OCD FOR OCR

Indian Mud Run has been on my bucket list since 2015, when I met IMR race director/mad scientist Hubie Cushman at the OCR World Championships. Hubie was on my OCR team that consisted of me, Hubie and David Khol and this was back when even some of the best OCR athletes in the world struggled, completing the original Platinum Rigs, but not Hubie, he handled that part of the team course for us and killed it. I knew then, I had to go run Hubie’s OCR, but sadly due to injuries I missed it in both 2016 & 2017.

Even though I am in horrible physical shape right now (due to recovering from surgery and a car accident and dealing with a sinus infection that I haven’t been able to get rid of for over a year and has now caused other physical problems), I wasn’t going to miss IMR this year!

• Registration and Festival:

I really can’t say much about registration or the festival area, we picked up our bibs and shirts on Friday and I spent almost my entire time at the venue Saturday on the course (I was slower than a turtle) to complete just one lap of the just over seven-miles course.

• Pre-race MC:

Coach Pain was the motivational speaker and he lived up to the expectations that I and anyone that is familiar with him have come to expect and killed it for my wave. As noted above, I didn’t observe any of the other waves, but Elvi Guzman (who’s opinion I trust) listened to him all day and said it was some of the best work he had heard and seen from Dewayne to date.

• The Course:

Where do I start? Well according to my GPS watch, the course was just over seven-miles long and most of the course was in the wooded trails (at an old golf course venue) in Ohio. The course included a lot of technical trails going both up and down and even though no part of the course included a massive mountain to climb up, the totality of hills going up and down added up to take its toll on athletes even in great shape (which I am not). I have raced at over a hundred different venue’s obstacle courses and this course was in my opinion the second toughest course I have raced on to date.

Now before you say, harder than Killington, Mont Owl’s Head, or places like Blue Mountain, let me explain. Those venues and courses were all brutally hard (Mont Owl’s Head by far the hardest of the three), but for the most part they were a lot of death marches up and runs back down. The IMR course was a lot of technical ups and technical downs, with a fair amount of the natural terrain obstacles that at least for me tax my entire body and become harder and harder throughout the course and for this reason, I think this course venue and terrain was second hardest to the Rushwood course terrain in Canada.

That’s enough about the terrain, it’s time to talk about the obstacles! Let me sum it up in one sentence: if you consider yourself a bad ass obstacle course racing athlete and want to test your skills and physical abilities on the best obstacle courses in the world, then Indian Mud Run must be on your #OCRBucketList for next year. At least in America, no course will/would more prepare you for the OCR World Championships. First off, Hubie is the creator of one of the best and most challenging obstacles, in the sport, the floating walls and the version he built was used at last year’s OCR World Championships! Hubie has also (with the approval of every race) built versions of some of the best obstacles worldwide, including the Toughest Dragons back, which is more a mental challenge than physical challenge, and new for this year’s course, Hubie added Nuclear Race’s Nuclear Ninja Rings which is/was no joke. The only saving grace for the Ninja Rings was Hubie placed it early in the course before racers hands and grip strength was completely taxed!

The course also included an obstacle I created about four years ago and finally made its debut in a race! I named it Nessie (after the Loch Ness Monster) because it’s a very hard version of the standard slip wall that is floating in more than waist deep water and racers must climb up the angled slip wall with a rope and then jump off the top of the obstacle into also deep water. Several racers told me it looked easy until they got to it (second from last obstacle) and realized it was no joke!! I cannot thank Hubie enough for building it, because it’s something I have been trying to make happen for years!

In addition to above awesome obstacles and many natural terrain climbing obstacles, the course included a warped wall that ended with a fun slide into the same lake that Nessie was in, a Rig that was set up different from most rigs we see at the bigger named races, a very challenging version of the Weaver obstacle that also was floating in water, a rope climb, and a water slide challenge that was so much fun that I hobbled back up the steep hill to do it a second time (both times face first) and regret not doing it a third time!

The course consisted of fifty-three obstacles, so I cannot mention them all, but other obstacles worth mentioning was a version of the inverted wall, a military rope net crossing that always looks easier than it is, and this net was no joke and spread across a very long distance! The course had so many obstacles, that I almost forgot to mention IMR’s version of Skull Valley (with Indian Heads instead of skulls)  and a bad ass version of the destroyer.

The course kicked my ass and I pretty much hobbled along for the last four or five miles and was so happy when Raymond and I finished the course! I failed more obstacles than I want to admit, but Ray, who wouldn’t leave me, killed the course and didn’t fail a single obstacle!

• The Bling:

The bling included a very sexy finisher shirt that includes the names of the top racers from every age group and category the previous year, a large red sexy finisher medal that unlike almost all the other finisher medals in the sport of OCR, were made in America for Hubie/IMR by the local company Classic Auto Supply Company, and a very cool blue Indian Mud Run rubber bracelet which many racers lost because it was cut off if you failed an obstacle. I knew there was no way, I was keeping the band, so I left it in the car because I wanted to keep it!

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

We (Raymond, Elvi, and I) drove to Ohio from Upstate NY and arrived at around 4:30 AM and we were staying at the Bed & Breakfast Apple Butter Inn. We called and asked if we could check in(yes in the very early AM) and Curt was awesome and said yes and came out and let us in our room. The room was really nice, and the service clearly was top-notch, so I would suggest if you plan to be at IMR next year (the first Saturday after Father’s Day) you should book the room contact the Apple Butter Inn and book a room now!

I cannot say enough good things about this race and I am sure I left out some obstacles that are worthy of and should have been mentioned, but I think I did a good job conveying how amazing this race and course was. Hubie is an amazing person and in my opinion a legend in this sport, and he and his team of staff and volunteers killed it and put on an amazing race/event.

When I combine the course, the staff/volunteers, the MC, the bling, and the fact that Hubie built my obstacle, this was the easiest five out of five stars review (well over a hundred) I have written to date!

I apologize in advance, because I am sure this is going to upset and ruffle some feathers, but I have to say it. It saddens me how many racers have become what I refer to Kool-Aid drinking fan boys/girls and have no problem spending thousands of dollars to run the big race series dozens of times in one year and skip amazing races like Indian Mud Run. Those racers are missing out on some of the best obstacle course races in North America. I hope more racers opt for variety over the same exact courses weekend after weekend this year and going forward because those types of races are truly missing out on so many levels.

Article Written by: Walter F Hendrick (OCRSandy)