Fellow Athletes,
It’s way past any respectable athlete’s bedtime as I write this (yes, 2AM is late even in NYC), but some exciting updates are making it a bit difficult for me to get back to sleep.
The last 24 hours have been a bit of a whirlwind as you may have heard the news from our friends at Warrior Dash and their announcement of their inaugural World Championships. Moreover, they are offering a historic prize purse for this elite competition, one that has raised many eyebrows, especially amongst those most fleet-of-foot (as some of my favorite coaches would say). Additionally, you may have learned that this event falls on the same weekend as our very own independent World Championship.
Is this ideal? No, of course not. In fact, we’ve heard from countless athletes wishing they could compete in both (I don’t blame them, so do I). And though there are many differences between our events, there is one conflict in my mind that trumps all others. A conflict that involves one of our core principles.
The OCRWC was created with one mission: help unify the sport of OCR by serving the athletes that drive it. However, holding two competing Championship events on the same day does little to support that mission and arguably, achieves the exact opposite. Luckily, this is a conflict we can easily resolve with a little bit of elbow grease (or mud).
To further demonstrate that we are serious in our passion to further the sport of OCR, we have decided to move our event back one week to October 25 & 26. This will allow us to support our friends at Warrior Dash in their inaugural World Championship, ensure the success of our event, and most importantly, this will offer athletes even more great racing options. And that’s something I think we can (and should) all get behind.
Finally, please let me assure you that our relationship with Warrior Dash is in no way contentious (in fact, it’s quite the opposite—check out our Qualifiers page to see what I mean). Rumors and speculation to the contrary only serve as a divisive voice at a critical time in our sport.
So once again…bring on 2014!
Adrian
OCRWC President
PS: Thank you to our Competition Committee and EVERYONE who has shared his or her opinion with me over the last 24 hours. You continue to be the reason this sport is so amazing.
