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Are you looking for a battle? The Battlegrounds growing in popularity

Permanent Mud Run Obstacle Course in Wright City Welcomes Elite, Recreational Runners
Posted 1/5/15

OCR. If you don’t know what that stands for, you may not be ready for it. Obstacle Course Racing. It’s a big trend in fitness right now for people who are looking to push themselves beyond the …

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Are you looking for a battle? The Battlegrounds growing in popularity

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Permanent Mud Run Obstacle Course in Wright City Welcomes Elite, Recreational Runners
OCR.If you don’t know what that stands for, you may not be ready for it.Obstacle Course Racing.It’s a big trend in fitness right now for people who are looking to push themselves beyond the usual distance running and endurance events.These are military-themed obstacle courses that require racers to climb giant muddy hills, crawl through water-filled ditches, run uneven terrain through the woods and much worse.About 30 minutes from Washington is The Battlegrounds, a permanent mud run obstacle course located on the same property as Cedar Lake Cellars in Wright City. It offers two distances for racers to choose — 5 miles or a 5K (3.2 miles).Right now The Battlegrounds is only open twice a year for races, in May and October. The next race will be held Saturday, May 2.As of last weekend, there were already more than 1,400 people from 26 states registered to compete, said race director Bob Holm. Since the first race was held in 2012, the numbers have grown with each event.“We started out 300, grew to 600 and 800, and we just keep getting more people every race,” said Holm.A new draw this year may be that The Battlegrounds was recently named as a qualifying event venue for the Obstacle Course Racing World Championships. It was one of only two races recently added in the United States. Others included on the list were located in Denmark, Slovakia and Canada.Spectator FriendlyThe Battlegrounds also is open to spectators who just want to come see what it’s all about, said Carl Bolm, who owns the 170-acre property and created The Battlegrounds after he had been using the site to train for other obstacle course races.Bolm, who owns a snow and ice removal company in St. Louis and was the owner of Growler’s Pub in St. Louis and 20-plus restaurants around the Midwest before that, became interested in OCR through the USO. He sits on the board of directors.The USO organizes its own obstacle course races, which it moves around, carnival style, from location to location. Bolm, who grew up in Foristell and went to school in Wentzville, began participating in the USO races and, wanting to train for them, set up an obstacle or two in the fields surrounding his winery.Gradually he added more and more obstacles to the point where he decided to make it a permanent course and hold his own race.He was careful to build in improvements that other courses lacked — like making it spectator friendly.Bolm noted when he has competed in other OCR events, his wife would see him take off and then she wouldn’t see him again until he crossed the finish line an hour and a half later.“It’s really pretty boring. There’s nothing for (spectators) to do,” Bolm said.So while the Battlegrounds course does weave in and out of wooded areas, much of the activity takes place on an open field giving spectators a chance to cheer on their racers.“The course has racers criss-crossing this main battleground about seven times as they move from obstacle to obstacle,” said Bolm.“You see what position they are in, how are they doing, are they muddy? We wanted to appeal not only to the runner, but their spectators. It’s very spectator-friendly.”For Both Elite and Recreational RunnersThe race will begin at 8 a.m., with racers leaving in waves. The first wave to go will be a small, elite group who are racing to win. Only those who are able to run an 8 1/2-minute or faster mile are allowed to participate at this level.“That’s to make it more of a true competition, and to lessen any backup at the obstacles,” said Holm.After the elite racers take off, waves of 150 to 200 people will take off every half hour.Anyone of any fitness level and ability is allowed to compete. There are no qualifying events. All racers are timed.“We do have volunteers at every obstacle and on the course assisting people if they need it,” said Holm.Runners in the elite group are required to complete all of the obstacles in order to be eligible to win, but general participants and recreational runners do not, Holm noted.“If they come to one and decide it’s too much or they don’t want to do it for whatever reason, they can go around it,” he said.The majority of people who participate in the mud run are regular folks who want to do it for the camaraderie with friends.“We get lots of groups who come out together, be it three to 30 people. They will take their time and help each other a lot for the team building, the camaraderie that comes with that,” said Holm.This includes co-workers who are looking for a fun, nonwork-related activity to bond them together.