Why Did I Decide Start an OCR?

Reed gets healthy and decides to help others do the same.

The Journey.

Starting in January of 2013 I began a fitness journey. At that time I weighed well over 300 pounds, plus I was taking several medicines directly due to my obesity, had trouble fitting into chairs, and really thought I was going to die just climbing stairs.

My kids and me at a T-Bones game on Father’s Day 2012

I was not always that way. As a matter of fact, I was extremely skinny growing up and stayed slim until I was in my 30's. Yet,through smoking and stopping smoking and eating and eating and spending most of my free time on the couch I was able to overcome my metabolism and nearly double my bodyweight in less than 20 years.

Then I was given a CPAP machine to keep me breathing even though my fat wanted to cut off my air at night. Except the problem was wearing the mask inspired nightmares of the creature from the movie Alien stuck to my face and I would wake up in a panic trying to get it off of me. Shortly after that I “ran” a 5k with a friend and it took us 75 minutes. By then the time tracking company had already packed up and leaving me heart-broken because I did not get to see the technology work. Finally a friend lost a lot of weight through medical intervention and I was still fat. Something had to change.

I started going to the gym. There I met a guy who told me about a group of guys from church who met weekly for accountability on their weight loss journey and said I should join them. I did join the group, signed a contract and followed the meal plan and complied with the exercise guidelines. During one of the meetings we were challenged to set a goal of a 5k or similar and so I did.

Some races I participated Fall, 2014

Over the course of the next year I lost 100 pounds, started running 5k’s or more every month and discovered Obstacle Course Racing (OCR). The challenge of doing better each race is what keeps me engaged and on target with my fitness goals.

Meanwhile the idea occurred to me for an OCR based on the Bible as a way to help others set a goal and improve their fitness.

I nurtured this idea for over a year and now I am bringing this idea to fruition as the Mighty Warrior Challenge. I’ll be shaping this idea over the next few weeks and assembling a team. We will then launch a crowdfunding campaign January, 2016 and host the inaugural Mighty Warrior Challenge OCR a few months later probably near Kansas City.

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You'll want to hurry because I plan to tell about the whale in the next post.

I'm creating the Mighty Warrior Challenge. I believe people and especially the church has gotten out of shape and I want to challenge them to get into shape so they can perform whatever mission for which they are called. You can also follow me on Facebook or Twitter. A similar post originally appeared on www.mightywarriorchallenge.com.

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