though (for me) they kind of canceled out all chances at warming up before the race.  The course itself was a good mixture of hills and flats and easy and technical terrain.  The race was hosted at Sherwood Forest Equestrian Center, giving the course a really great mix of technical and even terrain that wove through hilly pastures and wooded areas.  It made for some good times running down hill, but the up hills were long and tough, even on my hill trained legs.

The obstacles were a nice mixture of fun and difficult.  For me, the difficult ones were things like the rope climb, Tarzan ropes (four climbing ropes in sequence that you had to swing from rope to rope), the multi-rig (different overhead holds that you had to swing across), and finished with a set ascending and descending monkey bars.  These obstacles were made even more difficult when running latter in the day as the obstacles were either wet or covered in mud, a real test to fatigued grip.

Even the fun obstacles were at least a bit challenging.  The four, six, and eight-foot walls felt like standard fare, but the twelve-foot wall didn’t have any footholds, which made many racers skip the obstacle altogether.  The mini golf, which involved whacking a tire with a sledge hammer, was fun and terrifying at the same time, as I nearly got hit by another racer as they swung their sledge hammer.  My first lap, I had to wait a while at the sand bag carry and monkey bars, and I had to skip the yolk tire walk through a pond altogether because the line was almost all the way back to the previous obstacle.  I did get a crack at the yolk tires my second lap, though, and it was the only obstacle I felt needed some polishing—most likely a longer, wider course and more sets of tires.  My wife, who ran earlier in the day, encountered a sizable line at Tarzan, which she skipped.

The hardest obstacle for me was a length of pipe that was about half full of water that you had to crawl through.  I am not much of a swimmer, and, while the river crossing and the multiple water pits didn’t bother me, crawling through a pipe half full of water caused me to freeze up a bit.  I was able to conquer my fears and made it through, but it was definitely a mental challenge, even on my second lap.

I have run very few OCRs outside of Spartan, but Terrain Race was one of my favorites.  Maybe it was because I got to hang out with my fellow Beasts and maybe because it was just a whole lot of fun.  The course design was solid, and I will continue to keep this race on my books every year that it is available in Portland.  I liked it enough that I might even travel to other cities once I finish with personal things (school).

Beasts OCR is a family team and we tend to run together.  Beasts OCR, as a team, ran ninety-seven laps of the Portland Terrain Race, which is over 242 miles ran.

Ankle, Hipflexor and Hamstring Mobility Test

During my last post I spoke about proper running mechanics.  This post will continue that trend and talk about several easy tests that will determine how much joint mobility an athlete has.  Ankle and hip mobility is just as important to runners as proper running form.  A mobile ankle will properly absorb much of the impact with the ground, and a mobile hip will help maximize power transfer from the glute and hamstring, which is where most of your running force is generated.  Tight hips can also limit your stride and prevent a portion of your backward kick.  Having limited joint mobility will not only affect your pace but will also inevitably lead to injury. 

Ankle Mobility Test:

Poor ankle mobility can lead to plantar fasciitis and other lower leg problems.  There are two easy tests to check for ankle mobility.  These tests are all easily found online, and I’ll list my references at the end of the article.  I’ll start with a few technical terms and the normal person equivalent terms.  Dorsiflexion is the flexion of the foot anteriorly, AKA the ability to bring your toes up towards you shin bone.  It is important for a runner’s foot to be in line with the hip when impacting the ground.  To do this, you need to have good dorsiflexion in your foot, especially when running up hill.

The test can be done two different ways but if you try both you will find out they both show the same flexion.  The first way will allow both ankles to be tested at once.  Start by sitting in a chair with bare feet flat on the ground and the knee at ninety degrees.  Then slowly slide your bottom forward keeping your feet in the same place (i.e. slouch).  If you have trouble getting your knee beyond your toes, then your ankle mobility is limited.  A good mobile ankle should allow the knee to go anywhere from four to five inches past the toes before the heel comes off the floor. 

The other way to test is to lay down a measuring tape or ruler starting at the wall and coming towards where you are standing.  Kneel, placing one knee and the opposite foot on the floor.  The toes of the grounded foot should be at the four- or five-inch mark.  Now push the knee forward.  The knee should be able to contact the wall without the heel lifting off the ground.  Repeat the test with the other leg as you can have different mobility in each ankle. 

Hip Mobility Test:

There are also two easy tests for the hips.  The hips have multiple muscles all over, but the main two for runners are the hip flexors and the hamstrings.  I’m sure some people are thinking that the hamstrings are leg muscles and not hip muscles, but they actually attach at the hips (Ischium tuberosity to be exact).

The hip flexor test is performed with a yard stick, door frame, or wall corner--something to lay the back against.  Get down on one knee with your leg extended behind you.  The opposite foot should be flat on the floor, and that knee should be at ninety degrees.  There should be a small gap between the frame (or whatever you are using as a support) and the lower back (this is a natural curve of the spine).  Now rotate your pelvis forward.  If your mobility is good, the gap will disappear, and the entire spine will touch the door frame.  With poor mobility, the gap will not disappear and there will be a tight stretching feeling in the hip and down the quad (front of the thigh).  

The final mobility test is for the hamstrings.  This test is nice because it is performed laying on the ground and can be performed with another athlete.  While laying face up bring one of the legs up with the knee bent and interlock the fingers behind the knee.  The other leg should stay straight on the ground (a slight bend at the knee is natural).

Next slowly straighten the knee of the vertical leg while still holding on.  The leg that is still on the ground should stay straight and not start to bend or rise of the ground.  This is an indication of good hamstring mobility.  Limited hamstring mobility will cause one or multiple things to happen.  The vertical leg will not be able to stretch much past forty-five degrees from the floor (in the first raised picture, this would fall in the portion of the box with the red “X”) or will be unable to straighten.  If the vertical leg is able to straighten or go past forty-five degrees (anywhere with the green check mark in the box of the first picture), it must do so without the leg on the ground bending or raising off the ground (as seen in the second picture). 

As you can see, I need to work on my hamstring mobility a bit.

While these tests are informative, they are by no means the end all and be all of mobility tests.  These are however a good start to see just how mobile the joints in the legs are.  The way to solve these issues are plentiful: stretching, yoga, massage, cross training, taping, or even cupping.

References:

Dicharry, Jay. Anatomy of Running

Barefoot Rehabilitation clinic at http://www.barefootrehab.com/hamstring-stretch-test/

Runners World at https://www.runnersworld.com/injury-prevention-recovery/its-all-in-the-hips