OCR... more than running

 It’s my personal pleasure to come back to Weeze…come back to the MudMatsers. It’was the first OCR event ever I took part. Here started my love for OCR. The wind was cold, but the Sun was shining, and so we were in a good mood to start the next OCR! Maybe I’m prejudiced but since the ToughMudder - Organization has change some important things I like to say the MudMasters became the better ToughMudder! If you like mud you will love Weeze! The track is very diversified: some parts are paved ground but the most parts are sand, field and forest ground (and water!). A new star was born? Maybe…… At least we had a new team member for this event. Until now, he was “only” a triathlete but these are best conditions for an obstacle runner: He likes water, can run and is fit. He should have enough upper body strength for climbing and hanging. And he should have enough power in his legs for running and all other things. But during the run and at the end he said it was hard! But h...

 Meanwhile the third time in Weeze.            

In a blog some days ago I wrote about my first very spontaneously OCR. The MudMasters in Weeze 2016 . Now, one year later, I’m again in Weeze. Meanwhile, I have some more OCR-friends around me. And so it was another group of crazy people who took part on the MudMasters 2017. Not less funny people, on the contrary! We trained a lot, we learned a lot about the OCR scene, and we knew what we have to do. Who don’t know: Do not be too sure, because what happens will be different from what you think. And it was. Sand isn’t easy to run. Not only it kills your energies. Holey and uneven ground has a lot of potential for injuries. And so I got my first injury and kinked my foot in kilometer 3. Pain! Can’t occur with the foot! Can’t run. But will this stop me? I gave it a try. The next 500-1000 meters were painful, but the more I ran, the less my foot hurt. We luckily finished the obstacle run. At the finish area we got something to drink and eat and I got again really heavy pain....

Kurz vor meinem ersten OCR, der eigentlich der ToughMudder NRW sein sollte, passierte es plötzlich. Ich hatte schon in meinem ersten Artikel so etwas angedeutet. Ein Freund, auch Läufer, rief mich freitags abends an: „Oliver, was machst du eigentlich morgen?“ Ich hatte nichts geplant und so kam ich in den Genuss eines gesponserten MudMasters-Tickets - äußerst kurzfristig und völlig überraschend. Mit sehr wenig Vorbereitungszeit und umso mehr persönlicher Aufregung ging es sehr früh morgens los. Habe ich alles dabei? Bin ich fit genug? Was wird passieren? Traue ich mir alle Hindernisse zu? Auf der 90 Minütigen Fahrt wurden mir noch einige Details erzählt. Zwar war keiner der Mitläufer jemals einen OCR gelaufen, aber hatten alle mehr Zeit sich mit diesem speziellen Event vertraut zu machen. Unter anderem damit, dass ¾ der Strecke von 18km über Sand gelaufen werden würde. Laufen auf Sand ist zusätzlich kräfteraubend. Sehr viel der aufgewendeten Energie „verpufft“ im Sand. Di...