The women's champion was undisputedly Heather Baroody. The men’s races had more lead changes.
Tactix Attack was the name of the first competition in this new obstacle course racing series put on by VanCity OCR, itself the creation of multiple Spartan Race winner and physical trainer Allison Tai and her husband, John Tai, a mad genius for grip-destroying, gravity-flaunting tests. Set at Tactix gym April 3, the race was capped at 100 people and featured heats followed by quarter- and semi-finals before a championship round for both men and women.
If you’ve seen ABC’s American Ninja Warrior, you know what the Tais are shooting for. This isn’t a marathon mud run, but a set of obstacles laid over a sprint distance, inspired by children’s playgrounds, dream sequences evading mutant crocodiles, gymnastic and parkour minefields, indoor climbing walls and sheer madness.
Matt Petranic had the fastest time in the heats with a three minute, eight second performance. Despite more difficult challenges and heavier weights, he bettered that time by two seconds to advance out of the semi-finals.
Equalling Petranic, Jeremey De Torres also put up a 3:06 performance in the semi-finals and knocked off Radi Detchev who shaved 10 seconds off his first result. But Detchev returned in place of his teammate, who in turn had stepped in for another racer.
In a rematch, Detchev got his revenge and continued to get faster by dropping another 10 seconds off his time for a personal best of 3:10.
Petranic still held the fastest time on the course, but Detchev was one of the few who consistently ran the balance beam challenge without penalty. It paid off when he was able to do it again in the championship final. Because, despite a significant lead heading into this challenge, Petranic faltered and was penalized with 20 burpees, opening the door for Detchev.
Petranic was still paying his fine as Detchev dashed past him, flew through the rope climb, up the 12-foot warped wall, and bounced around the feet-free ladder for the victory. Detchev won in 3:17, nearly a minute ahead of Petranic’s final time of 4:11.
On the women’s side, Heather Baroody crushed all comers by winning the heats in 4:18 and then continuing to impress through two qualifying rounds to reach the final with times that kept her competitive with the fastest men.
Kelsey Jack put in the fourth-fastest performance of the day on the women's side but was knocked off in the semi-final by Baroody, who went on to win the championship by laying down a 5:41 performance, nearly 90 seconds faster than silver-medallist Nicola Sharp, on a final round that demanded the most upper-body and grip strength.
Read about my first-person experience here. It won't be my last race.
VanCity OCR will be at the Khatsahlano Festival July 9.
Twitter: @MHStewart
Tactix Attack photos