“We have a group from Boeing coming out that has about 30 people in it. They just want to come out and have fun for a day,” said Holm.There is a huge military turnout in volunteers and participants, both retired and active military, Bolm noted.After the race, participants can clean up in showers on-site. Many choose to leave their shoes behind for Barrel Aid, which collects the muddy shoes from participants, cleans them and sends them to Mission Haiti, a nonprofit that supplies clean shoes, fresh water, food and schooling to more than 1,600 underserved children in Haiti.It Is a BattleThere are about 30 obstacles in the course, including four to 10 new ones at each race.The most difficult is probably the gauntlet, said Holm.“It’s similar to the TV show ‘American Ninja Warrior.’ There are six lanes. People are coming out of the woods, climbing over that big mud hill and then there are six choices of lanes to complete. They are very difficult and require a lot of upper body strength to get across,” said Holm.The easiest obstacles are creek crosses which require running through a creek.“You can’t tell how deep the water is. One step might be ankle deep, but the next step could be deeper,” said Bolm.One of the most fun obstacles for people may be the Torpedo Launcher, a 100-foot slide that ends in a 15-foot deep water-filled ditch. It comes about one mile into the course.This year’s new obstacles are the Perilous Pontoon Bridge, where racers try to run across more than 100 yards of floating foam pads placed atop 3 feet of murky pond water;The Ground Pounder, which has runners crawling on their bellies for 250 feet while avoiding the barbed wire hanging two feet above them;The Trench ’n Clench, which has runners crouching down in a 2-foot deep water-filled trench, allowing only the person’s head to remain out of water thanks to a low hanging chain-link fence; andThe Lumberjack, which involves carrying a 15-pound log approximately 200 yards up and down a mountainous slope.Many of the obstacles have ropes and cargo nets so racers can pull themselves up out of a pool of water.“The punishment for falling off is always getting wet and muddy, which costs more time,” said Bolm.Bolm said the obstacles are meant to be challenging as a way to push people past their limits.“With any obstacle, you have the option to go around it, but part of The Battlegrounds is to battle through your fears,” said Bolm. “We want to push you, but not to the point that you get hurt.”People typically wear regular tennis shoes to compete, and a lot of them will duct tape their shoes to their feet to keep them on while they are running through mud, said Bolm, who has done the same thing when he competed.“Now the industry has gotten so big though, that they sell cross fit hiking style shoes that come up higher over the ankle and are lightweight,” Bolm noted.Typical Time Is 1 Hour 20 MinutesThe races are held rain or shine. If there is severe weather, the race will be delayed.Rain is a welcome addition to the race, since the muddier the conditions, the tougher the course will be, said Bolm. If there is no rain, portions of the course are purposely wet to add a challenge.The fastest time on The Battlegrounds course has been around 43 or 45 minutes, but the average time is more like one hour and 20 minutes, said Holm. And there are some people who need two hours to complete it.The race is typically finished by 11 a.m., said Holm.Racers wear bibs as they compete, but with this style of race, those can easily get ripped off as racers go through the course, so they also will wear wristbands with a timing chip.Adding Master’s Course, Maybe MoreAs soon as this fall, The Battlegrounds could add a master’s course to its 5-mile and 5K options.“It will be a really tough, Navy Seal-like course,” said Bolm.Holm noted they also are looking for ways to expand what The Battlegrounds has to offer. They have considered adding some mini-style races.“The gauntlet itself, being six lanes, there’s some things we could do with that,” said Holm.“We have considered adding kid races or other not-so-big races, because it’s such a production to put them on,” said Holm.They also have offered training sessions in weekends prior to the races, and they may add more of those.The Battlegrounds donates a portion of its proceeds from each race to several charities — The BackStoppers, which provides financial support and more to the families of first responders killed in the line of duty, and Operation Food Search.Runners are encouraged to bring canned food items to donate and for every item they bring, they are given a raffle ticket to win prizes.If You Go . . .On race day, the main entrance for The Battlegrounds is located off Highway OO (signs are put up to mark the entrance), but the entrance also can be accessed through Cedar Lake Cellars.From Highway OO, there are signs marking the way to the winery. Turn into the winery entrance, and the Battlegrounds entrance is past the winery parking lot.For more information, people can call 314-569-3005 or visit the website at www.thebattlegrounds.com.

File photo.

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