Rushwood Race 2015 – By Walter F Hendrick (Sandy)
Once I decided to dedicate a large part of my 2015 OCR race season to doing Canada OCR’s I researched a great deal to learn about all the best OCR’s Canada had to offer and one of them was the Rushwood race. The thing about Rushwood is it’s a permanent obstacle course that is located in a section of Canada that is sort of in the middle of nowhere in farm lands, so even a lot of Canadian obstacle course racers are not aware of this amazing race. Based on my research and feedback I was getting from some of my Canadian OCR friends, I had high expectations and was counting down the days/weeks until this event finally happened.
Registration and Festival:
I arrived early (as instructed per the emails) and so did everyone else running/racing in the first wave (9 am) of the day. The registration was broken down into two sections with half the alphabet being on the left line and the other half being on the right line. For those of use scheduled to race early and in the first wave this caused some delays in registering as the registration lines became longer and took a while. We ended up not starting the 9 am wave on time, and ended up going out more around 9:20 am. The festival area was set up in an area that is near some of the obstacles and everything was close together and easy to find.
Pre-race MC:
For the second weekend in a row, the pre-race MC was Anthony Horng, who yet again did an awesome job all day. I have gotten to know Anthony a little bit over the last two obstacle course races and I find him to be an awesome person. He was very helpful to me a few times, as I required and interpreter to speak to some of the staff that only spoke French.
The Course:
Prior to starting each wave, all racers were instructed to lie down on the ground on their stomachs and then fired up/motivated (in French) by Rushwood owner and race director Francois Branconnier for a short time and then he gave a count down and off we went racing on the course. The course started out with a sprint and went both up and down a hill early on. One of the first things I noticed about the course was how a lot of the trail running sections seemed to be in a terrain that was a very sandy terrain, which I found to be a nice cushion on my feet. The course came to the first obstacle that was an under wall crawl. After the crawl, was a brief sprint and the course went into a very wooded area and up next was a ladder wall type obstacle that was basically about eight 2×4 wooden sections nailed between two tall trees that was at least 10 to 12 feet high. The course continued on and up next was a traverse through what appeared to be a man-made carved out stream bed that had several sections where racers had to go either over or under downed trees lying across the stream bed. If I recall correctly, the next obstacle was a wire (non-barbed) crawl. The course continued on and up next was an 8 foot high wall climb obstacle that offered a section with and without leg and hand sections to help getting over the wall. The course continued on and up next was a rope climb down a very high and intimidating section of rocks and dirt that pretty much was climbing down a rock face wall.
Almost immediately after climbing down the rock wall, we turned and had to climb right back up a just as high and almost just as challenging rock structure that was also almost a complete rock wall straight up. If I recall, the course went downhill for a short distance came to a nice and easy log crossing over a not too deep or dangerous ditch. At this point, the course looped around and up next was a double jerry can carry up a hill and back down. My memory of this section of the course is a little blurry, but I think the next obstacle was a barbed wire crawl and then a short distance after was a rope climb obstacle, that wasn’t that high off the ground so it made for a nice an easy challenge. If I recall, up next was a slanted wall obstacle that was pretty slanted and pretty high up and made for a nice challenge. Not far after was the next obstacle, which was a double cinderblock carry both down and then back up a steep trail in a sandy terrain that made it even more challenging of an obstacle. The course continued on and made its way to crawl under a man-made structure of trees. A short distance later was a cool obstacle that started with a wall climb up a wall that included notched sections for both legs and hands to assist getting up the wall. Once on top of the wall was a chain-link fence crossing that was attached and suspended high up in the air that I was able to walk across. After crossing the chain-linked section, racers had to use a rope to climb down an extremely slanted wall. The course continued on and if memory serves me correctly, the next obstacle started with crossing several rows of car tires and then racers had to climb over several larger truck tires stacked on top of each other and at least 6 to 7 feet high. After the tire obstacle, the course made its way back into the woods and both up and down some really steep sections before finally exiting the deep woods.
The next obstacle was a long and shaky metal beam balance crossing, and as always I struggled to get across this obstacle. The course continued on to another crawl type obstacle, but this time racers also had to climb in and out of ditches while crawling under a structure built out of military netting. The course made its way to a section that had military style bunkers and volunteers/staff dressed in military combat with what I would assume were fake guns yelling at racers as we went through this section. They also microphone in loud noises to simulate an actual combat battle and had smoke grenades going off as well. This section was both very cool and surreal and something I haven’t ever experienced at any OCR race. A very short distance later was a rope crossing that was pretty high off the ground, but not that difficult at all. The upper rope had just enough slack to allow for me to cross without having any shake in the lower line that was an actual metal wire. The course then continued on in the deep woods and at one point came to a really deep and thick mud crossing section. I was fortunate to not have one of my sneakers come off in this section as the mud was really heavy and my feet ended up stuck down deep in the mud several times. If my memory serves me correct, the course then made its way out of the woods and up next was a large oil type steel barrel carry. The distance racers had to carry the barrels was not that far or that steep, so this wasn’t as tough as it could have been if placed somewhere else on the course. Just after the barrel carry, the course took a sharp turn to the right and then started back up a steep climb that had a well needed rope to assist with the initial section of the trail and climb.
