"This
is a man's world," James Brown once sang.
And
to read this
story in the New York Times, you'd have to think the title of the
song, "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World" would be a pretty
apt description for the OCR scene.
And
you'd be wrong.
Sure,
lots of OCR advertising material focuses on attracting the
beer-chugging, fist-pumping, chest-thumping,
weekend-warrior-kind-of-guy, but OCRs are not the sole province of
the testosterone set. As I, and my 8466 sisters who are a part of the
Spartan Chicked movement, can attest to, women are just as good at
getting as dirty.
Writer
Joshua David Stein, in his NY Times piece, describes the Tough Mudder
as "an extreme obstacle course
that is becoming the macho sport of choice for Type A men (and some
women) who find marathons too easy and triathlons meh." He goes
on to chronicle pull-up challenges, keg-chucking, and other feats of
intense, well, male-ness. He focuses on the "band of brothers"
camaraderie and spirit.
And
he totally misses that lots of women run OCRs too.
Are
there tons of guys, like the ones Stein describes, running OCRs?
Sure. But there are tons of others, too, from all walks of life.
Mixed in with the former athletes and hardcore fitness fanatics,
there are plenty of people who are out there on the course, just
trying to prove that they can overcome one more challenge, conquer
one more obstacle. There are plenty of women running these races -
from stay-at-home-mothers in Ohio, to English teachers in New
Hampshire, to graduate students in New Mexico. To stereotype obstacle
course races as a man's world is to discount the growing number of
women who are getting down and dirty in the mud every weekend.
I,
myself, am a self-described OCR addict. As my husband so often
complains, I plan my year (and my vacations) around OCRs. I ask for
Dri-Fit gear and trail running shoes for Christmas. I head to the gym, not so I can look better in a bikini, but so that I can finally
complete a rope climb during a race.
And
I'm not alone. The number of female obstacle course racers increases
every year. We are a force to be reckoned with. And while we may be
competing for different and very personal reasons, we all get at
least a small sense of satisfaction when we pass a guy on the course
- also known as "chicking."
And
why not, when as Stein describes in his article, there are men
who put surgical tape on their chests, while saying, “This is
going to be 9/11 on my nipples.”
Really?
Try nursing a baby with tongue tie and thrush. Dude needs to quit
whining and take a lesson from the chicks and Spartan the F up...
