Saturday, September 21, 2019

Bonefrog Boston 2019

For the second year, Bonefrog, an OCR brand run by Navy SEALs and local to my area of Massachusetts, hosted its Boston event at Carter & Stevens Farm in Barre. The farm is about a 40 minute drive from my house. A few weeks out from the event, I noticed I had a free weekend and that there was a 30% off coupon posted on Facebook. Why the heck not? I find Bonefrog to be an enjoyable race and a quality brand. The Barre venue wasn't going to be a horrible beat down -- there simply isn't enough elevation or acreage to have it be too horrible. I clicked register for the six mile Challenge. (Note: Bonefrog also offers a three mile Sprint and Tier 1, where racers do both the Challenge and Sprint loops.)

I arrived at Carter & Stevens at around 8:15am, an hour in advance of my start time. Parking there is always offsite with a bus ride in. There are also a set of locals who offer race parking on their property within walking distance to the event -- the minus being that this is money lost by the race company; the plus being I get sick on that bus ride. I opted to park a quarter mile walk from the venue and half mile from the festival area. It is of note to mention that the festival area at Bonefrog tends to be kind of dead. Bonefrog is all about the race. There's no party happening, in sharp contrast to Savage Race, the last race I did in Barre. I didn't spot any vendors, and there were no food trucks. This was going to be a race and head out experience.

Upon arrival at the festival area, I immediately hopped in the line to pick up my packet. A good thing. The line was long. Extremely so, with a wait of upwards of half an hour. I chatted with the people near me in line about other races, which helped the time pass. After I grabbed my bib, I quickly checked my bag for $5 (no line there), and then headed to the starting line. Bonefrog has struggled with logistics in the registration / bag check area before, and it would be great to see them address this and get the lines better managed. Last year, there were issues with bag check and the restroom lines being long; this year, it was registration. On the plus side, many of volunteers are members of the armed services and their participation really adds to the ethos of the race brand.

I had just a couple of minutes to spare. There were some quick announcements at the start and with no fanfare our small heat was off. The Challenge course measured in at over six miles with 30 obstacles. This was slightly longer than last year. Again, the course made up for some of less-than-ideal logistics pre-race. The obstacle placement was good. I felt like they padded the miles a bit compared with last year, but it wasn't excessive. Bonefrog has had some issues with course markings in the past, but I found they had done a really good job this time, and I didn't once worry about getting lost. The course was fairly flat with just one short climb. It is pretty run-able, especially in the woods. I had to power hike in some of the cow pastures just because the ground was so wildly uneven. There was some single track that got a little congested, but this was mitigated by the small number of participants. I love a flat and fast course, and appreciate that I can experience this in Barre.



Bonefrog has some solid interesting and fun obstacles. The mix is good, though a bit heavy on the rigs, so if those aren't your jam, take note. I enjoy rigs, so I tend to be a happy camper at Bonefrog. This year, some of these rigs were a bit unfriendly to shorter racers like me, which was a bit of a bummer, but I did my best. The open wave does have penalties, but they differ from obstacle to obstacle -- 25 squats, push-ups, jumping jacks, or burpees are common. If you can do most things, you're in good shape.

I have complained about back-ups with Bonefrog in the past, which is especially a bummer due to their small numbers. This year was a bit better, which one big back-ups. The only significant back-up was at Kraken, where I waited for four minutes before deciding to do a penalty and move on. I was hoping to finish in the top of my age group and use this race as a qualifier for the North American OCR Championships next year. Back-ups are really a problem in that case because they can be inconsistent from wave to wave and lose you serious time. I had really been pushing my pace as much as possible and didn't want a wait at an obstacle to end up jeopardizing my chances at qualification.

Here's a bit more about the obstacles at the Bonefrog Boston 2019 event. They were a similar selection to last year but the order was nicely adjusted to add variety.

