OCD FOR OCR

After racing in the AM at City Challenge Race in Hoboken, NJ, I drove just over 100 miles to the other side of the state of NJ to take on the new and improved Goliathon course for the second year in a row.

• The Course:

First thing I need to explain is that Goliathon is not your typical obstacle course race. For one the winners are not decided by finishing order or time and in fact, they don’t even time the race. The course consists of 12 obstacles with three versions to pick from and points are awarded based on completing a specific version of the obstacles. Participants get one chance per obstacle other than the warped wall and wall obstacle which for those you get to pick a lane/version and three attempts to complete them.

 This explains each obstacle version:

• G1 – Easy obstacles for the young or inexperienced participant.
• G2 – Difficult obstacles to challenge the average obstacle enthusiast.
• G3 – Extreme obstacles to test the most elite athletes.

Points awarded for completion of versions:

• G1 – Successful completion earns 1 point.
• G2 – Successful completion earns 3 points.
• G3 – Successful completion earns 5 points

The best way I can describe most of the obstacles/challenges, is the harder the version the more Ninja Warrior inspired they are. The course per my GPS was around 3.8 miles, but I walked around each obstacle and took pictures so it was probably a little shorter in distance.

The course started with a brief sprint, which I walked as I was streaming the Spartan World Championships. The first challenge up was Scale the Walls and each version of the walls got higher and more difficult. The course continued on and up next was Water Carry, which again started with a water jug with a with a shoulder strap attached and weighed 20 pounds, option G2 was a single water jug that weighed 40 pounds and could not be placed on the ground. G3 consisted of two 40-pound water jugs attached to a large pole and this one could not be placed on the ground either once picked up. With all three of these, racers had to carry them a decent distance loop. This is a very special obstacle for Goliathon because they put on these races/events to raise money for charities that help bring clean water to underdeveloped third World nations that don’t have access to clean drinking water.

At this point. the course continued on to Hangman 2.0 which I can only describe as a grown adult’s version of a kid’s toy built out of Lego and sticks and all three versions started with a climb section and the G3 version was way harder than the G1, after the wall climb came a traverse that again was much harder for each version and then came to a rope swing and finished with a climb section. I was under the impression as long as I touched the landing platform I could come off, which I did, but they told me that was a failure of the obstacle. The course had another brief sprint, which is pretty much how most of the course is designed to give racers time to recoup prior to the next obstacle and up next was Half Dome, which is three versions of a wall climb and traverse back down, G1 is nice and easy, G2 gets a little harder and has notches in the wood to use to climb, while G3 was a peg wall to climb up using all upper body strength. The climbs down were all harder as well for each level.

The course had one of the shorter sprints and came to Balancing Act, which is three versions of balance beam crossings. I am horrible (when sober) at balance beam crossings and am sad to admit, I failed the G1 version. Each version as always, got harder and the G3 was pretty insane looking and reminded me of a dragon’s back. Up next was Leap of Faith which was three versions of tires floating in water. I am not sure how anyone that weighs over 200 pounds could do the G3 version (I know I can’t), but I am sure some can. I was happy to do G1 without failing. A short distance ahead, came Slippery Wall Monkey 2.0, which all versions started with a suspended from wires wall traverse crossing and then finished up with a version of monkey or swinging monkey bars to monkey across.

Up next came PPK Ninja Killer, which ironically didn’t live up to its name (will explain later), which all three versions started with a low angled walls to ninja hop/run across, then stumps in the ground to jump across and then a monkey bars/gymnastic type challenge to get across, which was much harder from G1 to G3. The course had one of the longer sprints and eventually came to Circus Maximus 2.0, which all started with a climb up on to an amazing built obstacle and then a monkey rings crossing that included a section for feet on G1, but not the other two versions and then climb down and back up and lastly a Tarzan Rope swing over water. The course had a nice sprint and looped around and went up a high dirt mountain with some tires to help and then back down and then made its way to Skyclimb, which is three versions of a climb, G1 was similar to a rope ladder climb, G2 is a standard rope climb, and G3 was a rope climb with a 40-pound chain wrapped around racers shoulders to climb up.

At this point, the course had a nice and long trail sprint in and out of some of the wooded sections of the venue and made its way to Rope Cross, which was three versions of traverses, G1 is a dual line traverse where racers have both a rope for the feet and hands to traverse across. G2 was a single rope Tyrolean traverse that went over water for a fairly long distance. G3 was a Tyrolean traverse, that was even longer and included items attached to the single rope to deal with while traversing across. The course turned back into a wooded section for a short distance and came to the last obstacle of the day, the Over the Moon, which is three versions of warped walls. G1 is a warped wall with a rope to assist with climbing, G2 is the same height, but no rope to assist. G3 is a higher warped wall with nothing to assist with getting to the top. It was insane to watch the PPK and Ninja Warrior teams later in the day at this warped wall, they were able to run up it like it was a flat surface. The course now went up a small hill and to the finish line!

• The Bling:

The bling includes a nice finisher medal and a stylish blue dri-fit type finisher shirt.

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

This is a unique event and because time on the course plays no part in deciding a winner and it’s completely based on a scoring system very few of the racers actually run on the trail sections and take time to get to each obstacle rested and ready.

This event had 5 competitors complete all 12 obstacles at the G3 level and score the maximum score and obtain the title of David. Goliathon actually rebuilt several of the obstacles for this event and made them even more challenging, but I guess they will have to go back to the drawing board and re-design them again to make it harder for the Ninja Warrior/PPK community that participates next year.

The Goliathon team started and continues to put on these events strictly to raise money for charities that help bring clean drinking water to places in the World that don’t have access to something we here in America take for granted, so I will always be a huge fan of the Goliathon races and strongly suggest anyone that reads this makes next year’s races must attend events.

Because of the three versions of obstacles and the Ninja Warrior/PPK athletes that come and participate in these Goliathon events, this is a race for the whole family. It’s not just fun attempting the course, it’s also amazing to just watch some of the same athletes you will see on the Ninja Warrior TV show in person take on each obstacle and pretty much defeat/conquer them way easier than you could imagine.

The course was awesome, the bling is great, the staff and volunteers were amazing, the obstacles were all well-built and very safe and this year had less delays, and most important they had an amazing turnout and raised a lot of money to help others, I am rating the event 5 out of 5 stars.

Article Written by: Walter F Hendrick (OCRSandy)