OCD FOR OCR

This was my second winter OCR ever and first winter OCR in Canada, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but was super excited to participate in my first Dead End Race series event/race.

• Registration and Festival:

Registration was in a heated tent, which considering how cold it was, was perfect and the lines moved nice and fast the entire time I was there. Considering the cold day, a lot of the racers hung out for a while which made for a fun time in a very small, yet well-organized festival area that included some of the best obstacles on the course that racers looped back to during the course.

• Pre-race MC:

The MC was Anthony Horng Perso who never seems to rest and brings amazing energy all day. He spoke French for all the waves, so I had no clue what he was saying, but his energy and personality got me excited and fired up for the course.

• The Course:

The course started in the festival area and horse shoed around the venue, returning several times to the festival area to complete some of the coolest and challenging obstacles on the course. The style of course makes a lot of sense and especially on such a cold day with snow at least 2 feet deep. This allowed for spectators to not have to leave the festival area and spend time in the registration tent, staying warm, but still see friends and family killing lots of the obstacles.

I ran the last individual wave of the day in hopes that all the racers prior would pack the snow down on the course trails, making it a little less trouble and for the most part it did. As noted above, the course horse-shoed around for just over 4 miles and included some large and awesome obstacles. The obstacles included more than one Platinum Rig, a rope climb, a slanted wall to traverse across, which has become a popular obstacle both in Canada and America. They also had a Dead End version of the Dragons Back with snow packed all around it which made it even cooler.

On the course, away from the festival area, the course had many obstacles and even some fun challenges like three snow sledding area’s the challenge of these was climbing back up the hills after. Setting up a race in the middle of the woods with snow that was at least two-feet in height is/was clearly not and easy task, but Dead End still made sure to have obstacles out on the course which made for a good time and challenges spread out throughout the four plus miles. Several of the obstacles were either a warped wall or slanted wall structure to run up, which were both fun and challenging. At least for me, an American, it was cold, the car said it was nine degrees Fahrenheit and it was pretty windy, so my guesstimate is it was around minus fifteen degrees Fahrenheit with the wind-chill factor.

I started out on the cold side, but my body heated up as I completed the course and obstacles and had no problems with the cold weather other than grip strength. I won’t lie though, anytime I entered an area not directly in the sunlight, it got/felt a lot colder.

The course ended with a gauntlet type obstacle at the end that was massive in size and challenging, but now something even after four miles and the extreme cold was not doable. Everyone was all smiles when they got to this obstacle and the finish line and even with a language barrier, it was obvious everyone had a good time all day!

• The Bling:

The bling included a very nice Dry-fit type shirt, an awesome finisher medal that came in either red or yellow depending on what version of the race you ran (one lap or two), and a sticker for a car. From what I have seen from previous Dead End races, they always provide killer bling.

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

As mentioned above, this was my second winter OCR that happened to be on back to back weekends, so I was able to use the previous weekend’s race/course/festival area/etc as comparison which helped me rate this race. I was very happy with the obstacles, the design of the course, the bling, and the MC so I am rating Dead End Sub-Zero five out of five stars! I hope to make it back to Canada for a Dead End race in warmer weather!

Article Written by: Raymond Figarella