BATTLEFROG?!
Yes! BattleFrog! While getting obsessed with Spartan (and my coveted trifecta!) I began researching other comparable OCRs, I heard about this new series called BattleFrog: a very obstacle dense series founded by a group of NAVY SEALS. I found out I could volunteer in the morning and race in the afternoon for free and I was sold. This was only their 4th race ever and I was very interested to see how it compared with Spartan. I know many others are interested too, so here is my very in depth review.
Let's Talk Obstacles:
There were allegedly 51! The original map posted 47 obstacles (previous post), but at the start line we were told otherwise. It depends on how you count them, but either way, there are a TON. It was a total blast. Here they are, in order with a description and my reaction:
- Ladder Wall to Start
- 10 foot tall slatted wall to hope over to get into the corral
- Easy way to get everyone corralled and pumped up!
- Over Wall
- Over 6 foot plain wall (no ropes/lips/slats)
- Always hard to do the first wall due to the sheer number of people
- Under Wall:
- Under plain wall
- Again: too many people
- Through Wall
- Through a square hole in the middle of a 6 foot wall
- People start thinning out? Yay!
- Unders
- About a dozen saw horses to crawl (or dip) under
- Very muddy, were further enough apart that you could walk and duck if you wanted to
- Watery Hill Climb
- Uphill muddy slippery highest section of the motocross track, ropes to help you up
- I saw many people slide all the way down this, use the ropes they give you
- Slip 'N Slide
- What goes up, must come down!
- Weeeeeeeee! You can try and steer... but you can't
- Jerry Can Carry
- Carry a water filled military issued Jerry Water can: men's and women's weights, probably between 0.25 to 0.5 miles long over many muddy hills and pits.
- This was VERY long, and I have no idea how heavy they were, the water makes it difficult due to the awkward shape and the sloshing
- Delta Ladder
- Very high A frame with beams every 4 feet like a ladder.
- This is actually pretty scary, the gaps between beams was large and the fear of falling was high.
- 12 Foot Ladder Wall
- 12 foot high wall that was slatted like a ladder
- Very easy, especially since I was on it/playing with it all morning as a volunteer
- Jerry Barriers
- Jumping/climbing over ~6 waist high plastic barriers
- They had little lips on the side so you could easily get over them
- Monkey Bars
- A dozen rungs of monkey bars going downhill over a water pit.
- I have always hated monkey bars and have never done one in an OCR successfully: I was very nervous at this obstacle. The entire crew at the obstacle was cheering me on and I nailed it! Everyone high fived me and I was on my way.
- Tire Mile
- Maybe 200 yards of tires to hop through. Think football player training camp.
- I have never done this and thought: how hard could it be? It gets to your thighs.
- A Frame Cargo Net
- Typical cargo net: maybe 20 feet high
- Easy, every OCR has this.
- Tunnel Rats
- Crawl through a 10 foot long drainage pipe filled hallways with mud/water
- This caused a bit of claustrophobia, but was fun and cooling, very muddy exit.
- Seal PT
- Big, angry drill Sergeant yelling at you to do 20 8-count body builders in the thickest, stickiest, hardest mud on the course.
- This was my least favorite obstacle by far. It wasn't easy due to the mud sucking your hands and feet in and added a lot of difficulty.
- NBC (Nasty Bear Crawl)
- About a 100-200 yard section of mud covered with chicken wire
- This was tall enough to walk crouched or crawl: I alternated between the two
- 8 Foot Wall
- Climb over an 8 foot wall with no lips or edges
- This was difficult since I had no one with me, this was about the time that Matt and I met up and began our intros.
- Culvert Tunnels
- Up hill drainage pipes with water flowing down them and a rope to assist your climb
- I got stuck at the top since I climbed with my knees closer to my chest
- Slide
- Slide down the back side into a very deceivingly deep mud pit
- This was fun, but hard to get out of
- Rope Swing
- Grab a rope and swing across a mud pit about 5 feet across
- This was hard without gloves, I forgot to put mine on and barely didn't make it, the guy gave me another try and I nailed it no problem with gloves
- Mounds
- Many large muddy slippery piles with mud pits after
- Fun, but slippery
- Tree Cargo Net
- Big log ladder: three big logs a few feet apart above each other: go up and over.
