Obstacle Wonderland (OW) is an obstacle course race (OCR) that puts on events at their site in Wallkill, New York. In 2025, Kevin “Mudman” LaPlatney joined the OW team as a co-race director. We chatted with him on his experience in OCR, his role as co-race director and what we can expect at their spring event this April.
The following content is a copy & paste from OCRDirectory’s Weekly Newsletter, issued on February 12th, 2025.
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Well, well, well, look who decided to join the party, you bunch of hill-climbing, wall-scaling, rig-flowin’, mud-racing lunatics!
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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
TALKING OBSTACLE WONDERLAND WITH KEVIN “MUDMAN” LAPLATNEY
@themudman77
Q: Let’s kick it off with an intro. Tell us about yourself, Mudman!
A: Well, I started into OCR back in 2010 when this sport was just starting out and there wasn’t yet much buzz or many events to really choose from. That year I tried a handful of events, each with a different feel and energy to them, but got hooked immediately.
I started to improve my performance and standings, quickly making the podium a few races in, after figuring out how to actually train for this new sport. Each year my schedule grew until quickly I had a consistently lineup of 20+ competitive races a year, traveling around the country, and essentially making this my new focus around health and fitness.
Now in my 16th OCR season, I’ve finished over 250 total events and am nearing 100 podium appearances in my career.
And the nickname Mudman I guess is pretty self-explanatory by now?
Q: Now for those not familiar with Obstacle Wonderland yet, what can you tell us about them?
A: Truthfully, I didn’t discover them until well into my racing, just a few years ago in the summer of 2022.
As a lot of bigger series got stale and repetitive, not to mention increasingly expensive, I tried to expand the variety of my events post-pandemic to find what good options I hadn’t explored yet. OW is only a few hours drive from my home on Long Island, so it was worth the trip to check it out and wish I had done so sooner.
I was impressed by the entire concept and what Gabe had created- a literal Wonderland of Obstacles (and trails)… in his own home backyard.
While he states not being any sort of obstacle athlete himself, you’d never guess that with the passion he has for “his field” and the events he puts everything of himself into. Now that I’ve run about a half dozen or so races at his place, I’ve seen the quick development of both the course and race concepts which he has made up almost entirely on his own.
And I know there is so much more potential still to just keep making it into one of the most badass obstacle havens around.
Q: How did this position as a co-race director come up? And what were your initial thoughts?
A: Gabe, the owner of Obstacle Wonderland, is now a good friend of mine and had reached out to me a while ago about this opportunity.
Over the last few years we’ve discussed ideas of working on a number of projects together, and the partnership on this Spicy Spring event was a great way to combine forces and see what we could do to make an already great event even better! Before locking into this gig, we had many convos about what each of us were looking for and the reasons to team up. The main one, as we both agreed, is:
A genuine belief in and love for this sport that, quite honestly, needs help to keep thriving.
Q: With your extensive experience, being a veteran in this sport with over 250 OCR events, are there any changes or adjustments you plan to bring to this event?
A: Besides being an avid racer, I also owned and designed an obstacle gym where we’ve hosted over two dozen competition course events. I’ll take some of that experience on obstacle innovation toward what equipment they have there, as well as many thoughts on his past races I’ve run including the festival and swag package, to develop a great overall customer experience.
With the long list of brands I’ve raced myself, I can confidently say that my credibility and perspective from the customer side is hard to match, and so I want to suggest as much of the good parts while cutting out any of the bad parts that I’ve taken away from hundreds of events before, and just mix that all into this race weekend in April.
Q: How do you and Gabe envision this Spicy Spring event enhancing the participant experience?
A: Part of what has made so many of Obstacle Wonderland’s past events so fun are the creative themes they’ve gone with. Most have been around a holiday or season- this time we’re making it a Spicy Spring!
You’ve probably seen the pepper theme medals teased already, and you can expect some more similar things to pop up with awards, festival activities, and an awesome afterparty we have planned.
There will be lots of extra “spice” added to this race recipe, but some of those secret ingredients won’t be revealed until April 12-13th!
Q: People always talk about goals with OCR or running. But what about this role as a race director? Do you have any goals for yourself or the event coming up?
A: I’ve worked with several other brands and events in the past, and even with my own gym competitions the goal is the same:
create something next that is an improvement on what was there before.
Besides hoping to grow the actual race registration numbers, as well as spectators (who are free!),
I’d like to see Obstacle Wonderland receive more recognition and exposure as being one of the premier permanent OCR courses in the country.
I think this upcoming event should help show that by word of mouth and social media- including outlets like OCRDirectory! If all goes well, I think it’s safe to say I’d love to continue working with Gabe on future events. And I’m open as well to do more consulting for other brands in this industry if the fit is right.
Q: Along with that, what would make this event a success in your eyes?
A: We won’t know until the last person has crossed our finish line that weekend, but we want to see that every participant had an incredible time.
And it certainly also isn’t about the revenue amount either, which never has been what OW was for.
Mine or Gabe’s perspectives aren’t what really decides this as a success- it’s those who attend and share what they thought after it’s over.
And we look forward to seeing all the feedback and posts online, which will be carried into working on the next races that follow this Spicy Spring.
Q: So then, what is up next at Obstacle Wonderland in 2025?
A: The full year schedule will be rolling out soon, but look out for another competition and some training events this summer, as well as the return of the always popular HalloWeird fall race in October. Make sure to follow @obstaclewonderland on Instagram and Facebook for announcements and news, and the website is updated often and quickly about any new events and happenings (www.obstaclewonderland.com).
OCR EXTRAS
THIS WEEK IN OCR HISTORY:
- Five years ago, Tough Mudder introduced two new obstacles coming for the 2020 season.
Tight Squeeze & Hydrophobia. - And also happening 5 years ago this week in 2020, we saw Ultra-OCR athlete Evan Perperis completing his OCR America 2 event. Where he went to multiple OCR venues across the east coast and midwest over an 8-day period, running through each venue, often times multi-lapping them through snow and single digit temps.
He covered over 200miles and did over 1,000 obstacles over these 8 days.
This challenge was done to support the charity Folds of Honor.
COMING UP:
- You don’t want to miss NEXT WEEK!
We have the Workout of the Month. Check it out. Do the workout.
And have a chance to win a $40 Running Warehouse Gift Card.
MEDIA OF THE WEEK
It’s still winter and not much OCR & Media just yet. So a quick meme for ya’ll.
If you’ve been following Ryan Atkins racing career.
You know what’s up.
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