ELEVATED SPORTS PERFORMANCE: Sloane wins Renegade Rage!

This past weekend I competed in the Renegade Rage Obstacle Course Race (OCR) in Kennewick, WA. In my efforts to prepare for the OCR World Championships in October this looked like the perfect course to attend before the priority races in July and August. Coming in with good fitness, there were some obstacles I still needed to work on and this race had some of those.

On a hot,sunny day (85 degrees+) and overlooking the scenic Columbia River, I covered the course in 1 hour 3 minutes to win the Elite category. Way harder race than I was anticipating.

post-race feelin' the heat

Right from the start the race went uphill, actually a lot uphill. Not sure of the total elevation gain, but if I had to guess I would say about 1200 ft gain in under a mile. And along the way were a semi-truck trailer to navigate through before jumping out into a 6-foot deep water pit, and at the top of the hill was the rope climb. Nothing like trying to catch your breathe while having to climb 20 ft of rope (and still trying to soak in the amazing views of the river).

trailer jump

rope climb
photo credit: Sarah Gordon, Tri-Cities Herald

I found myself running with 1 other person from the rope climb to the finish. I assumed he was in the Elite category but later realized he wasn't, but it sure was nice to have another person out there to help navigate the course. At times it became very difficult to determine which way to go as there was a little shortage of direction arrows. The Elite course meandered 7 miles up, over, down and around 5500 acres of farm land with 23 challenging obstacles mixed in about every 1/4 mile. The rest of the competitors raced on a shorter version, the 3 miler. I even convinced my brother-in-law, Peter, to do his first obstacle course race. I gave him some training workouts to help prepare and he killed it. He finished all 3-miles and all obstacles (except the rope climb) and this was not an easy "first-timer" course.

brother-in-law Peter

Although the race is in it's first year, it definitely did not disappoint. The entire crew worked hard to put on one of the better races in the Northwest. Sure there were a few things that could have run more smoothly (more course markings, and maybe an awards ceremony a little earlier with podiums), but all of the positives easily outweigh the negatives. This race should be on your race calendar for next year; in my opinion it ranks right up there with a Tough Mudder and Spartan Race. For those who did the Tough Mudder Oregon last year in Fossil, this course was almost identical as far as terrain (maybe even more challenging) but the obstacles in the Renegade Rage race were far better and more challenging.

approaching the wall of death on my 2nd attempt

up and over

Besides the rope climb and trailer jump, some of the obstacles included a 100 yard tire drag, 50 yard tire flip, 40lb potato sac carry for 50 yards, several logs to walk across, a couple tunnels to run through, a very long barbed wire/ice crawl, monkey bars, wall traverse, 3 tall wall climbs (only 1 with a foot hold) a couple barrels to go under and over in water, a tire run, and when your legs are already screaming they finish things off with the wall of death (similar to Tough Mudder's); a 15-foot half pipe. The guys helping out at the top to grab people's arms got in a good arm workout I'm sure. All of the volunteers were very helpful at each obstacle and I believe most of them were from Jubilee Leadership Academy.

Here are some photos from the event taken from Sarah Gordon at the Tri-Cities Herald...