At this point in the course my memory has failed me and I cannot remember the exact order of the remainder of the obstacles, but I will do my best to document the rest of the course. The course made its way out of the woods and came to a cinderblock attached to a rope drag and racers had to drag two of these at a time. After the cinderblock drag obstacle was an obstacle that was a series of boxes about five feet high to climb over and then a pyramid of boxes that were stacked pretty high up and racers had to climb up and then down a ladder. The course continued on and back into the woods and made its way towards the festival area, I remember thinking as I approached, yay the course is almost done, but that wasn’t the case! Up next was an obstacle that started with a climb up a black plastic drainage pipe and then after jumping down from the pipe was a heavy and deep mud crossing and then a four foot wall to climb/hurdle over, and then more mud, followed by two rows of huge cement blocks stacked about 4 feet high to climb/hurdle over, then more mud, and then if I recall one last four foot wall. The course turned back towards the woods and came to a Hercules hoist obstacle that was a nice and easy obstacle for me. The course continued on to a natural obstacle of large rock boulders, racers had to climb up and over. The course again exited the wooded area and came to a huge dirt/sand mound with military folding shovels, and at this obstacle racers had to fill large green burlap sacks with the dirt and then carry them a decent distance and over several wooden waste high hurdles. The course then continued on and came to a water crossing/crawl under a walking bridge, which I took the opportunity to get my entire body wet and cooled down. Just after the under bridge and now back near the festival area was a high ladder wall climb and then only a few hundred feet after was a very challenging warped wall obstacle, which took more than one try for me to get up.
After the warped wall the course left the festival area and came to another barbed wire crawl, but this one had a volunteer/staff member manning a high pressure water hose that was used to spray racers as they crossed/crawled through the obstacle. Just after the crawl, was a ditch to crawl under/through and then the course turned and very quickly came to a ladder wall climb up the back side of a very cool water slide. Once I was up on top and ready to slide down into the water I asked the volunteer if it was okay to go head first on my stomach, which he approved and I got a running start and leaped and slid down the slide and went crashing face first into the water. My MP3 player and headphones went flying off of my body, but I was lucky to locate both (the MP3 player floats). While in the water, the next obstacle was a short distance/swim away and was a very cool rope ladder obstacle climb up and down. I got about half way down the back side of the rope ladder and decided to dive head first into the rest of the way. After this, the course exited the water for a short moment and then right came to a rope traverse, which was a long distance, but at least over the water. The course exited the water area and came to a black plastic drainage pipe crawl and then one last steep hill climb up a short distance and much to my happiness, then turned came to the final obstacle of the course, which was a straight bar traverse for a decent distance that at least for me put a good burn on my shoulders. After the straight bar, was one last waist high box climb up to a bell just above racers heads to ring! The course spent a lot of time in deep wooded areas and went both up and down some really steep trail sections, which I have to admit I wasn’t expecting and took me by surprise for sure.
The last wave of the day was a special version of the course called the wave Mission which included several additional obstacles, almost every carry described above were much longer and in some cases heavier and the overall course distance was greater. The other kick in the balls was if you recall or re-read the above course section from the tires obstacle until just before the warped wall obstacle on this version of the course racers had to carry a car tire with them the entire way. I thought I did well picking a tire that wasn’t massive in size, but it ended up having metal cords coming out of it, which scratched me up the entire time.
The Bling:
The bling is a very nice finisher shirt and a very cool and sexy finisher medal. As noted above, two versions of the course were offered on the day, the standard version and a longer mission wave version and both versions came with a different finisher shirt and finisher medal which for a medal whore like me is awesome.
Overall Feelings and Event Rating:
As noted in my opening statements, this was an event and obstacle course I was really looking forward to and could have easily not lived up to the massive expectations I had placed on it, but other than the delays with registration, I cannot think of one other complaint or problems I could find with the event or course and I am very happy I added Rushwood to my schedule. As noted above, this is an event that is off the beaten path and most racers will only learn about from either doing research or word of mouth, so I hope this race review does very well not only in Canada but America as well. This is an obstacle course race, and an event, that all obstacle course racing enthusiasts should make sure to add in to their OCR bucket lists and, once the 2016 race is scheduled and live, add to their 2016 season. I know I will for sure.
Having the “mission wave” as the last wave of the day on a dirtier and more beat up course was brilliant and something I and many others have been suggesting for ages, it made for a really hardcore and amazing challenge throughout the entire course.
The course was amazing, with a great deal of well-built and unique obstacles. The bling is sexy and top of the line and the volunteers and staff was amazing and helpful all day and most didn’t even speak English, yet I enjoyed seeing them on each of my three laps. The military infusion to both on the course and in the festival area was the best I have seen at any military inspired obstacle course race to date and that includes the original BattleFrog races. The registration does need to be tweaked and the alphabet broken up into more than just two sections to keep the lines moving faster, but that is something that is very easy to fix for next year’s race. I am reluctantly rating this a 4.9 out of 5 stars and hate to deduct .1 of a point for the registration, but that leaves a small margin for improvement next year, which I already have no doubt Rushwood and Francois will make sure to correct.
by Walter F Hendrick (Sandy)