This past Memorial Day weekend I ran my first Obstacle Course Race (OCR) and it was an excellent event and a great test piece for my MovNat training.

I would like to give thanks to the Terrain Racing and The Recess Factory for putting together a very enjoyable event. I found it to be well organized, with a smooth check-in process to get bib and timing chip. They offered a gear check to drop-off your bag during the race. There were vendors and food trucks for after the race along with hoses to "wash" off. The weather was mostly sunny with temperatures in the upper 60s at my designated start time of 10:45am.

First of all, I am not a runner. I knew that my hard work training MovNat would allow me to complete the obstacles, but running for any length of time is a completely foreign concept to my movement practice. So I was definitely nervous about being able to complete the 5K within a reasonable amount of time. That said, I do go for walks almost daily and occasionally hike.

The course had 25 obstacles: Mudpit with duck unders, Monkeybar Traverse, Tire Flip, Spider Weave, Rope Climb, Tube Slide and Crawl, 16 ft wall climb with rope, 6ft Wall, Bucket Carry, Rig Traverse, , Hill Climb, 6ft Wall, 8ft Wall, Hill Down climb, Cargo Net #1, 6ft Wall, 3-rope traverse, Wreckbag carry, Cargo Net #2, Tire drag, 4ft wall, "Mud Moguls", balance traverse, Cargo Net #3 and Pole Slide.

Here's a break down of the MovNat aptitudes and techniques (follow the links to MovNat YouTube channel for reference) that allowed me to overcome these obstacles in an effective and efficient manner:

Walking: Mudpit with duck unders - hinged walk & stepping under, spider weave - stepping over. Both of these obstacle required ducking under or stepping over horizontal bungees. The manage them effectively you needed good balance and body control in akward postions.

Crawling: Hill climbs, tube slide, horizontal cargo nets #1 & #3, Mud Moguls - hand-foot crawl. I discovered that on horizontal cargo nets, crawling along the longitudinal lines was most efficient instead of trying to use the transverse lines as foot holds, keep the hand and feet on the intersections. Also, crawling was used at times as the terrain became slippery and added points of contact increased traction and stability.

Climbing: Rope climb - jumping pull-up, 3-rope traverse - side power traverse, monkeybar traverse - front power traverse, rig traverse - front swing traverse, cargo net #2

Jumping/Vaulting: 4ft- 6ft- 8ft- walls - split jump - split landing - climb up - tripod transition -depth jump, 16ft- wall climb, pole slide - depth jump. I have found that step vault/tripod transition combination is the safest method for getting up and over these walls. Having a controlled descent allows you to ensure that the landing is clear of other runners, rough ground, etc.

Preparing for a Tripod Transition over a 4ft wall

Lifting/carrying: Tire flips - deadlift/clean , Tire drag , bucket carry - hand carry and wreckbag carry - shoulder carry

Balance: Balance Traverse - balancing hand-foot crawl. This traverse would have been straight forward if it were dry, however the complexity was definitely high since it was wet, muddy and very slippery. Being able to adapt from a quiver of techniques on the fly is part of the beauty of MovNat.

Not the best form, but effective at keeping me moving up the obstacle safely

How did I do? I completed the course in 40:25, fast enough to be in the top 5 Open wave finishers in my age group. Not a bad performance for a first-timer.

A couple of additional observations:

What to wear? A friend recommended that you don't have anything baggy that would retain water as this would eventually become saturated and begin to as he put it "fall off". So a set of quick drying compression shorts and shirt were a good choice. As to footwear, I prefer to wear minimalist type shoes, however the sole tread pattern on my Merrells would be quickly clogged and useless in the extremely muddy conditions of the race. I opted for a pair of inov-8 Muclaw 265. These have only a 3mm drop and great tread pattern that performed well in race conditions.

Cold Plunges. The first obstacle, a waist deep mud pit with duck unders, had a cold pool about 10 yards in length. The tube slide and crawl also ended in a cold pool fully submerging you. While not an unexpected obstacle, the cold plunge always surprises you. Recently, I started to end my showers with a "cold plunge" of increasing duration. This practice helped my adapt to this environmental demand with minimal disruption to my system.

While the past few months my training mainly was focused for the MovNat Level 2 Certification, I continued my training and conditioning in lead up to this event. I was very surprised to be have achieved a level of conscious and unconscious competence performing the above techniques during the race under the additional physical demand of running and increasing fatigue and the complex environmental demand of mud.

What is next?

I have registered for the BattleFrog race on October 1st. For the next month or so I will work specifically on my aerobic engine. I hope to increase my running capacity, both in terms of speed and endurance, the BattleFrog race is 8K. Obviously, I will continue to practice MovNat techniques progressively increasing the volume, intensity and complexity particularly under load.

If you are in the Boulder area and would like to learn more, contact me and I can help you start your MovNat journey. If you are interested in learning more where you live, find a MovNat Certified Trainer near you.

Now get out there and move!

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