Volunteer for This

Who is primarily responsible for safety on the course?  The EMTs?  The Race Director?  The volunteers?  None of the above.  It's you.  True story:

Two runners come up to my obstacle, the log hurdle, where I was a volunteer.  One was clearly hurt and out of action.  He was in the race at this point just for "moral support" of his buddy.  This other guy was getting ready to run up to attempt the log hurdle.  I stopped him in his tracks.  "Do you know the proper technique for getting over this?"

"Nope."

In one minute I showed him the jump squat muscle up technique.  He got it immediately and sailed right over the log hurdle like a pro.  His injured buddy was clearly not happy about something however.

"I wish the volunteer way back on the first one of these had showed us that.  Then I would not have gotten hurt."

Now despite what the insurance folks might say, let's just you and I take a vote here.  Who's at fault here for this guy's injury?  Who is primarily responsible for your safety and well-being and overall injury-free completion of an obstacle course race?  It is you, and me, and every other individual runner.

Don't count on a volunteer like me to be out there to show you the right way.  I do all I can and help literally hundreds during a race.  Don't count on the Race Director or the web site or the course map with devilishly clever obstacle names.  This is just my own estimate folks, but I believe over 80% of the open class runners out there have either never run an obstacle course race before and/or never been trained before showing up.

While I believe that puts a huge burden on the volunteers to help out, the onus really happens months before a race.  That onus is on the runner during training.  Which means that if you, my reader friends, are recruiting people to come to your race, join your team, or just sign up, please take the next step of accountability to help train them.  And don't assume they know anything.  I see plenty of elite racers make the most elementary mistakes.

Here's one.  In this season's BSR Challenge, only one of the competitors used their legs on the 20-foot rope climb.  After completing all those other mind-numbing, bone-chilling, strength-draining obstacles, a mere 20-foot rope was all that was left between the runner and victory.  One challenger succeeded.  Her technique on the rope was flawless.  In fact, her technique on the entire course was flawless.  She beat the former champ's time by nearly eight minutes (if I remember correctly).  I'll step way out and state that the primary reason she won by such a margin was due to her technique.

It kept her safe.  It cut down on  mistakes.  It cut down time on the course.  It cut down on energy expenditure.  In fact, after she won, she had so much gas left she did a leaping back flip and a little dance.  She will be tough to be next year.

Get trained.  Train others.  Friends don't let friends do OCR without proper technique.