OCD FOR OCR

• Brief history about Jamie:

Jamie Rahn is a gym co-owner (Pinnacle Parkour Academy), obstacle course designer, and Parkour coach in New Jersey and most well-known for competing on the popular obstacle course television series American Ninja Warrior. He’s competed on Seasons 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 and only missed season 3 due to an injury.

I personally started following Jamie because he dyes his hair and has a super hero alter ego on TV and just looked like a good person having a great time. I learned a few months ago, that he registered for the OCR World Championships and saw that he had adjusted his training to include running. I talked to him at Goliathon (which he destroyed) and I learned he was registered for both the 3K and 15K courses at the OCRWC’s. In my opinion, knowing his skills and physical talents, he legitimately could be a threat to podium the 3K course and the minimum will be a lot of fun to watch attack the obstacles, so I decided he would be a great interview because I couldn’t be the only one intrigued that an elite level PPK/Ninja Warrior athlete is going to try their hand at OCR against the best OCR athletes in the world.

• Interview:

I read that you considered the freezing cold temperatures (at 3 a.m) to be the hardest challenge/obstacle that you have faced on the Ninja Warrior series. Are you prepared if it’s extremely cold in Canada?

Jamie: I sure hope so, haha, I usually don’t expect to get wet on purpose in the cold. With mud being a possibility on the course, I am stocking up on some athletic gear, and plan to work hard to stay warm and cuddle up in some sweats after the race!

To date, how many obstacle course races have you run and completed and which did you consider most difficult and why?

Jamie: To date I have run, 7 OCR’s. Some were challenging, some were just fun. I stopped racing because I hated waiting in line at obstacles, but I’m told being in the elite waves, that shouldn’t be an issue, haha, fingers crossed.

I have been following your progress via your Facebook regarding your running and getting ready for Canada and you have shown steady improvement. Do you think you are going to be ready to do the 15K version of the course and go up and down Blue Mountain multiple times?

Jamie: I hope so, I’m more prepared to go down then up! I did my first 1/2 marathon 6 months ago and it was all uphill, then went on a 4-mile hike later that day at Zion at Angels Landing. I Survived that, so I should be okay, I better be, I have the team competition the next day!

Knowing your skill-set and abilities, I have no doubt that you can complete every obstacle that will be on the OCRWC’s course and especially the 3K short course. What are your expectations regarding where you will finish in the short course where being highly proficient at completing obstacles could be the deciding factor and not how fast you can run for longer distances?

Jamie: I am hoping my obstacle endurance, techniques, and know how will help be close the distance on the faster runners, I am not the fastest runner, but I can sprint at a decent pace, and the obstacles will help me move quick and catch my breath.

Have you been dedicating any training to heavy carries? That is probably the one discipline that parkour/Ninja Warrior athletes don’t train for like OCR athletes do and it can make or break an athlete regardless of the length of the course.

Jamie: Nope, haha, I move equipment around the gym every day from 45-lbs to 700-lbs, plus lifting children and adults in classes. I have an 80-lb weight vest and can carry a good amount of weight, but the distance I carry it is not much. If it is anything super far, I may be in trouble, but the last 3 OCR I ran I carried 90-lbs of water on my shoulders for a 100 yards or more. Let’s hope that’s enough

If weather permits, will you be wearing your Captain NBC outfit for either the 3K or 15K courses?

Jamie: Oh no, it is hand-made, and not warm AT ALL! I may wear a Captain NBC t-shirt, but I have not decided yet. I got the green hair though.

Do you see more elite PPK/Ninja Warrior athletes making the transition over to obstacle course racing, as the sport grows in popularity and podium prize money?

Jamie: Well PPK is my parkour company, parkour athletes and Ninja warriors, may, but it’s not about the prize money so much as the registration and travel costs. The ninja and parkour communities don’t care for money so much as they do challenging themselves and others. I think the more the obstacle to running ratio evens out the more of these athletes you will see. The parkour athletes don’t care so much for 80 grip intensive obstacles, but if you made a one-mile of non-stop military style obstacles, like balance, walls, strides, etc., then you would see a great turnout. No one has ever done something like that, that I know of. Something to think about!

I have dyed my hair for two straight years, almost every color you can image. I notice you have either have yours bright yellow-green and more recently bright-green. Why Green?

Jamie: I hate the yellow, so I try to keep it as green as possible. It started as an homage to Captain Planet then it just became my thing!

I read that you were introverted as a youth and that you came out of your shell in high school, how much did training and becoming really good at parkour help that transformation?

Jamie: It didn’t, I didn’t really know about parkour until college. My only exposure was Jackie Chan and I was enthralled! I was always challenging myself mentally and physically, parkour just helped direct and focus it.

