Battlefrog Tri-State Review
- Brittany Pollock
August 2nd - Old Bridge Township Raceway Park Englishtown New Jersey
Battlefrog is billed as designed by US Navy SEAL. It is available in two distances the Battlefrog - 15K with an elite heat with cash prize and helicopter ride, as well as an open heat and the Bullfrog 5K which was on the same course as the 15K but had many well marked shortcuts. Waves were released Elite 15k, 15k then alternating 5k and 15k heats every half hour starting at 8am, with a final mixed heat at 12:15 and then a volunteer heat at 2. The event was also a OCR World Championship qualifying event with top 10 in each age category qualifying in both the 5k and 15k events. The event also featured two kids distances, the bullfrog mile on the adult course and the tadpole 400m dash with scaled down obstacles.
Parking $10 and very close to the venue, less than 5 minute walk, bag check was $5 but due to proximity to the venue “car check” was a more economical option.
The venue, by day, is a car track, drag strip and motocross park, so it featured good varied terrain. The weather was not favourable, rain overnight and drizzly during the race, making the obstacles slippery but the lack of heat was very nice.
Obstacles were great, high quality builds and some were very unique, most with a military flare, meant to simulate training that Navy SEALs would go though. The 5k had 26 obstacles and the 15k had a whopping 47 The course was delightfully obstacle heavy with great spacing. The 15k saw more running stretches, but the 5k you never went more than a minute maybe two without being at an obstacle.
Some highlights were some nice muddy hills in the motocross section that those in non-trail shoes had some troubles with, a rewarding slip and slide and then a super long jerry can carry through more hills, the “delta ladder” an A-frame with widely spaced steps, the inclined monkey bars which were switched to declined monkey bars because of the weather but were still plenty challenging, 12 foot rope walls (with 2 steps for the ladies) but you still had to employ technique even with the steps, the wall was painted so it was extra slippery, the HOOYA - inclined rope wall with a tube slide that you were supposed to yell HOOYA as you went down, shooting gallery with paintball guns and of course Tsunami the infamous half pipe with ropes with a great slide down the back, along with the standards, cargo climb, mud crawls although the final was styled military style with “Normandy jacks”, rope climb and some great muddy trails. That’s just to name a few.
The 15k added some more challenging obstacles, including taller walls, a tricky looking traverse wall, tyrolean traverse a cargo traverse, and tarzan swing.
Water stations - adequate, 2 stations for the 5k, 5, with snacks at the 4th for the 15 (bananas etc). The weather was cool enough that I didn't bring my camelback (I always wear one regardless of distance) and had no problems. Had it been a killer hot day at the speed the 5K heat was moving more would have probably been required.
Showers - hoses with sprayers. There were probably just enough, although I could see getting crowded as more people finished, good water pressure and warm!
Change tents - were available but aparently busy.
Free Swag - Tshirt, beer , medal and bib. Additionally if you qualified (top 10 in your age category) you could go to the OCRWC booth and pick up a tshirt and bag. Realistically anyone could grab a shirt as they weren't checking the standings.
Medals - Super fun! featured a jacked up toad and american flag, the 5K being a slightly smaller medal with a different coloured lanyard.
Purchasable Swag - Great selection, shirts, buffs, armsleeves, headbands etc all sporting the frog logo and/or camo colours assorted military type toys.
Charities - Battlefrog supports Natonal Navy SEAL museum and Trident House, Navy SEAL foundation, Navy SEAL museum and the foundation for Navy SEAL vetrans.
Timing - by J-Chip, available on site via tablets and a link was posted on twitter within a day. Emails went out Monday - very impressive.
Photos - Free, sponsored by J-chip. lots of photographers on the course, and they would interact with you to get good photos (let you know they were there), photos were posted the following Friday, and for me at least there was photos (lots of photos) at each station. Searchable by bib and there must have been a timing mat catching your number because sometimes you had to go back or forward a page.
Organization - good, the elite heat was very clearly informed of the rules and the enforecement through armbands made it very easy to prevent cheaters. A little confusion on wave times - registration times didn't directly correlate with a heat, but time chip bracelets were colour coded for distance and they weren't checking which heat you were in, announcements in the festival were very clear about what distance was going when. Lots of volunteers out on the course.
Overall impressions - High quality of obstacles, and really well thought out safety, pools were very deep under obstacles you can fall off of, like the monkey bars, the pool was up to my chest. Enough different things to keep even seasoned OCR athletes happy. The photos and descriptions of the 15k obstacles are enough to make me want to return next year when at full strength. Festival was high energy, from the trees we could hear the fitness competitions and helos flying low as well as explosions from the demo. We had a spectator with us and she had a good time despite the rain and the $20 spectator fee. Trails were well marked with flags, other than one sign in a creek crossing that had been flipped (I think?) - although maybe different for the 15k course as they had at least one incident.
This race was billed in the social media advertising as Canada vs. US challenge since so many high ranked Canadians were registered. The challenge was dominated by Canada - Hobie Call (US) in first, Marc-Andre Bedard (CAN) in second and Benjamin Morin Boucher (CAN) in third. For the ladies Claude Godbout (CAN) in first, Morgan Mckay (CAN) in second and Helene Dumais (CAN) in third. Junyong Pak (worlds toughest mudder), one of the US contenders was sitting in second for a while but took a wrong turn at some point, losing his podium spot and coming in 7th.
I highly recommend catching a race at this series if you can. I will be making an effort be back at Tri-State next year unless they bring the race to Canada! There were a lot of beginners, but the race was not ideal for beginners, some of the obstacles were a little on the challenging side and would be very difficult without technique.
Overall impressions - High quality of obstacles, and really well thought out safety, pools were very deep under obstacles you can fall off of, like the monkey bars, the pool was up to my chest. Enough different things to keep even seasoned OCR athletes happy. The photos and descriptions of the 15k obstacles are enough to make me want to return next year when at full strength. Festival was high energy, from the trees we could hear the fitness competitions and helos flying low as well as explosions from the demo. We had a spectator with us and she had a good time despite the rain and the $20 spectator fee. Trails were well marked with flags, other than one sign in a creek crossing that had been flipped (I think?) - although maybe different for the 15k course as they had at least one incident.
This race was billed in the social media advertising as Canada vs. US challenge since so many high ranked Canadians were registered. The challenge was dominated by Canada - Hobie Call (US) in first, Marc-Andre Bedard (CAN) in second and Benjamin Morin Boucher (CAN) in third. For the ladies Claude Godbout (CAN) in first, Morgan Mckay (CAN) in second and Helene Dumais (CAN) in third. Junyong Pak (worlds toughest mudder), one of the US contenders was sitting in second for a while but took a wrong turn at some point, losing his podium spot and coming in 7th.
I highly recommend catching a race at this series if you can. I will be making an effort be back at Tri-State next year unless they bring the race to Canada! There were a lot of beginners, but the race was not ideal for beginners, some of the obstacles were a little on the challenging side and would be very difficult without technique.
