Authors note:
I have about 80 different directions to approach this blog from. I have narrowed it down to 3. The next will be in: Dispatches from the Storm HH-011 in http://maspahtens.wordpress.com and the third will either be in my personal blog or again here in MAspahtens.
CORN FED!!!
The founders race started from a couple of people hashing around on fb wanting a race, to getting Spartan Race to put their money where their mouth was, and bring a race to Indiana where it had been demanded. For those of you sitting back and saying bring it to my state I give you this. Its been said that if Moses won’t go to the mountain than the mountain has to go to Moses. If your Moses and you think you can bring the mountain to you? Good luck. These Corn fed’s literally moved a mountain to get this race here. It caused monumental strains on friendships, relationships and I think some Navy ships. I could be wrong about the last part. A warning to those of you who think Spartan race is just going to load up and bring their toys to your town. You had better be ready to give every last drop of sweat, blood and tears to make it happen. And even if you are successful you will still have to measure up to the Corn Fed’s and that is one tall order.
FOUNDERS RACE
“Here is my take on it. I feel like people missunderstood what a Founder’s race was. Taking it back to the day when the Rad Dudes that thought up OCR. I imagine that there weren’t really any major obstacles expect nature. Nothing fancy. As the years have gone by, they have to up the anti and compete with the other OCRs and make it fancy. Since it’s my first one, I have no idea what it was like but I have a feeling I do now. It’s kinda like, “In the beginning….(insert biblical reference here)… there was cold shoe eating, slide on your butt, climb with your nails and lose a toe nail mud…and it was good.” This was a grass roots, a CORNFED Founder’s race. I didn’t do it for a medal (although it’s pretty), I did it for the accomplishment and I met some pretty darn good people along the way. Kinda restored my faith in mid-west culture.”
~ Melonie Judd from the Cornfed!!! fb page
There isn’t anything more to be said than what Melonie stated so eloquently. This race was old school for sure. They gave you a barbed wire crawl and two cargo net climbs. After that it was old school kill you hills, dips, water pits, massive hay bales, pond swims, heavy log carrying. and straight forward nasty terrain. The weather alone should have turned people away. Just barely in the 40’s over cast and windy enough to blow what little body heat you had into the next county.
There was no fan fare, no DJ not marketing flags strewn about making it look more like an amusement park than an OCR. No Gladiators, no gimmicks or “signature” obstacles. There was no inflatable finish line, shit the damn finish line was an obstacle. And this guy had to have his ass pushed over it! The participants of this race were a special breed and they deserve all the accolades they can receive. If you missed this race, you missed and epic weekend. Don’t miss the next one.
POST RACE
This race is going to be the diamond of my race season. Straight out of a kimberlite field still stuffed in quartz. This diamond is more than in the rough it is still imbedded in rock. No amount of polishing is going to make this rock shine, because it doesn’t need it. If you can’t see this gem for its value you need to dig deeper within yourself.
At the end of the day I was privileged to meet many of who I can truly call my Corn Fed family. Nathan Deaver and his wife Mary and their children. Jonathan Nolan and wife Laura. Gary Cates 3rd place winner! Storm Chaser Tim White and Mike from Syracuse. Jason Moss, Christopher Kalfa, Denise Healy-Hall, Christie Berg-Nelson, all the Kendall’s. Hobie Call as a person and not a name. And of course many of the Spartan race staff. Tommy Mac, Andy Weinberg, Jeremy and the uncrushable Todd Sedlack. I am missing so many others I feel aweful not mentioning them. Lastly I would like to thank my MASpahtens co-runners who drank the Corn syrup and came down with me Eric and Jeremy they made this happen for me because a 16 hour drive is not damn joke!
Dude this was my first race of any kind and it kicked my butt. I finished a respectable 1:33 but wow was it everything you could have ever wanted. I had no ideas there were hills like that in Indiana.