Obstacle Running Adventures

We had plans to do an athlete interview this week but language barriers slowed things down a bit. Quick reminder that if you speak another language in addition to English, we would love the help of a translator to reduce the barriers to communication with athletes!

Between that and the fact that Mike is currently in an uber on the way to the airport at 3:26 AM Friday morning for a work conference in San Fransisco as he/I write this, we needed to make a stress free pivot!

Because of this, we are rereleasing episode 138...

Since there is a lot of traveling coming up for us soon we ended up not going to cover Newbsanity's Mud Gauntlet like we wanted but we reached out to the women's winner to talk about it!

Jessica Carson is on the newer side to OCR but she has been off to an incredible start with winning Spartan Poconos, doing well at Spartan NJ, and more recently winning Mud Gauntlet!

It isn't often that someone outside of the Newbsanity circle does so well in their events, especially on their first try so we talked about...

When it comes to DEKA there's one place that we like to go to focus on for coverage and it's Underdog Fitness. There are a bunch of reasons for this: Mike was coached by Kevin Gregory for a while, it's where we did our first DEKA, their athletes are frequently on the podium for DEKA World Championships every year, and they are some of our favorite people in the sport!

We went down Saturday night and brought Luci for her first hotel and race experience but as we talked about last episode she ended up getting high...

Last episode we had Miranda Kilpinski on the show to talk about her return to obstacle course racing, and her win in New Jersey. Jordan McDougal took the win for the men and had a return to Spartan racing for the first time in a while so I invited him on as well!

Jordan talks about what he has been doing since we last had him on the show 3 years ago, his torn meniscus, the race itself, plans for the rest of the series, and more! Be sure to check out his McDougal Obstacle Lab as well...

We saw that Miranda Kielpinski won the first of the USNS Northeast Series races in New Jersey (where we planned to be for coverage) and we knew that we needed to reach out to have her back on the show!

Miranda engages in a variety of fun outdoor activities such as biking, surfing, and hydrofoiling (which Mike just learned about for the first time). It was great to see that she has returned to OCR, took the win and wants to continue to take on the rest of the series this year!

Start – 5:44 – Intro

5...

We reached out to an athlete a month ago after her podium at Jacksonville and invited her on the show, recent weeks have been coverage of local events like the Expo and FIT Challenge so we reconnected for this interview!

Luiza Barteldes Farinha talks about her athletic background of being a dancer, how she got into elite OCR, being coached by Ryan Atkins, plans to take on the USNS South Series, her pilates studio, as well as preperation for today's Boston Marathon!

Start – 5:19 – Intro

5:19 – 11:29 – Quick News

11:29 – 12:07 – Content Preface

12:07 – 42:53 - Luiza Bartelde...

Back to cover another FIT Challenge but this one was bittersweet! Robb McCoy has stated that he will be stepping away from the events and brand that he founded over a decade ago and that Darlene Gaudet will be taking over but keeping him as an advisor.

We are optimistic about the future of FIT Challenge and are grateful that Robb and some of his team will stay around! We talk to both Robb and Darlene about the upcoming change as well as some athletes at the course finish line!

Start – 3:59 – Intro

3:59 – 8:27 – Quick News

Another very successful New England OCR Expo! Mike may be a bit biased because he has been on the board of directors for this event for the past few years but we had the chance to talk to many vendors, athletes, and other participants who back up the claim!

There are two parts for this event coverage yet again and this second part focuses on the those that recorded at our table, announcements and audio. Listen to the previous episode to hear from the vendors!

Plan to come out to the New England OCR Expo...

Another very successful New England OCR Expo! Mike may be a bit biased because he has been on the board of directors for this event for the past few years but we had the chance to talk to many vendors, athletes, and other participants who back up the claim!

There are two parts planned for this coverage yet again and this part focuses on the vendors. We made a switch from previous years and Mike manned our vendor table while Katelyn conducted interviews with almost all of the vendors who came out to the expo!

...

Katelyn saw a post in the World's Toughest Mudder community Facebook group concerning water safety at the Lake Elsinore Tough Mudder so we reached out to follow up with the person who posted it!

The poster, Jarrod Lumpkin has been running OCR since 2012, has been an active member in the Tough Mudder community, and is shooting for a total of 100 Tough Mudders!

We talk about how he first found OCR, his recent experience at Lake Elsinore, what could have been done to create a safer event, thoughts on Tough Mudder changes over the years, and...

We were planning to both run the FIT Challenge's trail race but when we found out that Jason Dupree was flying up to do a race video of the Citi Field Spartan for The OCR Report, Mike knew that he couldn't miss out on that!

