The May 12th 2013 Spring Jackson Hole Ultimate Towner will be dedicated to Jarad Spackman. The event will have various obstacles that are representative of Jarad’s philosophy of life, including “Be Bold” and “The Spackman Plunge.” One of the biggest obstacles over the course will be the “Love Life” wall. A phrase that exemplifies Jarad’s approach to life and a very relevant reminder to us all as we navigate our own obstacles. The course starts and finishes at Phil Baux Park and registration opens at 8:30 AM with the the Fast Class beginning at 10 AM and the Fun Class beginning at 12:00 PM. The Ultimate Towner will have a festive atmosphere at with a DJ, live band, beer and lots of fun costumes, including Tuffy the Elephant! Now for the REST of the story… Here is a little inside story about an inspirational man named Jarad Spackman, and his influence on the development of The Ultimate Community Obstacle Course Race. Jarad Spackman was one of my best friends and a climbing partner of fifteen years. He The Ultimate Towner is a new idea and business concept that came out of the parent company, Grand Dynamics, www.granddynamics.com as a way to inspire people toward a fit active lifestyle, the experience a fun challenging event and to overcome obstacles in life. When our team at GDI had the idea of doing this in Jackson as a test pilot, I bounced the idea off Jarad, of course. His response? YEAH! That sounds awesome. I’ll sponsor that for sure… and will get Brandon (his brother) in with me. So Jarad chose one of the best obstacles, called “Take the plunge” which is a rope swing over a mud pit entering into the rodeo grounds. Not only that, but he showed up with his team – Brandon, Christian, Ryan and Jesse and proceeded to rock the event. There were a couple teams that came in faster overall average time, but those teams did not stay together. The criteria to WIN the team event was that you have to stay together. So the winning team was led by Jarad and they won because they stayed together. When I asked Ryan about it, he said, yeah, Jarad was so cheesy saying but kept us all together. Perfect. The News and Guide actually ran the results of the race stating that another team took first place. Oops. Easy mistake to make and no slight against the news and guide for that. Well Jarad called me and started giving me a bunch of heat because he told several people his team had won, and no one believed him because of the paper! Something like, “Dude, I told everyone we won the race and now no-one believes me!” Ahhh Jarad… Well, I called the paper and after some discussion with the News Reporter they ran a re-print in the newspaper stating that Jarad’s team had indeed won, because they were the only team that stayed together. That re-print ran the week before we took off for Jarad’s 30th Birthday celebration in Nicaragua last October, 2012. Jarad believed in my idea, sponsored the best obstacle with Brandon of course (thanks B!) and won the whole dang thing. Our goal this year is to rock seven or more events around the country that will help people of all kinds to overcome obstacles in various ways. Our first events are in Streetsboro, Ohio on April 20th and in Jackson May 12th (Mothers Day:o) It’s amazing what you can do when people believe in you. We rise to the expectations of our peer group. Great friends will support each other to help overcome obstacles in business and in life. It’s no question that this event in Jackson should be always dedicated to Jarad. He, was the REAL ULTIMATE TOWNER. You can watch Jarad Spackman’s memorial video in full here: Jarad Spackman: Celebration of Life full Youtube Video Check out some photos on our webpage: http://www.ultimatetowner.com/photos/ $3 of each registered participant will automatically go toward the Jarad Spackman Memorial Fund, with the opportunity to contribute additional funding toward the fund.