One race in the event calendar, XMan Race, which is an event I've grown to love. It is run by the same organizers who bring you the X-Trail (a lovely series of trail runs in the Eastern Townships, and great preparation for Spartan hill climbs). I've been volunteering with this gang for a couple of years now.
XMan Race is relatively new in the obstacle course race circuit as the inaugural event was only in August 2013. It has quickly grown in popularity in Quebec and into a two-day race weekend, as well as 3 separate dates. Run and finish all 3 to get the XMan Triple Crown (which is what I'm going for on September 27th)
The big challenge now with OCR's is to set themselves apart from other industry bigwigs like Tough Mudder, Spartan Race and Warrior Dash. XMan is not in the cookie cutter frame of mind, as there is no fire to jump over, for starters. The obstacles all have original, memorable names and some neat concepts. Also, the course plotters make sure that a) the trail isn't just a steep hill climb for 10 minutes and b) there's an obstacle to break the monotony of running up, down and all around. (It also means racers who are out of their comfort zones get to see a volunteer encouraging them...people still need that connection, right?) So without much further ado, the XMan Sherbrooke was held in beautiful Mont-Orford, QC. The weather was gorgeous for both days, which saw over 5000 racers on Saturday alone tackle the 8km, 51 obstacle(!) course.
Above is the course map with the obstacle names (the small cluster of dots at the bottom are the ones near the finish line) I'm not going to reveal the details of each and every one, get out there and run an XMan Race either in September (at Ski Le Relais) or next year.
Saturday was a full day of volunteering for me, and I started off helping out a bit with registrations. Organization is top-notch here, with a volunteer directing racers to either the waiver table, or the appropriate line to pick up their race packet (by last name). Participants each got a t-shirt, an XMan logo headband and rubber bracelet, and a blue bracelet for beer or Red Bull at the finish line, along with their timing chips. In the short duration I was at registration, I handed a race packet to Jesse Bruce who was running in the elite heat at 8am. Kinda hard to miss the guy wearing orange shorts and stylized (and intimidating) eye black. Check him out in action (Tranchées H20):
Scary, eh? Anyways, I've found some elites have this high horse mentality where they're so pumped up and they know they're faster than most, that it makes them sneer and borderline look down on you when you try and talk to them. Jesse, though focused on the upcoming race, took the time to listen to the final instructions I gave him. He is also the badass behind Alpha Obstacle Training, an OCR-training specific facility in Toronto. I hope to make a pilgrimage there soon.
Next I was stationed at an obstacle (can you find 'Poutres' on the map?), which was balance beams! A new one on this XMan circuit. I just had to make sure people didn't cheat (ie jump off the 2nd beam halfway across), but also ensure their safety. It was near the halfway point so it was always a constant trickle or wave of participants. Whew! Some of you know I joined an OCR team/community called the Canadian Mudd Queens, I first met a Mudd Queen at Spartan Sprint Ottawa. One of them ran the XMan on Saturday and was easily recognizable by the signature Eh? Team tank.
Sunday - after some more volunteering (at the obstacle called Apocalypso) - the volunteers geared up for the last heat at 2pm. Off we went with "Enter Sandman" blasting on the sound system, and it started with what else? A gradual hill climb. Not far into the hill climb do we get to 'Sapins' (Christmas trees), which made me smile since this was the very first obstacle back in 2013. Racers got to carry a dried-up Christmas tree on a small loop before continuing on. Original, challenging (you can't exactly tuck it under your arm) and funny.
Back down the slope to more obstacle madness including climbing over a small mountain of stacked hay rolls (K2), Apocalypso (ok fine if you're curious the picture's at the bottom), Tranchées H20 (similar to Tough Mudder's Cage Crawl) before going back up the slope and a barbed wire crawl.
The obstacles are coming, fast and furious and test everything from A-Z. I found this time around there were quite a few that focused on balance (a harder thing to do if you're tired, and slightly out of breath). A neat one I can't believe I haven't seen yet in 3 years of OCR's was a log flip! I felt somewhat like one of those Scottish strongmen doing the caber toss.
Even though I'd practiced on Saturday, I didn't complete the balance beam obstacle and went for a little trot on a penalty loop (it's not always 30 burpees as punishment for failing, folks), and then went on an uphill climb, to the next two awesome obstacles..
- CZJ (Catherine Zeta-Jones): named after her role in "Entrapment", a bunch of ropes strung helter skelter between trees, creating the illusion of laser trip-wires.
- Top Gun: XMan's answer to the javelin throw - hit a target in 3 tries with a paintball gun! (So far this obstacle is always found after a small hill climb...coincidence?)
The course zigzagged its way up what I do believe is Mont Giroux; en route (among others), a tricky sandbag carry, a cargo net to shimmy across horizontally, and XSlack - slack lines spiderwebbing across a section of trees. Again - challenging yet fun. The downhill has already begun and there is no letup in obstacles.
Somehow, the organizers got ahold of those digital road signs that warn of construction ahead and programmed it to flash "600m to go; 8 obstacles left"! Here's where I felt the organizers got a little too ambitious. There were a couple of hard obstacles at this point, and someone not used to this type of event and mentally burnt could seriously hurt themselves. For one, Le Temple Maudit:
...and it's the Platinum Rig.
I didn't mean to cop out, but at this point I knew I was going to fail anyway so I headed straight to the penalty zone. We get to pick up this giant wooden disc with a small hole in the middle (looks like a giant lazy Susan) and walk a small loop with it.
The last two obstacles which are new to this year's edition of the XMan are Dark Angel (a warped wall similar to Tough Mudder's Everest, minus the slippery plastic-y surface) and a wire fence to climb over. Jesse Bruce won the elite heat on Sunday but stayed for a couple of hours afterward to help racers with Dark Angel. So awesome.
Once over that fence (my new Salomon Speedcrosses that got baptized with this race made it a bit tricky), it was the finish line - collect badass medal and a cold beer. What an end to an amazing weekend and awesome race! (It took me about two and a half hours to conquer this bad boy)
XMan Race is once again more than I'd expected - challenging but doable. The volunteers are fantastic, attentive and greet you with a hello; racers are encouraging others, and the organizers listen to the feedback (some felt there weren't enough water stations on Saturday so on Sunday there was an extra one added to the course). Last one in the calendar is Saturday, September 27th at Ski Le Relais (near QC city) so if you've got a chance, come check it out!
Ok, here's Apocalypso. Near the upper right-hand corner of the picture you see someone perched wearing black shorts and bright teal, turquoise and yellow Salomon Speedcrosses - that's me.
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