From our conversations, I get the impression you work long hours, keep really busy and really enjoy training others to overcome their limitations and become awesome parkour athletes. Please share your typical work schedule and training week and how much enjoyment you get by training others.

Jamie: I currently work every day of the week teaching and training at the gym. It varies each week. A weekend for example could be 10-hours of work or 24-hours of work. Depends how many parties, events, workshops, demos, or private lessons are scheduled with classes. I love training and training others, especially those who truly want to better themselves.

Other than maybe last season at the Ninja Warriors 2015 Pittsburgh Finals where you made it all the way to the last obstacle the Invisible Ladder and ran out of energy just a few feet away from the top, I get the feeling you feel you have failed most seasons due to minor mental lapses and not due your skills, abilities, or conditioning. I watched the 2015 Invisible Ladder video and even with that, I think if you didn’t try and use your feet near the top, you would have completed it. At this point, do you need to be stronger mentally to beat the entire course/season and become the next Ninja Warrior? 

Jamie: The Invisible Ladder was a bad judgement call. I was the first to the tower and only got to see the tester try it and she did a lot of small movements, so I figured since I never tried the obstacle I would use her technique, I made something like 50 moves, which was a waste. Geoff Britten was smart and did big moves and completed it in only 12 moves. Reaching with my feet was not my mistake, but my last resort to help take the weight off my arms. It was also the only time I ever ran the course with a migraine. It was a tough course, and a tough night. I collapsed after and couldn’t do much after for the next hour.

Tell me about your training facility, Pinnacle Parkour Academy, from what I understand it was the first of its kind in NJ. Is it a training facility OCR athletes should consider to improve or more just for parkour/Ninja Warriors? 

Jamie: It was actually the first facility on the entire East Coast dedicated solely to parkour and free running! We really only have one ninja warrior class a week, but our students have been able to excel in Ninja Warrior from a good parkour foundation and ninja warrior grip and technique training! We are a great place to improve all styles of OCR! Parkour is the discipline in which all obstacles are overcome. In fact, I am about to schedule our very first Grip competition at the gym to make sure you never lose your hold!

Can you suggest some good training tips for people who don’t live near a parkour training facility to train to prepare to try out and succeed on the Ninja Warrior show?

Jamie: Train variety and train often. Train safe above all, use progressions! If you get hurt, you can’t train, so make sure your smart about your training. Do some sort of movement every day.

Other than running, have you modified your training at all for the OCR World Championships?

Jamie: Nope, I have only been running for longer distances. I like to think that parkour, and movement training are sufficient enough to overcome anything. I have no idea how good I will do because I am not super competitive, but it’s exciting to find out!

Regardless of your performance at the OCR World Championships, are you planning to do more OCR’s in 2017 and see if you can perform at a high level? Unlike Ninja Warrior, in OCR, if you fail an obstacle, you either do a penalty and continue on or with mandatory obstacle completion, you can keep trying until you succeed, which with your skills, ability, and athleticism is an advantage in some of the OCR race series.

Jamie: I do, as long as the obstacles are not outrageously unsafe, I plan to going fast and doing a Spartan trifecta among other races, for instance I will continue to do the Goliathon race here in NJ.

First, thank you for taking the time to do this interview, I like to always close with allowing the person I am interviewing to share something they would like fans and readers to know about them.

 Jamie: Thank you for the interview. I will share that I was born with a four-inch brain cyst that causes debilitating migraines. If I am not super diligent with many many many aspects of my life that can trigger them. I can be laid out for twelve to twenty hours with no light, no sound, no movement what so ever. It is horrible, but it has made me mentally tough and really appreciate all of the positives in life and any time I have the opportunity, to go out and learn and share. I wish everyone I meet the ability to overcome their struggles and hardships in life and enjoy the small time we have,

• My final thoughts:

Recently the OCR sport had a former elite college track & field/cross-country athlete (Aaron Fletcher) make the transition over to OCR and now Jamie, one of the top Ninja Warrior competitors in the country is going to try his hand at the sport. Clearly as the sport is growing we are starting to see more elite athletes from other sports deciding to see if they can become elite obstacle course racers and I for one am excited to see how Jamie does going forward.

I am really interested to see how he does in the 3K OCRWC’s course against some of America’s top OCR pros/elites and also several of the overseas racers that have done well specifically in the Toughest OCR Race series. I hope I am not the only one (racers and spectators) that will be watching the 3K elites/pros to see how he does.

I want to close by saying, I really enjoyed the opportunity, to talk to Jamie and learn more about him and I hope others do as well. If you are attending the 2016 OCR World Championships in Canada, make sure to try to say hi to Jamie.

Interviewed By: Walter F Hendrick (OCRSandy)