This was our 4th time covering the Spartan at Citi Field (2018, 2019, 2024) and it is a special venue for us because it is where we first started the live coverage aspect of the show!

We got some start line audio, talked to Justin T Manning, interviewed a couple vendors, some elites...

Ryan Hart had built up a community, gym, and group of athletes with HartFit in Illinois and Team Flatliners! Now that he has moved to Colorado he has recreated the facility by Colorado Springs where they are putting on an Havoc at HartFit!

We discuss how he first found OCR, why he started HartFit, how Team Flatliners came about, the sport has changing over the years, the move to Colorado, adapting to elevation, wild moose, his exciting upcoming event, and much more!

Be sure to check out his facility in person if you're in the...

Katelyn sat down with Mark Haverland to talk about his unconventional journey into fitness and OCR. They dive into his wild idea to bear crawl an entire Spartan Sprint and how what started as a "stupid idea" and challenge quickly grew into something far more meaningful and far bigger than Mark ever expected!

Mark also shares details about upcoming events supporting the Teddy Bear Crawl Foundation and how you can get involved with a foundation that truly gives back to the local community whether completing the Teddy Bear Challenge Wave at a variety of Spartan Races, attending...

After Katelyn saw a post about a man completing a Hyrox ,she knew she needed to reach out to interview him! Anthony Bryan is a ParaAthlete that has conquered Guiness World Records, the adaptive CrossFit Games, the London Marathon, the ParaOlympics trials and most recently multiple Hyrox events.

Hear his story, his mindset for overcoming obstacles and how he is impacting the world around him! Be sure to follow his journey on Instagram as he continues to defy odds and inspire people around the world!

Start – 6:09 – Intro

6:09 – 15:23 – Quick News

15:23 – 16:33 – Content Preface

16:33...

Work has been absolute chaos for Mike while Katelyn gets to enjoy February vacation!

We reached out to a few guests but due to availability continuing to be pushed back we needed to fall back to rereleasing a previously released episode. This time on a beloved Winter Spartan Race at Greek Peak in New York!

This was the one year that we were able to make it and pretty sure the second to last one that they ever did. So come back with us on a trip to 2019 when the sport was still pretty amazing...

We haven't had Bethany McChesney on the show in a while, when I heard that she is planning a follow up Little Loop Ultra event, I figured it would be a good time to have her back on the show!

We talk more in depth about her athletic background, her gym Fitfarm in Strathroy, Ontario, her inclusive ultra event, Obstacle Fitness X Podcast which she hosts with Dave Claxton, and much more!

Be sure to follow her on social media, check out her gym if you're in the area, listen to OFX, and take on...

Somehow we have never had Sarah Tucker on the show, this week we remedy that!

Our paths crossed with Sarah at World's Toughest Mudder in both 2023 as well as 2024 but she inadvertently dodged the mic at both events. She joined the MudGear Hannibal Race Pro Team and has been doing very well with elite events in the US!

More recently she took 2nd place at the Abominable Snow Race in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin! This is an event that we have been wanting to go to for a while and do live coverage to highlight. We...

Robert B Foster has had an impact on the OCR community in a few different ways! He first got into the sport in 2011, started training with his RBF Fitness clients and building them up to a goal of completing an event, and more recently being our main man on the mic for the New England OCR Expo!

We had him on the show to talk about his training, recent knee surgery, and of course his book and podcast Shut Up and GRIND!

Be sure to follow him on social media, check out his podcast, consider...

We had Nick Gagnon on the show for hiking the Appalachian Trail back in 2023 and he seemed interested in taking on another hiking challenge in the future. Now that he finished the Pacific Crest Trail we figured it was time to have him back on the show!

We talk about the preperation for the multi-month hike, dangers of animals and weather, towns and areas that stood out on the route, how it compares the the Appalachian Trail, advice for those interested in taking on the challenge, and much more!

Start – 5:03 – Intro

5:03 – 11:21 – Quick News

1...

We have been looking for some extreme events to talk about on the show and when we saw that the first OCR was taking place in Antarctica after previous cancellations, we were excited to do an episode on it! Now that Mike listens to the shows that the UKOCR podcast releases, he heard that one of the hosts Becky Neal was there for the frigid event!

You'll hear about Becky's background in athletics, how she found OCR, rising to the challenge and becoming an elite in the sport, the ups and downs of her 2025, the OCR in...

To start every new year we have hosted a roundtable of other podcasters in the sport!

This year we had Scott "the Fayne" Knowles from I Am A Spartan Podcast, Fran Chiorando from Fran and Carlo Get OCR Adjacent, Jason Dupree from OCR Tech Talk, and Dave Claxton from OFX Podcast!

