Well, well, well, look who decided to join the party, you bunch of hill-climbing, wall-scaling, rig-flowin', mud-racing lunatics!

Welcome to the OCR Crew newsletter.

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From keeping you up to date, Asking Pro's the questions you're too afraid to ask, to shining a spotlight on the unsung heroes of the community.

We're here to make you think, laugh, and maybe even train smarter.

Alright, let’s talk about that Charlotte Sprint race over the weekend.

It was part of the 2025 Spartan US National Series, taking place on Sunday, April 6th, at Porter Farms in Concord, North Carolina.

So, Sunday hits, and these athletes roll up, ready to get after it on a course that’s FAST, MUDDY, and WILD - full of creeks, sludge that’ll steal your shoes, and all the classic Spartan obstacles (including that dunk wall that’s missing at times this year).

Most of the top names we saw in Jacksonville showed up.
Plus a few new names that shook things up.

It was a great day of racing and you should check out the race coverage from The OCR Report here.

I’d like to know what the probability is for the women’s side of this series so far!?!?

Because we had the exact same top 4 women for Jacksonville and Charlotte.
Talk about consistency. These women have it!

Cassandra Gill is showing that she can’t be stopped. With two 1st place finishes at both NS races. Along with casually winning that Super in Charlotte the day before!

Claudia Bongiovanni was sent out here from the Spartan Italy pro team and is showing solid skills with 2nd place in both races. Even gaining on Cassandra in the middle of Charlotte when she missed her spear. But Cassandra wasn’t going to let that slide and pushed back into 1st!

Rounding out the top 4 we have Kaci Monroe who’s been in the OCR game for a decade maybe?!?! Along with Sabrina Buhagair who’s brand new to it and still learning the ropes, but showing she can already hang with the top women in Series events.

For the dudes.
Adam Beach is showing he’s unstoppable right now. He doubled down and picked up another 1st place in Charlotte, even with some OG’s like Nick Ryker and Kevin Thompson chasing hard in this last race.

And like the women, we have Mike Strobel, who’s also been consistent AF.
Two 5th place spots and he’s raking up good points, putting him into 2nd place overall right now.

Okay guys. Here’s where it gets interesting.

So many. Of these current leaderboard athletes.
Are east coast runners, that don’t train at altitude.

And the following 2 races of the series are FREAKING UP THERE. Check out the altitude map I made last year. With Big Bear and Utah circled, for our last two races.

While Cassandra and Adam have two solid 1st places.
Nothing’s a sure thing just yet.
These final two races have an opportunity to mix up the standings.

It’s the best 3 out of 4 and if someone is strong at altitude and can pull off solid performances on these final two, we could see some changes.

As for Claudia and Matteo. The two Spartan Italy pro team athletes.
I truly have no idea where they train and how they are at altitude.
If they can perform well at these last two, they have a solid shot at the top.

But the one other person that comes to mind who could shake things up.
Kaci Monroe.

Kaci’s straight out of Montana and is much more accustomed to altitude than her competition. And in a spicy 30-40 minute Sprint race, she could do pretty well.

What would it take for her to end the Series in first?!?!
1st place in the final two races with Cassandra getting worse than 3rd place.

Is it possible? Yes.
But still a long shot.

It’ll be cool to see what happens in the 3rd race. After that one, we’ll know almost for sure how this all plays out.

In early April of 2013, Tough Mudder hosted its first major Northeast event of the year in Pocono Manor, Pennsylvania.

The Electroshock Therapy obstacle—a dash through live wires—sparked chaos when a participant collapsed after a shock, prompting a brief halt and safety debates.

Over 10,000 racers still braved the 10-mile course, but the incident fueled headlines and chatter over the next few weeks.

Ever faced the electroshock wires and got a surprising jolt?!?!

Some dude posted how you can create an action figure of yourself with chatgpt and everyone jumped on board to check it out.

Here are three in the Spartan / OCR world that popped up this week.

It was another Spartan National Series weekend. So you know what that means!
Joe Martello was out taking awesome pictures of the elite guys and gals on course.
Check out all his pictures here.

Here are my 4 favorites Joe took over the weekend. 🔥

1.) Cole De Rosa running a curve faster than I can run straight.
2.) Nick Ryker with a picture that for sure gets posted on a Tinder profile
3.) Cassandra Gill at the Hercules Hoist with her gloves she puts on and off through the race. Perhaps that’s the secret to getting 1st place both days?!?!
4.) And we can all feel this picture. A shoe left behind in the muddy mess of a Charlotte Spartan race weekend.

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What’d you think of this week’s Newsletter?

Reply back to let me know!

Thanks guys - Paul