Brian Bill Memorial Challenge 2013

• Name:

Tom Kelly

• Event details (parking, facilities, vendors, schwag etc):

Parking was free, and plenty of it if you know the campus. Facilities were the same as when I left there 25 years ago, just wish they had an ATM in the armoury. Shale hill was there an I picked up 2 more sets of PUPs, now have 1 for work, one for home and 1 for Army training, but I stayed away from Rob and his torture rack. Good experience was had the start/finnish and for a first event they did very well.

• Race details (course, obstacles, difficulty etc):

Cold, cold, cold! Glad I watched the dressing for winter webinar(thanks). I expected this as being an alumni, but the water at the pit stops was frozen. The mountain and weather were the real obstacles, and quickly turned this into a hike instead of a race for me. I had run through snow several times in prep but on flat ground. Merrel trail glove shoes worked great in snow with no falls and layered socks kept feet toasty(another thanks for winter webinar). The rest of the obstacles were easy(for me) except pullups and rope traverse, need to add to training at home. Expected harder obstacles but mountain and weather made up for that. Will do again, it was great to meet the spahtens, who were all open and friendly.

• Rating:

Above Average

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• Name:

Kandice

• Event details (parking, facilities, vendors, schwag etc):

This was an inaugural event to honor a fallen hero (Brian Bill). It was held at Norwich University in Northfield, VT. There was adequate parking. We got a little confused finding the registration as we entered through a basement door. It could have been better marked. Though, I personally did not mind the detour as we got to see men in uniforms…lots of them. Anyway, I digress. Once we got to the registration area (indoors in an open gym) everything was well layed out and easy to navigate. We registered, signed posters for the family and made way to our designated team spot. This is where we met up with the rest of the Spahtens. It was great to see some familiar faces and meet some new ones 🙂

Shale Hill had a booth and organized a pull up, dips and push up competition. They had some of their products for sale.  There was also a food booth with chili, chowder, etc for sale. I think this was run by a Boy Scout troop, though I didn’t actually go over there.

In the “racers only” area they had free water, Gatorade, bananas, apples, and individually wrapped cheddar cheese.

There was a Zumba warm up organized every half hour. That was fun 🙂

Only the first 100 to register got t-shirts, and since I slacked, I did not get one. They were basic cotton black t shirts with the sponsors, race name, etc. Nothing fabulous.
In our registration bags we all got: hand Warmers, a beef stick, a dog tag to wear during the race and put on the memorial at the end of the race, there were also merchandise coupons and a few other small items.
The medals were great. They were on a navy blue and yellow ribbon and had the US Navy logo on the medal. The back was engraved with “Brian Bill Memorial Challene 2013”. I dig it!

• Race details (course, obstacles, difficulty etc):

The course was between 5.5-6 miles total. It started on an indoor track, the entire heat (~10 people) was to stick together for the track, down the stairs and outside to cross the street (there was a cop stopping traffic and this allowed everyone to cross at once). After that we were on our own. Many of us put on Stablicers or Yak Trax at this point while others booked it up Mt. Payne.

Mt. Payne is 1699ft elevation. The first obstacle, at the base of the mountain, was a duck walk, crab walk and bear crawl between certain points. We then were to climb over a short-ish wall and were lead to a list in which we had to find our number and an associated code that we had to memorize (Mine was 142: H25NW10)…and up the mountain we went. There were obstacles scattered throughout. The path was well marked with orange rope or green flags. The path was also shoveled/well packed for most of the course. The 11th obstacle was at the top. We had to high five a wall on a memorial for Brian. Then proceed to do 50 full jumping jacks. There was a fire pit and water station here, though all of the water was frozen since it was sub freezing temperatures out.
The descent of the mountain we were able to pick up some speed–thanks to the Yak Trax! Those who did not have them definitely got slowed down a bit as it was slippery! There were some pretty cool obstacles along the way. Dips x 10, knee ups x10 (x3 bars)…25 step ups, 25 inclined push ups, 25 dips (I think it was 40 for the guys), log press, traverse rope, maze, weighted sled pull…at the bottom of the mountain we had to give our secret codes that were given near the beginning of the race. There was a penalty (I think push-ups) if you got it wrong. I neglected to mention that there was a penalty for any/all failed obstacles…these were not predetermined it seemed and differed from obstacle to obstacle.
At the base of the mtn we had about a 1/2 mile run on pavement, back across the street and through the campus. We then climbed a flight of stairs and entered my favorite part of the course….which housed the bulk of the obstacles. They included (not in order): wall climb, a frame, cargo net, traverse rope (again), cargo pull, army crawl, paintball guns that we shot at targets, two strand bridge, etc. the last stretch was again on pavement. We ran back into the building, rung the bell (it was cool cause people knew when you came in) and then an ammo press. We then ran across the finish line and were given our medals.