We discuss our podcasting and personal highlights from the year, thoughts on WTM success in UK, Spartan rule and payment issues, OCRCWC in Australia, the future of Hybrid Racing, goals, and much more! Important to note that this was recorded days before the Savage...

Since 2017 I have tortured myself every year by getting clips from all 50 regular episodes and for important, funny, and name compilations.

This recap episode is all of the important moments, and name clips from 2025. All clips are in order from when they were aired and are seperated by a brief moment of silence. Hope this inspires you and you enjoy it over the course of a few long runs as you prepare for the New Year!

Start – 2:53 – Intro

2:53 – 10:19 – Quick News

10:19 – 10:59 – Content Preface

10:59 – 18:04 - Name Compilation

18:04 – 5:06:21 - Important Moments Compilat...

Since 2017 I have tortured myself every year by getting clips from all 50 regular episodes and for important, funny, and name compilations. This recap episode is all of the funny moments, bloopers, jokes, and post credit clips from 2025. All clips are in order from when they were aired and are seperated by a brief moment of silence. Hope this makes you laugh and you enjoy it over the course of a few long runs or holiday travels!

Start – 3:57 – Intro

3:57 – 7:24 – Quick News

7:24 – 7:57 – Content Preface

7:57 – 4:26:00 - Funny Moments Recap Compilation

4:26:00 – End – Outro

Next weeken...

A couple episodes ago we mentioned how Christian Brown-Johnson successfully achieved the World Record for fastest cumulative 50Ks on all 7 continents in 7 days! Before that, when he was on the show back in February to talk about Hannibal Race he hinted to this challenge.

We discuss what made him want to take on such a worldwide challenge, his training in the pistachio orchard, why he chose his fundraising attempts to benefit the Michael J Fox Foundation, the various 50Ks on each continent, and much more!

Please consider donating to his fundraising page (I just did...

DEKA World Championships took place in Fort Lauderdale, FL this past weekend and while we focus on being an OCR podcast, this event has my interest every year!

Since we didn't fly down to cover it in person (someday!), we looked for an athlete to have on the show to talk about their experience. It didn't take long to pick Brooklyn Nichols as our potential guest as she had an incredible race weekend being the first elite to win all events, especially in an increasingly stacked field!

We talk about her background in sport and...

We talked about the Taco Bell 50K in Colorado as a quick news story but then another one happened in Washington DC and I wanted to have someone on the show to talk about it!

Carlo Piscitello noticed that MaryJane Osuji was taking on the challenge and suggested that she would be a good potential guest to talk about the experience. We met her at World's Toughest Mudder earlier this year, we liked her, and so we immediately reached out to have her back on the show!

We talk about her background in OCR, what...

Katelyn talks to Kris Mendoza about his first place finish at the SLO CAL Spartan Ultra. His potential return to OCR - including the Killington Ultra and World's Toughest Mudder. They talk about his journey to becoming a dental anesthesiologist. Katelyn also asks Kris a round of rapid fire questions that include his go to karaoke song, his favorite ice cream and more!

Start – 2:59 – Intro

2:59 – 6:20 – Quick News

6:20 – 7:42 – Content Preface

7:42 – 1:53:18 - Kris Mendoza Interview

1:53:18 – End – Outro

Next weekend we will likely be having a returning guest in the same year which we...

Katelyn talks with Erica Jackman as she prepares to host her first ever chapter of Rucksgiving in Providence, Rhode Island! Listen to Erica and Katelyn talk about the importance of supporting local food banks and giving back to communities. Erica shares tips about Rucking and even gives a sneak peak into the velcro patch for completing this 9 mile rucking event!

Be sure to check out her rucksgiving event or a more local one to yourself and consider supporting in whatever way you can!

Start – 3:32 – Intro

3:32 – 9:10 – Quick News

9:10 – 10:16 – Content Preface

10:16 – 32:33 - Erica Jackma...

It has been a while since we've had the man who got us into rucking on the show and Jason Dupree was talking about how he would be live streaming his 24 hour rucking world record attempt!

I reached out to Mark Jones after his success because I wanted to catch up with him to talk about his adding rucking to DEKA events, his world record performance, and to hear about the Oscar Mike annual ball!

Be sure to follow Mark on Instagram, consider rucking a DEKA event, and support Oscar Mike!

Start – 2:47 – Intro

Savage Race reportedly had their best turn out to a race in the past 5 years! The elite side had a pretty great turn out with an increased payout at the event and when I saw that Tyler Veerman won, I knew that I wanted to have him on the show again!