  • Night crawler: Low crawl.
  • Mike / Murph: The obstacle has a ladder wall with a rope down the back. Go up the wall, across a short platform and down a rope.
  • Siege Wall: Slip wall.
  • 1st Phase Wall: 6' wall.
  • Rope Swing: For this obstacle, you jumped from a platform, only a foot or so off the ground, to a rope in front of you and swung across. Kind of fun. 
  • Ship Boarding: Skinny ladders. I climbed this from the side and found that I had no problem.
  • Dirty Name: Otherwise known as "Gut Check," this obstacle has a lower log from which you jump and then pull yourself over a higher log. I am not a fan of this obstacle, as I've seen people hurt themselves on it. I climbed up the side supports -- hey, I want to live to race another day.
  • Get a Grip: This obstacle is a perennial challenge for me. Hanging from the rig were ropes with plastic handles attached. You had to swing from one to the other to get across. I have yet to make this and think that increasing my strength so that my arms are at 90 degrees might be the only hope here. 
  • 3rd Phase Wall: 10' wall
  • Swingers Club: Another rig, this time with ropes with small balls at the end. I was able to grab above the balls, which gave me the ability to swing across. This was tough, and I was glad to make it last year and this.
  • Normandy: Low crawl.
  • Viking Tables: Also known as Irish or Russian Tables, this obstacle is a horizontal rectangular prism that you have to hoist yourself up and over. 
  • Red Wings / Extortion 17 / Medal of Honor: These were three PT obstacles that had racers recalling fallen servicemen. We did dips, burpees, and pull-ups while reciting officers' names.
  • Frogman: We had to wade through a ankle deep stream. Okay, yes, my shoes got wet. A bummer but not much else.
  • Walk the Plank: This was a wobbly balance beam, right on the ground. Stakes were low, but I wanted to make it, so I focused and gave it my best balancing effort and hurried across, which wasn't too bad at all.
  • Cliff Hanger: An inverted ladder.
  • Kraken: Cargo net climb to a cargo net up high that you rolled across and a cargo net down. This was actually before the carry on the course and, as I mentioned, had an unfortunate wait, likely because of how the Sprint and Challenge courses had converged at this point. I did my penalty because I was losing time and getting stiff. 
  • Brute Force Carry / Low Crawl / Dry Hole: A carry with a twist. We grabbed canvas bags filled with around 40 lbs of sand which we had to carry along a short loop with three thru walls of increasing height with a crawl in between. Kept things interesting!
  • Strong Hold: Another interesting rig! Strong Hold featured a section of u-shaped monkey bars, which transitioned to two sets of straps, followed up another set of u-shaped monkey bars to a final grip and bell. The reach to the first strap was a bit challenging, and I ended up too low down on the straps to be able to make it to the final u-shaped bars. I had this same issue last year, and it's a bit frustrating to not be able to make that last reach, which is almost farther than my wingspan. I think I need to practice more with my Force5 grips to get better strength for having my arms pull me up on holds like this -- it's the only hope.
  • Rolling Thunder: This obstacles features tires on a horizontal pole. It's deceptively challenging and I was glad to see it at the end of the race where it didn't cause a back-up like last year. I sometimes struggle on this one, but made it in the first go.
  • Guillotine: This obstacle was neat! A balance log led up to a wall, which you went over before heading down another log. The logs were slippery.
  • Cargo Net: A huge A-frame cargo net.
  • Rope climb: Standard rope climb to a bell.
  • The Chopper: What a fun rig variation. There was a ring, which led to spinning horizontal 4-barred "chopper" -- this sequence repeated twice before racers reached the end. Last year, I did really well on this obstacle because Bonefrog address height concerns by bringing in boxes. This year, they had racers swing from the ground to the first chopper, which was really hard. After many attempts I made it but I was at almost a dead hang. I did make it 2/3 of the way across before my inability to get any momentum meant I couldn't muscle through any more. I was tired. I had pushed on the course to go as fast as I could to place in my age group and my arms just gave out.
  • Dead Weight: Classic hoist.
  • Black Ops: This obstacle has you climb up a rope wall and then traverse a set of monkey bars before landing on a platform and climbing down a ladder. Here's the thing. The monkey bars were just too high up this time and I couldn't reach them. In past years, I've either had no problem or had someone boost me. I could have climbed the side of the scaffolding but that would have meant cutting someone, which didn't seem fair. A lame way to finish the race, but I had to roll across the net and climb down.
I finished the Bonefrog Challenge in 2:00, good enough for second place in my age group, making this race a North American OCR Championships qualifier for me, which is pretty exciting. My overall impression of the event was the same as last year. This event is solid -- overall a middle of the pack experience. It was not overly outstanding, but it was decently good. Some of the logistics could use tightening up. Bonefrog is a "sometimes race" for me, but one I really do like to get on the calendar if I can. Hopefully 2020 Boston works. I do love racing this one hard on a run-able course and hope to improve on some of the rigs. Now, can you just make it a tiny bit easier for me to reach.