- This was a bit tricky since logs are round and slippery
- Another NBC
- Crawl through a water pit, over logs, and under camo netting
- The logs added a strange level of awkwardness to the crawl, but doable.
- Rope climb
- Standard rope climb: not as high as Spartan's, maybe 15 feet? with knots.
- Nailed it again. AROO!
- Mud March
- Walk through a river
- Very fun, but so muddy and difficult to know when it will be secure/muddy and shallow/deep
- Tree cargo net
- Another cargo net over trees, not as high, maybe only 15 or 20 feet.
- Many people caught up with us (or we caught with them?), made climbing a bit difficult
- Mud trench
- Watery muddy crawl under net
- Much longer, some of the netting was ripped/falling which added difficulty
- 12 foot walls (2)
- Two back to back 12 foot walls with ropes!
- Many people penaltied out of this or were stuck, it was very hard, but I nailed it! Some of the guys were shocked by this, I loved every minute of it
- 6 foot angled wall
- Wall angled 45 degrees towards you, had slats to help you up, but nothing on the back
- Getting up was easy, slowly lowering myself down was not as nice.
- Rope traverse
- This was a very long (maybe 50 feet) rope across a pond
- This was very long, which was why it was so hard. My forearms KILLED at the end (thank you climbing!), I used the under-hang/monkey method. I had never done it so I am glad I did so well!
- Bonus walls (2)
- Two more walls!
- I noticed I tend to climb over with my right leg first, I tried to race more evenly, but I was getting tired.
- A frame log balance beam
- Slippery Log balance beam slightly up, then down.
- I kept very low as to not fall off.
- Hump Over
- Hop over about 6 waist high horizontal logs
- Again, slippery, but doable
- 6 foot walls (2)
- Carving ladders
- Wire free suspended ladder climb up 20 feet, ring the bell, back down.
- I climbed facing the ladder sideways, I found it easier than facing it straight on.
- Spiderweb
- Picture a 25 foot section of trees riddled with random bungee cords
- This was so fun! Totally random and different.
- Red Bridge
- Two metal monster truck ramps back to back = one huge steep hill
- Gave it a good running start, almost made it all the way, then slowed at the top, down was actually harder, I used lots of little baby steps.
- Cargo traverse
- About 30 feet of cargo net vertical that you had to climb sideways across
- This was easy in theory, but it was so long that my forearms started hurting
- Mud culvert
- Another muddy drainage tube tunnel
- Balance beam over mud pit
- About 15 foot of log a few feet above a water/mud pit
- Muddy and slippery, again, like all the logs.
- Big hump
- Big, steep mud hill with a suspended log to go over at the top
- This was a little harder to get over since you had to running start and were at a disadvantage with the slope, I actually tried to go over and slid so I was hanging onto the log hanging under it. Oops, re-do!
- Water Crossings (2)
- Full deep swim across an olympic pool length in a lake there were ropes to help you pull yourself
- This was so welcome and I floated on my back while pulling myself with the ropes. Perfection!
- Bangers and mash
- A frame traverse wall, first used vertical ropes, then a balance beam to the second A frame which was a traverse wall with very wisely spaced small blocks
- I am a climber/climbing instructor, so I was able to do this one easy, it was apparently hard for many people, but it was my favorite!
- DIY sandbags
- Take a shovel and fill your own bag of sand, carry it down the path and back
- This was a very unique obstacle, and I almost didn't know what to do since those volunteers were useless. I later found out we were also supposed to disassemble our bags too! Oops!
- Hooyah!
- Angled wall rope climb with a tunnel slide down the back side
- This was a little difficult but the volunteers here were so amazingly happy and energetic to see us, they cheered us on and pumped us up!
- Amphibious assault
- 3 Shots to hit a target with a paintball gun!
- I have never shot a gun before today, it wasn't too hard and very fun! I got mine on the last shot!
