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Evan Perperis is an Ultra-OCR machine. Not only does he take on any 24-hour (and longer) OCR challenge that he can, he literally wrote the book on how to do it!
We caught up with Evan after he completed World's Toughest Mudder in Atlanta earlier this month and he told us how vital his dryrobe was at the event and how it can help improve your race performance:
The 24 hour long World’s Toughest Mudder (WTM) is the biggest Ultra-OCR in the world. With 1600 registered participants annually, the hills of Atlanta, Georgia were filled with athletes crawling through mud, swimming through water, climbing over obstacles and occasionally getting electrocuted.
If you were one of the athletes that showed up without a dryrobe, I would add one to your Christmas list as soon as possible. If you’re not clear why here’s five reasons you need a dryrobe for World’s Toughest Mudder (from the personal experience of someone who did 2xWTMs without one and 3xWTMs with one):
1. Pre-Race Check In: As we checked in for WTM Atlanta it wasn’t just cold, it was also raining. When you know you are about to spend the next 24 hours cold and miserable, you don’t need another several hours of suffering. In fact, studies show that is not best for performance (read about it in my next dryrobe blog post, dryrobe to Improve Race Performance).
2. Pre-Race, The Final Two Hours: As we waited to start 24 hours of pain the temperatures were hovering around 43 degrees Fahrenheit (around 6 Celsius). You definitely don’t want to start the race cold so I wrapped myself in a dryrobe while waiting to go to the start corral. Once I got to the starting corral I was a little chilly (still another 45 minutes until the race began), luckily my Conquer The Gauntlet Pro Teammate Amy Pajcic was smarter than I. She brought her dryrobe and we sat down wrapped in the jacket together to stay warm.
3. Mid-Race: No, I don’t suggest wearing your dryrobe on the course of WTM. This is called be a team player. Most athletes have 1-3 friends or family as pit crew to help them change clothes, feed them and take care of them at the conclusion of each five mile, 20+ obstacle lap. During the 13 hours of darkness that your pit crew is required to stay awake to take care of you, you can give them your dryrobe (or have them buy their own) so they can #staywarm. It is the perfect item for them. If they are awake out of the tent all night they can be comfortable. If they are going to take naps between your laps, they can lay in it and then literally get up still wearing their “sleeping bag”.
4. Post-Race, Immediate: As you finish 24 hours of running, obstacles and cold water immersion your body temperature plummets. I immediately took off my wet clothes and wetsuit (a necessity to avoid hypothermia) and changed into dry clothes. While I changed in my tent and then wrapped myself in my dryrobe, my teammate Wesley Kerr used his dryrobe as a portable changing area. Surrounded by other people he stripped down (completely covered by the dryrobe) and put on his own warm, dry clothes.
5. Post-Race, 24 hours: WTM is my biggest race every year and every year I have temperature regulation issues for somewhere between 1 hour and 72 hours. I alternate between sweating and freezing despite no external change in temperature. It is a product of pushing my body to the limit in very rough conditions. dryrobe continues to help with this providing a comfortable blanket/jacket to help with these temperature swings.
Do yourself a favor and pick up a dryrobe as soon as possible. Wesley Kerr and I both used them this year as part of Team Atomik. dryrobe helped us pre and post-race and made it more comfortable for our pit crew on our way to a 1st place team finish.
Enter dryrobe territory and I’ll see you back in Atlanta for World’s Toughest Mudder 2019.