Bone Frog is a relatively new challenge that started a few years ago that is right up there with many difficult mud runs but is it the most difficult OCR race to date?
As an update, this mud run has become very popular and is still going. But once again, is it the most difficult OCR?
Well it depends on how many mud runs you’ve personally done, and more importantly which ones you did. I’ve personally done 7 and while Bone Frog is not one of them (yet), I have done truly difficult ones like the Spartan Beast and one could say it’s comparable to this one.
Most of the other popular mud runs are not at the level Bone Frog is at so if you’re going to compare this race to something, it’s gotta be something that is around that level which is why we’ll be comparing vs the Spartan Race, Tough Mudder and Battle Frog.
Personally I have done 2 of those events (3 Spartans and 2 Tough Mudders) and will be looking to take on my first Bone Frog challenge when it’s near my area, but I have had a chance to look at the obstacles and compare them to the ones I’ve done on other OCR’s.
Basic info on Bone Frog:
This is another obstacle course that was made to mimic the types of challenges special forces people face, specifically NAVY Seals. To partake in this event, you have 3 choices:
- A “regular” Sprint: 3 miles, possibly a little bit longer.
- The challenge which is 9 miles and also maybe slightly longer in distance.
- And the final one called “Tier 1” that is over 12 miles long.
Obviously the more difficult level you pick, the harder it will be and the more obstacles you’ll go through so choose your level according to your fitness level (and experience).
Do note, this is NOT BattleFrog:
There are many people, myself included who mistake these 2 events. They are not the same, they have completely different layouts and obstacles, although both were structured based off army challenges and also BattleFrog is currently cancelled.
Unique challenges of this event:
What I like about this event is that there’s more obstacles overall than in any other mud run I’ve done before. Even the longest ones I’ve finished have about 20-30 per race.
And despite a “lack” of obstacles, the hardest ones focus mainly on hiking mountains which is difficult, but it kind of feels like a rip off when there’s no many actual obstacles along the way to make paying so much to compete in it worth it.
Luckily in this event, you get more obstacles (There’s over 30 here, at least on Tier 1) and you’re on a mountain. Now many of them are common to ones in the Spartan Race such as carrying bags, lifting bags with ropes, barbed wire challenges and obviously scaling different kinds of walls (vertical or angled), but here are some I found to be completely new to any other OCR’s I’ve done:
1) A long 20-30 horizontal monkey bar. The difference between this and normal monkey bar challenges is that you’re about 20 feet above the ground. Although there is a safety at the bottom should you fall, this is the only obstacle I’ve ever seen in an OCR that’s this long and high up.
2) Scaling across a rope, but above water. I believe it is called “Traverse”. This was somewhat similar in the Spartan race but here you scale from one point to another over or under a rope, but here, over water. Your weight may actually pull you down so much that you’ll be “swimming” across while you scale across. You may actually be able to finish this by only using your hands and having the rest of your body be submerged in the water.
3) Moving onto other obstacles that involve a rope…there’s one that is involves you scaling it down (head first) after you climb up to reach the top of it.
4) Doing burpees, but they call it heroes. If you ever did burpees (or the Spartan Race where they are mandatory for each failed obstacle), then you’ll do the same thing here, but this counts as a separate obstacle, not a punishment.
5) A “Spider Wall”. So you have conjoined walls with long wooden pillars horizontally on the top (for your hands) and bottom of it (for your feet) and the goal is to get through the entire set of walls without touching the ground.
This one is also seen on the Spartan Race, except they have small wooden pieces, not long pieces of wood so on the Spartan Race version, it’s a bit harder to do.
6) Crossing over water but through rafts. If you have ever sat in a lift raft and tried to move around it, you know how difficult and unstable it is. Well in this challenge, you have a bunch of life rafts joined together that make a “bridge” across the water and you have to climb from one raft into another until you reach the other side.
I’ll be adding more and more obstacles especially after I personally take on this mud run!
So is this mud run the most difficult one yet?
Well based on the distances, location of it, I’d say at best this race is about as difficult as the Spartan Super, and possibly a little bit harder than Tough Mudder.
In terms of strength challenges, obstacles, locations and distances, Bone Frog bears a lot of resemblance to the Spartan Race (as you saw, I compared a lot of the obstacles in both events together) particularly as they both have similar distances for their races and involve a lot of carrying of similarly heavy props and finally, there’s also lots of climbing on ropes.
For people who are active mud runners that enjoy challenges, this is one you’re going to want to add to your list. If you have people on your team who are beginners, have them do the 3 mile race.
The good thing about Bone Frog is that for the most part most of what you need to be prepared for are long, steep hikes and being able to have strong upper body training.
Other than that and good gear, if you’ve experience more than 1 mud run with a distance of about 5+ miles, you should be able to get through Bone Frog, not easily, but you’ll be able to beat it.
This is definitely a hard event to finish but it’s also very rewarding to beat. They also give you a medal, which honestly, I am looking forward to adding since I only have 2 so far (Spartan and Survival Race, the rest don’t make them.).
The Bone Frog definitely sounds like a challenge! I have never done much more than a small Goodwill Mudrun, which was quite the challenge at the time.
But I do have hopes to one day compete in a Spartan Race. Though reading this Bone Frog, it has my curiosity, except for those Burpees! I would love to see some pictures of some of the obstacles.
On a side note, have you heard of the MuddyMuggle races? I’d like to see you add them to your race list.
Until you mentioned the Muddy Muggle, I never heard of it, but I did take a look after you mentioned it. I like the theme of it and had no idea these were happening in the U.S, thanks!