This weekends race was my first Bonefrog race of the season. Bonefrog is a Navy Seals branded race. Their obstacles are all based around Navy Seals training. They are very unique and different from what you might see at other OCRs. Their race format is also very different from other races. They have the Elite waves with mandatory obstacle completion, and the penalty for failure at an obstacle is different for each one. Some obstacles it might be 25 jumping jacks, some obstacles it may be 25 push ups. However, if you fail the obstacle, you must do the penalty, and after that then you can retry the obstacle. if you fail again, you have to do the penalty again. This really helps prevent logjams at obstacles, as well as separates the great obstacle racers from the average racers.

There are also no water obstacles, like dunk walls or mud pits. No electrocution obstacles. There is only one carry and it was a 40lb sandbag. There are no mens/womens obstacles. All the obstacle requirements are the same for each. They also have several obstacles where you do a workout like pull ups, and say a fallen soldiers name in honor of them.

There are several varieties of races to sign up for with varying distances. Most require you to do several laps of the Sprint lap. You can gain bigger medals by doing so and add on extra lap pins if you are doing the Endurance. Last wave is at 2pm, the racers are allowed to complete the lap they are on, but they can’t add on any more.

Venue

The venue was located on a nature preserve. It was very flat terrain, mostly trails, but with some roads and gravel mixed in. A lot of it was uncovered from the sun but you did have some shaded parts. The festival area was a huge flat grassy surface. There was about 8 obstacles in the venue area, so it was great for spectators. The race itself went in and out of the festival area, so it made for some really cool race moments.

There was some water in the area but the race didn’t go through any of it really. There was a small portion of it that you walked in maybe a foot of water but that’s it. It was a very dry race, by the end of it you were just sweaty, not covered in mud and water.

Pros

The race was setup very well in that you didn’t have to wait long to get to an obstacle. They were placed well throughout the course and the really tough grip strengh obstacles weren’t back to back. This helped to keep the course flow moving smooth. There was a water station almost every mile, so even on a hot day it was easy to stay hydrated. There was lots of volunteers on the course and at every obstacle. They seemed pretty diligent about enforcing the Elite rules too.

The festival area had only 1 choice of food but they served up some good stuff. The free beer tent gave you the choice of 3 different beers, so that was a plus. There were also some different vendors there like Fierce Gear OCR and Frog Fuel. Parking was extremely close by, you really didn’t even need bag check as the cars were all just a short walk away.

Cons

The only real issues I heard about was they seemed to run out of water in the festival area. Not sure what happened. Also because of New Jersey laws, you couldn’t walk around the festival area with your free beer. Nothing Bonefrog can do about the laws, but definitely a bummer if you wanted to hang out and drink.

Also for some reason, they got rid of Open Age Group podiums. Didn’t really find out why, maybe too hard to enforce. I know other races don’t do podiums for Open, but that was missed at this race.

Conclusion

Bonefrog is a must race for any Obstacle Course Racer. It will test you in different ways, while helping to give you an appreciation for the veterans who have helped make our freedoms possible. They also have some of the coolest medals and swag.

Any questions or comments, please message me. Also if there was a particular obstacle you had issues with, let me know and maybe I can offer some tips! Thanks for reading!