OCD FOR OCR

It has been well over a year since I last visited and ran the Newbsanity course and I was very much aware they have added several new cool and challenging obstacles so I was very excited to have the chance to return for the fun Zombie Mud Gauntlet race.

• The Course:

The course was redesigned just for this event in a “spoke and wheel” format with six distinct obstacle course loops and a central zombie zone that racers had to cross between to enter each loop. Participants had to attempt to complete the course without losing all three of their flags. I have only participated in one previous Zombie themed obstacle course race that provided flags and had zombies on the course attempting to remove the flags from the racers, but I was very impressed with the “spoke and wheel” course design as it allowed all be it a small number of racers to spread out between one of six course loops and prevented delays at all the obstacles. I also liked that the zombies were limited to the hub of the spokes and I didn’t have to worry about them jumping out at me in the woods sections of the course.

Newbsanity designed a perfect system, racers were allowed to pick any of the six loops to start and once each loop was finished, they received a colored wristband that indicated which loop was next to do. This prevented racers from entering the zombie hub (central zone) and only having a very short distance to travel to enter the next loop on the course. It also allowed the staff to be able to confirm racers had completed all six loops on the course. The course was shorter than the typical Newbsanity course at just over two miles in total distance, but I personally was happy about that. I much rather spend less time running trails and more time on the obstacles and that is exactly how the course was designed.

Included on the course was the Newbsanity RipCurl 15-foot quarter pipe warped wall which wasn’t yet built last time I ran the course, so it was awesome to finally see it and get up it. Also new on the course was the Newbsanity version of a rig obstacle which offers several lanes of difficulty and the Newbsanity version of the Sternum Checker which I have only seen at a handful of obstacle courses. The course also included most of the obstacles I remembered from my last trip to Newbsanity including a monkey bars obstacle, a rope traverse over water, a high ladder wall climb, Storm the Gate which starts with a 20-foot slanted wall with the assistance of a rope climb and then a suspended rope net to traverse across and then a climb back down, and Pirate’s Pass which begins with a bouncy zig-zagged balance beam crossing and then comes to a vertical wall traverse that offers several versions of difficulty and ends with another balance beam crossing and this entire obstacle is built above water and also has cold water being showered into the racers faces in multiple sections.

In addition to the obstacles already mentioned, the course also has other great obstacles like Commando Wall which is also built-in cold knee-deep water and starts with a 4-foot wall to climb/hop over that also has cold water showering down on racers as they get over the wall. Other challenging and fun obstacles include Joker Lane, which is for the most part a bunch of tires laid out with some logs and rocks that racers have to climb through, several obstacles on the course are high vertical walls and inverted walls to climb up or over, but they also offer an easier less challenging option at most of the harder obstacles. The course had several muddy moat crossings that are more fun than challenging and for me I always enjoy the chance to get in water and cool down. The last obstacle I really don’t want to forget to mention is Learning the Ropes, which is a 15-foot wall climb with the assistance of ropes and wooded sections to help climb both up and down.

As I noted above the course was set up “spoke and wheel” format and after completing each spoke/course section racers had to enter into the central zombie zone and avoid at least fifteen zombies whom attempted to take our flags, for the most part most of the adult zombies didn’t go to hardcore about chasing down the racers, but a few of the zombies were younger kids and they moved faster and also used the angles to their advantage to get some of our flags. It was a lot of fun avoiding the zombies and I was happy that I finished with still having one flag left, which means I survived the Zombie Mud Gauntlet!

I mentioned how several of the obstacles offered more than one version of difficulty and this is because the Newbsanity course offers what they refer to as Risk and Reward paths or the Tried and True paths for some of its obstacles. The Risk and Reward paths are harder and more challenging, while the Tried and True paths are typically less of a challenge, but longer to make up for the difference.

• The Bling:

The bling included a cool blue finisher shirt and a nice Zombie finisher medal. They also provided drinks, chips, fruit gels, and frozen fruit snacks which was nice.

• Overall Feelings and Event Rating:

Permanent obstacle courses have an advantage over traveling obstacle races as they don’t have to constantly build and then break down the course, so they can always be making improvements to the course as new obstacles are designed and also based on customer feedback, so I am a big fan of some of the permanent courses and wish Newbsanity was closer to my home as I would be training there often.

I still think Newbsanity is not as well-known as some of the other Tri-State/New England area permanent courses and that is a shame, because the course and obstacles are awesome and the Newby family that runs Newbsanity are an amazing group of people who make for an even better experience. I also learned this weekend that, Newbsanity has a local following with a really amazing group of people and that as well improves the experience.

The weather was amazing, the course was nice and short with lots of obstacles, the Zombie participants were cool and didn’t take things too serious, the “spoke and wheel” format with six distinct obstacle course loops worked really well and is something I would suggest other obstacle course races look into using in the future as well, the Newby family (I think all the staff are related) did an amazing job all day, and the bling for a smaller event was good, I am rating this event a 5 out of 5 stars.

Newbsanity offers Wednesday Night Workouts which cost $5 to be paid on site (cash or check). You can also purchase a 10-session pass ($45) and pre-register for the future sessions of your choosing. If you are interested in the 10-session pass, please email jarrett@newbsanity.com.

Both father and son are multiple World’s Toughest Mudder competitors with Jarry (father) being a 4-time age group winner at World’s Toughest Mudder and his son Jarrett has a best finish of 8th overall at World’s Toughest Mudder and has podiumed at BattleFrog so they know their stuff when it comes to obstacle course racing and it’s well worth the time, money, and travel to go train with them and their amazing regulars.

Article Written By: Walter F Hendrick (OCRSandy)