We first met and interviewed him after he won the 15K at OCRWC, had dinner with him in Palmerton after the 3K, and have crossed paths with him at WTM a few times and he has always seemed like a nice guy.

We talk...

We have been wanting to do another episode with Jason Dupree ever since he started carrying North American OCR and hybrid live streams on his back!

We may be a bit bias because we have been friends with Jason for many years now but we don't believe he gets half of the credit that he deserves for what he does for both sports.

We discuss how he started live streaming these sports, how much money we are making/losing from this pursuit, how you can help support the live stream, his rebranded OCR Tech Talk...

Libbie Joyce has been in the sport of obstacle course racing for a long time and has been seen as a great hope for the future of the sport (no pressure)!

We had the chance to briefly meet her at World's Toughest Mudder where she helped rabbit the event helping The OCR Report. We explained that we have been wanting to have her on the show for a while and were looking for a time in the future to set it up. That time ended up being this weekend!

Hear us discuss her background in...

We went to Colorado for a wedding (congratulations Mike and Kierstin!) and wanted to cram in as much sightseeing as possible. We weren't able to go to the Red Rocks on Saturday due to an event but luckily Katelyn saw that the following day had the Run the Rocks 5K that we could participate in!

A quick Target trip later we were mostly ready to take on the event at 6,000 feet. It was a fun event fueled by great music and it was also for a great cause with it supporting the American Lung Association in Colorado...

We had the pleasure of meeting Alex Katz while working at the New England OCR Expo and loved learning about Neighborhood Ninjas and their incredible mission. Alex recently reached out to let us know about an upcoming event being held at Ultimate Obstacles which is the same venue where we've hosted the Expo for the past few years!

Neighborhood Ninjas is currently running their Pull-Ups for Playgrounds Fundraiser through the month of October. It concludes on November 1st with the aforementioned event at Ultimate Obstacles to take on the 10-minute pull-up challenge live! You'll also get to...

The FISO OCR World Championships recently had their 3rd event weekend in Sweden this year and by all accounts it was the best one by far!

This is admittely a low bar due to overflowing portopotties in Belgium and many obstacles not being built in Costa Rica, etc. However, by working alongside the Tough Viking crew they had plenty of experience to put on a proper word championship event!

Two members of USAOCR, Vivien Tran and Kevin Thompson, wanted to come on the show to talk about their experience at the event, differences from previous...

Spartan Trifecta World Championship took place a week before Spartan Pan American Championship and there was a badass woman who won both events!

It's been a couple years since we have had Annie Dube on the show and I figured this would be a great time to reach back out and catch up on how life has been going!

We talk about her overcoming injuries, becoming a firefighter, the community reaction to her returning to the sport, what made her register for these events, how it feels to be the champion of both despite some...

Rylan Schadegg was a beloved member of both the OCR and hybrid racing communities! Our paths had crossed numerous times during our coverage of obstacle course racing and he stood out as always being very kind and respectful. We were devastated to hear the news of his passing and we wanted to do something for those that loved him.

We first had him on the show in September 2022 after winning the Spartan North American Championship but we had the chance to meet him and having him on the show in person at both OCRWC and the Spartan...

Rea Kolbl put out a post about doing her first Spartan Race since 2022 in her home country of Slovenia. In that post she expressed interest in potentially taking on the Spartan Ultra World Championships in the future but also disappointment in Spartan's continued broken promises regarding owed money!

We reached out to have her talk more about her feelings behind that post, more details of how her return to OCR went for her, how her life has changed since moving back to Europe, the various athletic persuits she has taken on, future plans, and much more!

We first met AJ Golik when we both taking on our first DEKA and covering the event at Underdog Fitness last year and more recently saw him at Belvoir Castle when he took on World's Toughest Mudder as a team with Kevin Gregory!

Katelyn and AJ discuss his experience at World's Toughest Mudder, both as a competitor and as a friend of the event's winner. AJ then shares about his time competing at Rally in the Valley, a multi-day, multi-event weekend held in West Virginia. The conversation then shifts to the challenges of making friends as adults...

It took quite a bit of rescheduling but we were finally able to have Mike Strobel on the show!

We talk about his background in sport, thoughts and experiences with adventure and hybrid racing, success with both the Spartan US National Series, World's Toughest Mudder, and more!

Be sure to follow Mike as he prepares for the Spartan Trifecta World Championship and more!

Start – 4:29 – Intro

4:29 – 12:03 – Quick News

12:03 – 12:30 – Content Preface

12:30 – 58:31 - Mike Strobel

58:31 – End – Outro

Next weekend we will be either the long awaited book interview or...