- Tsunami
- Run up a plastic muddy half pipe, grab the rope and pull yourself up onto a flat platform.
- The only obstacle I FAILED! I was so close, but I went to move just a little higher so I could swing my leg up and my arms gave out, I slid down on my face, scraped up my thigh. I did my 10 8-count body builders and climbed up the side of the obstacle.
- Water slide!
- Steepest and fastest of them all
- Was a little hesitant, it seemed straight down, so fun!
- Normandy Jacks
- Climb through deep sloppy mud under wire and wooden jacks (see above)
- I SEE THE FINISH!
How About a VIDEO?!
I don't take my own photos or videos on course, but there are some amazing people who do. Check out someones first person video of the whole race
on YouTube HERE! They have all the obstacles first person, penalty free. If some of my obstacle descriptions are confusing to you, take a look at the video.
Venue:
This race was at the Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown NJ. This place could not have been more PERFECT to host an OCR (and they apparently host many!). when they say "raceway" they mean it: this place has hosted drag, stock car, go kart, monster truck, mountain bike, ATV, motocross, and any other type of racing. This translates to plenty of awesome varied terrain, tons of already slippery muddy course, lots of hills, not a lot of altitude, and lots of fun.
Volunteering:
I signed up to volunteer from 6:00 am until 12:00, it was rainy and unpleasant, but I was excited. I got set up as a volunteer at the 12 foot ladder wall. It was fairly simple and not very exciting. Volunteers get a completely free race, free drinks (they had body armour, power aid), a free finisher shirt and a free bib. We did NOT get chip timers though. The volunteer heat was at 2 pm. I later found out that we could have raced at 12:15 instead, which I would have rather done. Miscommunication a plenty during this volunteer experience.
Racing:
I began the race completely alone! This is the first OCR that I went solo and I was a but nervous. I packed my camelback with electrolytes and Gu so I would be completely self-sufficient. I was making great time, my body felt great and I was LOVING IT. I had a huge mud splattered smile on my face the whole time. I spoke to almost everyone I passed and I was laughing my way through the course. I ended up keeping pace with a guy named Matt, we introduced ourselves and I found out he was also an SST member. We then raced together for the rest of the course. I finished the course in 2:29 and only messed up ONE obstacle!
The Series:
I'm going to be blunt, this series is new and it shows. It is in its growing stage and needs a LOT of work to get to be the level of a Spartan race. The course itself was amazing and much more obstacle dense than any other race that I have done or heard about. The brand is pretty cool and the infrastructure in theory should be great. BUT the organization was shambly at best! There were not enough volunteers, the festival area was deserted by noon, the volunteer organization was poor, the showers didn't have enough water pressure all morning, the place just didn't run smoothly and it was very obvious at times.
Summary: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly:
The Good:
-AMAZING course
-Tons of HARD obstacles
-SO MUCH MUD! =)
-Great brand: tons of awesome banners, graphics, and names
-Volunteer shift was very short (only 6 to 11!)
-SO MANY photographers, I can't wait to see the photos!
-No additional fees for volunteers to race
-Perfect choice of venue
-Free beer!
-Female fitted shirts!
The Bad:
-The festival area was mostly closed down by noon
-NOT enough volunteers available in the afternoon
-Volunteers didn't have a choice of time slot to race
-Volunteers didn't have food options after the race
-Volunteer racers didn't get chip timed!
-The water pressure for the showers in the morning was terrible
The UGLY:
The volunteer heat was DANGEROUS! There were NOT enough volunteers on course. We met a girl on course who fell off the rope climb and was showing concussive behavior. We had to backtrack and find someone to help her. There were LONG stretches of course with NO ONE around! This is not only dangerous, but it is completely UNACCEPTABLE! Over half of the aid stations were out of water and not manned. I run with a camelbak so I ran the course unassisted. This is one major oversight I can NOT overlook. Get it together Battlefrog.
Overall I would still race Battlefrog again due to the amazing course, but some work is definitely needed to make this a reputable and popular series.
Did anyone else go? Did you like it? How did you do?
The results (& foggy war photos) are IN!
And It Took Me...
Splits:
