The OCR Report

Last year Nicole Mericle beat Lindsay Webster for the 2019 Spartan Race World Championship. Last week Lindsay Webster beat Nicole Mericle in the first race of the 2020 Spartan US National Series.

Will talked with Nicole about her podium in Jacksonville, her goals outside of OCR, and some of the mental aspects of OCR that aren't often discussed.

We need your help! Last week was a LONG episode with four separate interviews. This week we're doing a shorter episode, with one interview. What do you like better? One longer episode or several shorter episodes? Let us know in a review on Apple Podcasts and we will read it on a future episode. Thank you!

--- Welcome to The OCR Report Podcast! We are the only podcast to focus exclusively on the Elite SPORT side of Obstacle Course Racing. Each week we talk about who won the latest race, who lost, and what that means for next week's race. --- The OCR Report Podcast is hosted by Will Hicks, the host of World's Toughest Podcast, and presented by The OCR Report, home of Overcome and Run with Heather Bode, Obstacle Running Adventures with Mike Stefano and Katelyn Ritter, and OCR Talk with Jason Dupree and Anna Landry. --- What do you think of The OCR Report Podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and let us know. Subscribe to get new episodes as soon as they are available and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Spartan has officially purchased Tough Mudder! This is the biggest news in the OCR industry since the OCR industry became a thing approximately 10 years ago.

We open the episode with a brief discussion of the Spartan/Tough Mudder purchase story so far. It has been an emotional journey.

This past weekend was the first race of the 2020 Spartan US National Series in Jacksonville, Florida. Ryan Atkins and Lindsay Webster took home the wins for the men and the women.

On today's episode, we talk with the top four male finishers about their race in Jacksonville. We will talk with the top female finishers in future episodes. (Note on that below).

Each man we talked with had a slightly different take on the race, and we talked about slightly different topics with each one. Ryan Atkins commented on OCR and social media during the off-season. Veejay Jones also touched on social media and the lengths people go to document their workouts. Ryan Kempson talked about his one-second win over Ryan Woods for 3rd Place and Ryan Woods talked about the non-controversy that was his Herc Hoist.

We need your help! Today is a LONG episode with four separate interviews. The top women from Jacksonville will each have shorter, individual episodes. Would you prefer one longer episode or several shorter episodes? Let us know in a review on Apple Podcasts and we will read it on a future episode. Thank you!

--- Welcome to The OCR Report Podcast! We are the only podcast to focus exclusively on the Elite SPORT side of Obstacle Course Racing. Each week we talk about who won the latest race, who lost, and what that means for next week's race. --- The OCR Report Podcast is hosted by Will Hicks, the host of World's Toughest Podcast, and presented by The OCR Report, home of Overcome and Run with Heather Bode, Obstacle Running Adventures with Mike Stefano and Katelyn Ritter, and OCR Talk with Jason Dupree and Anna Landry. --- What do you think of The OCR Report Podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and let us know. Subscribe to get new episodes as soon as they are available and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Rea Kolbl is a two-time winner of World's Toughest Mudder and the reigning champion of the 24-hour Spartan Ultra World Championship. Rea joins us to talk about her win in Sweden last year, the lessons she brought with her from her two wins at the 24-hour World's Toughest Mudder, and the first-ever Spartan race in her native country of Slovenia.

Rea is sponsored by Ascent Protein, Dry Robe, Stairmaster, and Ultimate Direction. You can follow her on Instagram at @reakolbl, on Facebook, and on her website.

--- Welcome to The OCR Report Podcast! We are the only podcast to focus exclusively on the Elite SPORT side of Obstacle Course Racing. Each week we talk about who won the latest race, who lost, and what that means for next week's race. --- The OCR Report Podcast is hosted by Will Hicks, the host of World's Toughest Podcast, and presented by The OCR Report, home of Overcome and Run with Heather Bode, Obstacle Running Adventures with Mike Stefano and Katelyn Ritter, and OCR Talk with Jason Dupree and Anna Landry. --- What do you think of The OCR Report Podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and let us know. Subscribe to get new episodes as soon as they are available and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

We start the show with a quick update on Spartan's potential purchase of Tough Mudder. It might happen, but the Tough Mudder co-founders are blocking the deal. If a deal doesn't happen, Tough Mudder is being forced toward bankruptcy by vendors they failed to pay in 2019.

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While Tough Mudder struggles to keep the lights on, Spartan continues to expand its fitness offerings. Yancy Culp has developed Spartan's newest program debuting in 2020: DEKAFIT.

Yancy joins us to talk about what DEKAFIT is, what it is not, and how it is different from the CrossFit Games and Hyrox. One big difference: Anyone off the street can compete in DEKAFIT without having to learn new movements or new motions. Everyone knows how to throw something or push something. No one needs special training to learn how to run a lap on a track. Yancy is excited about removing that barrier to entry that might typically discourage the first-timer from competing.

--- Welcome to The OCR Report Podcast! We are the only podcast to focus exclusively on the Elite SPORT side of Obstacle Course Racing. Each week we talk about who won the latest race, who lost, and what that means for next week's race. --- The OCR Report Podcast is hosted by Will Hicks, the host of World's Toughest Podcast, and presented by The OCR Report, home of Overcome and Run with Heather Bode, Obstacle Running Adventures with Mike Stefano and Katelyn Ritter, and OCR Talk with Jason Dupree and Anna Landry. --- What do you think of The OCR Report Podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and let us know. Subscribe to get new episodes as soon as they are available and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Spartan sent out a press release on Christmas Eve announcing they have acquired an option to purchase the majority of Tough Mudder's international operations. The press release is below. As of December 26th, there has been no actual transaction between Tough Mudder and Spartan Race. We reached out to Spartan and Tough Mudder for more information on this possible transaction. Tough Mudder was unavailable for comment. Joe De Sena joined us to talk about how the option purchase came to be and how the relationship between himself and Will Dean, the co-founder of Tough Mudder has changed over the years. Will Spartan buy Tough Mudder? Would that be good or bad for Obstacle Course Racing? Let us know what you think in a review on Apple Podcasts. --- Spartan Race announced the acquisition of an exclusive option to acquire Tough Mudder's UK, Canadian, and German events today, as the first step in an effort to bring together a complete merger of the two obstacle course race leaders.

Tough Mudder events in those countries would continue to be operated by the same team and under the same brand, to be a part of the larger Spartan family of brands and events. Tough Mudder associates and participants in the UK, Germany and Canada will be able to continue on with their Tough Mudder adventure.

"This is a goal we've had for some time," said Joe De Sena, Spartan founder & CEO. "Tough Mudder UK, Canada & Germany bring a unique experience and putting the success of the two together strengthens our global mission of getting 100 million people off the couch."

Under Spartan ownership, Tough Mudder UK, Canada and Germany races and events would focus on teamwork-based non-competitive festival events, leaving the competition to the Spartan side of the business.

"I look forward to creating a lasting partnership with Will and Guy as we seek to complete the merger," De Sena said. "I'm excited about the prospect of what we can do together, as one team."

Spartan will continue to work with Tough Mudder's founders, Will Dean and Guy Livingstone, in efforts to complete the acquisition and renewal of Tough Mudder's US-based events and operations in the coming days.

--- Welcome to The OCR Report Podcast! We are the only podcast to focus exclusively on the Elite SPORT side of Obstacle Course Racing. Each week we talk about who won the latest race, who lost, and what that means for next week's race. --- The OCR Report Podcast is hosted by Will Hicks, the host of World's Toughest Podcast, and presented by The OCR Report, home of Overcome and Run with Heather Bode, Obstacle Running Adventures with Mike Stefano and Katelyn Ritter, and OCR Talk with Jason Dupree and Anna Landry. --- What do you think of The OCR Report Podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and let us know. Subscribe to get new episodes as soon as they are available and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

The 2019 Obstacle Course World Championship was held recently in London, England. The 2019 15k race was won by Karin Karlsson, from Sweden.

This is Karin's first win at OCRWC. In her four previous years at OCRWC she has five podium finishes and two fourth places. Going into 2019 she had never finished worse than fourth at OCRWC.

Karin talks about her approach to the race and how she visualized her victory long before it happened. She and Will talk about the mental side of OCR and it's importance in winning big races and how her mental game helped her win the 2019 Obstacle Course Racing World Championship.

--- Welcome to The OCR Report Podcast! We are the only podcast to focus exclusively on the Elite SPORT side of Obstacle Course Racing. Each week we talk about who won the latest race, who lost, and what that means for next week's race. --- The OCR Report Podcast is hosted by Will Hicks, the host of World's Toughest Podcast, and presented by The OCR Report, home of Overcome and Run with Heather Bode and Obstacle Running Adventures with Mike Stefano and Katelyn Ritter. --- What do you think of The OCR Report Podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and let us know. Subscribe to get new episodes as soon as they are available and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

The 2019 OCR World Championships are underway in London, England. For up-to-the-minute results, follow The OCR Report on Instagram at @TheOCRreport.

Jon Albon and Nicole Mericle defended their titles as 3k World Champions. Jon finished the 3k course in 21:34. Nicole won her 2019 Championship in 26:41

The full 3k Podium:

Men

1. Jon Albon of Great Britain, 21:34
2. Thomas Van Tonder of South Africa, 22:13
3. Sergei Perelygin of Russia, 22:19

Women

1. Nicole Mericle of the United States, 26:41
2. Ida Steensgaard of Denmark, 26:53
3. Rebecca Hammond of the United States, 27:07

Be sure to follow us on Instagram for results and photos all weekend long and subscribe to the podcast to get future episodes straight to your phone.

--- Welcome to The OCR Report Podcast! We are the only podcast to focus exclusively on the Elite SPORT side of Obstacle Course Racing. Each week we talk about who won the latest race, who lost, and what that means for next week's race. --- The OCR Report Podcast is hosted by Will Hicks, the host of World's Toughest Podcast, and presented by The OCR Report, home of Overcome and Run with Heather Bode and Obstacle Running Adventures with Mike Stefano and Katelyn Ritter. --- What do you think of The OCR Report Podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and let us know. Subscribe to get new episodes as soon as they are available and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Nicole Mericle is your 2019 Spartan Race World Champion. This is Nicole's first world championship. Nicole and Lindsay Webster have been going back and forth all year in the Spartan US Championship Series and at the Spartan North American Championship. Nicole and Lindsay are clearly the top two women in Spartan Racing right now. Lindsay has won most of their head-to-head matchups this year, but in the race that mattered most, Nicole Mericle stepped on the gas and won by nearly 16 minutes. Nicole's win at the Spartan World Championship this weekend was one of the most dominant World Championship performances we've ever seen, male or female. Her world championship places her alongside other past world champions including Lindsay Webster, Zuzana Cucomova, and Amelia Boone. We talk about how she was scared in the starting chute at Tahoe, why she comes out of the gate so fast at every race, and what her plans are for the Spartan Race Million Dollar Challenge. Nicole is sponsored by Darn Tough Socks, Spartan Race, and AltRed. You can follow her on Instagram at @nickeldm. --- Welcome to The OCR Report Podcast! We are the only podcast to focus exclusively on the Elite SPORT side of Obstacle Course Racing. Each week we talk about who won the latest race, who lost, and what that means for next week's race. --- The OCR Report Podcast is hosted by Will Hicks, the host of World's Toughest Podcast, and presented by The OCR Report, home of Overcome and Run with Heather Bode and Obstacle Running Adventures with Mike Stefano and Katelyn Ritter. --- What do you think of The OCR Report Podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and let us know. Subscribe to get new episodes as soon as they are available and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Heather Olson is the host of the Overcome and Run podcast, on the OCR Report Network. She was at the 2019 Spartan Race World Championship and raced the brutal course this weekend. Heather and Will talk about the course, the winners, and whether anyone will win the Spartan Million Dollar Challenge. --- Welcome to The OCR Report Podcast! We are the only podcast to focus exclusively on the Elite SPORT side of Obstacle Course Racing. Each week we talk about who won the latest race, who lost, and what that means for next week's race. --- The OCR Report Podcast is hosted by Will Hicks, the host of World's Toughest Podcast, and presented by The OCR Report, home of Overcome and Run with Heather Bode and Obstacle Running Adventures with Mike Stefano and Katelyn Ritter. --- What do you think of The OCR Report Podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and let us know. Subscribe to get new episodes as soon as they are available and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

This weekend is the Spartan Race World Championships. Jack Bauer and Will Hicks have a special two-part preview of the athletes to watch.

Part two: The women. Lindsay Webster is the defending champion and the favorite going into this year's race. Nicole Mericle has given Webster all she can handle all year long. Jack and Will agree: The 2019 Spartan World Champion will come down to Lindsay and Nicole.

Other women to watch: Rebecca Hammond, Miriam Guillet-Boisset, Rose Wetzel, and Rea Kolbl.

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Ready to make your own predictions on the race? Go to YancyCamp.com and call your shot.

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Welcome to The OCR Report Podcast!

We are the only podcast to focus exclusively on the Elite SPORT side of Obstacle Course Racing. Each week we talk about who won the latest race, who lost, and what that means for next week's race.

The OCR Report Podcast is hosted by Will Hicks, the host of World's Toughest Podcast, and presented by The OCR Report, home of Overcome and Run with Heather Bode and Obstacle Running Adventures with Mike Stefano and Katelyn Ritter.

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What do you think of The OCR Report Podcast? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and let us know. Subscribe to get new episodes as soon as they are available and find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.