The course was very well laid out. The terrain offered a challenge in itself, with the elevation, snow, etc. The obstacles were good. Some were challenging, some were fun. There were a lot of them, 30 total. I loved it!

There was a prize pack for the top 5 finishers in each division (corporate team, solo male, solo female, etc) The Spahtens took home 4 prizes…2nd for corporate team, and 3rd, 4th and 5th place female finishers.

This was definitely a male dominate race. There were about 200 total racers and roughly 38 were female.  i didn’t mind at all.
I will definitely participate again next year. Actually, I am really looking forward to it. 🙂

• Rating:

Excellent

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• Name:

Marcie Casavant (DiStefano)

• Event details (parking, facilities, vendors, schwag etc):

Free parking which was great and not difficult to find a spot. I got a free t-shirt, being one of the first 100 to sign up which was cool.

• Race details (course, obstacles, difficulty etc):

This being my first OCR, my review will likely seem much different than others, I was nervous as hell, mainly about the frigid temps and not knowing how difficult the obstacles would be. The obstacles were listed on the website and consisted of titles such as the Kill Me Box and Hand to Hand Combat. I believe that would frighten any newcomer. Born and raised in VT, I am all too familiar with how the wind and cold can shift around at any given time.

With that being said, it was not nearly as difficult as I had anticipated. The obstacles going up were mainly over under type deals. There were some pull ups, dips and some knee to elbow pull up type move that I had never seen (Again, still unfamiliar with most of the body weight and strength excercises).  There were 2 rope traverses which I amazing did well at, due to activating my Inspector Gadget Go Go Legs prior to the course. The inclines were very steep at certain points and I found myself slowing down a lot during these. Thank God for the stabilizers Sandy let me borrow. They were key in making it easy to sprint through the snow and ice and particularly for the steepest inclines where you had to basically be on all fours. However, having to put them on outside the facilities before and take them off after was a time snatcher. It seemed there were far fewer obstacles going down the mountain which allowed me to pick up the momentum. Most of the obstacles left were those at the near bottom and outside of the facilities, I found low crawling on the snow to be difficult as there was a lot of hard ice. The walls were fairly easy, again due to the Go Go Legs.
Overall, the obstacles were much less difficult than I imagined they would be. Getting up the mountain proved most difficult. From what I saw there actually existed no penalties. At least I saw no one keeping track, as there was one obstacle I couldn’t do. There was clearly a lack of water. There was a station on the very top and when one got to the very bottom. I had wished I had brought my Camelpak because I was extremely thirsty. The trails were put together well and clearly marked. The race itself was very organized as far as registering, picking up my packet with no hassIe, etc. I would definitely do it again.

• Rating:

Above Average

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• Name:

Tora Chassé

• Event details (parking, facilities, vendors, schwag etc):

I was excited about this event as it was a charity event for a fallen hero. As we pulled in, I started to get a little anxious as Mt. Payne came into view. There appeared to be adequate parking around the facility, but we kind of got turned around coming in from the basement. After we get inside and registered we find out team spots and begin the nervous wait of stage and start time. During the wait there was zumba every hour to help with warm ups. Unfortunately, by the time the next session was getting ready to start it was almost time to stage. The event had a really good MC trying to get people to zumba, enter into the challenges (push-up, pull-up, and dips), and she would also announce teams coming in from the race or getting ready to start.

Really enjoyed the after race munchies, they had available. Gatorade, bananas, water and the Cabot cheese for the racers, but after the race and trying to warm up the chilli and chowder that was available REALLY hit the spot. I did receive the memorial T-shirt and schwag bag (hand warmers came in handy), so that was nice. There were local vendors there and a masseuse as well but didnt stop by their tables.

• Race details (course, obstacles, difficulty etc):

Getting started on the elevated track was a definite change to start a race. Received our last minute instructions from a volunteer and everyone started at the same pace as the “rabbit” and did almost one lap around the the track, then down 2 flights of stairs to get outside. Stopping to put on traction devices once outside was a little pain but I wasnt looking for making a run for 1st anywho.
The obstacles themselves weren’t too difficult, military in style (exercises, climbing/traversing ropes, shooting, crawling (not fun on hard packed snow)), but there were a lot of them. Obstacles 1-11 were on the way up, 12-14 were on the way down and the rest were grouped together at the military training facility (15-28) The last two obstacles were inside the armory, ring the bell and the ammo can press before crossing the finish. The frigid temperatures and the mountain proposed the serious challenge (I was haunted by WD at Gunstock last year). I was very vocal to the fact that I disliked climbing that mountain.  Obstacle #9 or 10 (?) was by far the toughest, it was basically just climb up a steep part of the mountain. The only thing I disliked was there was no water station after the start until you reached the top at the memorial. Overall it was a tough but fun course and I would definitely do it again. Note to self: train more for mountain and hill races.

• Rating:

Excellent

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• Name:

Denise Moquin

• Event details (parking, facilities, vendors, schwag etc):

Being the furthest north in Vermont I have ever been, I was really excited to see Norwich and the mountains surrounding. The school was beautiful and the parking was the easiest I have ever had to deal with, though being new to the racing arena I don’t have much to go off of. We walked into the school’s main gym, which was hoping with excitement and music, thanks to a DJ. Registering was easy and quick and the men and women (cadets of the school) were very helpful at answering all our questions as well as directing us to our area. The vendors we set up around the center of the gym, and from what I got to see had some great stuff to sell, like extra t-shirts, bumper stickers, dog tags and even yak traks and spikes for racers who needed them. Which were definitely needed! There was even a Zumba warm up, which got off to a slow start but was nice to see some of the cadets and racers mixing it up out there.

• Race details (course, obstacles, difficulty etc):

We started on a raised track above the gym, which was really interesting to me. I also enjoyed running with the team to begin the race, rather than everyone disappearing from sight, seeing as I am a slower paced runner. After running down two flights of stairs, across a busy road and placing our spikes or yaktraks on we hurried up a small incline to our first of many obstacles for the day. The duck/bear/crab walk, which brought me back to my Army days! The next obstacle was a wall, and if it wasn’t for some team members waiting for me, I might not have gotten over. I think that’s what I like about these races the most, the team spirit that happens, because if it was not for Andy and “Mama Hen” I might not have made it up and down Paine Mt and through the rest of the obstacles! Other than the people I got to race with (my team), the people I got to meet along the way (other racers and the cadets), the obstacles were right up there as my favorite part of the day! I loved every single one of them! Norwich really did a great job of using the terrain and what they already had there, as well as what they are good at. Getting to shoot at targets with a paintball gun….Loved it! Getting to finally conquer the traverse rope (with help) loved it! Ambush!! Loved it! I even conquered my fear of heights, with some Mama Hen encouragement and made it through the high obstacles, like the rope bridge. And nothing beats coming into the building, ringing the bell, and falling on my backside because I still had my spikes on and I hit the hardwood floors! I love making an entrance! But I finished the race with a smile on my face!

My hat goes off to Norwich for putting on an amazing race! Thanks to the hard working volunteers and cadets for freezing their butts of for us and making sure we had a great day all around for a great cause!

• Rating:

Excellent