Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) is a sport in which a competitor, traveling on foot, must overcome various physical challenges in the form of obstacles. Races vary from mostly obstacles such as American Ninja Warrior "Ninja Races", to track races, to urban and cross country events. In cross country events, mud and trail runs are often combined and the races are designed to result in mental and physical collapse. Obstacles may include climbing over walls, carrying heavy objects, traversing bodies of water, crawling under barbed wire, and jumping through fire. Many obstacles are similar to those used in military training, while others are unique to obstacle racing and are employed throughout the course to test endurance, strength, speed and, dexterity.
Races vary in distance and difficulty, often combining trail running, road running, and cross country running. With race venues typically in sports stadiums, ski resorts, cities and parks, organizers encourage athletes of all types to participate. Many military training obstacles were introduced into Cross Country Running at Tough Guy. According to the Los Angeles Times in 2012, the number of eventsâ€"typically all-day festivalsâ€"rose rapidly. Supporting the sports popularity, several on-line magazines including Mud Run Guide and Obstacle Racing Media were launched. A print version Obstacle Race Magazine had a short run starting 2012.
History
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Ancient History
From the stadion, the oldest event of the Ancient Olympic Games, to the contemporary era steeplechase, obstacles of some sort have been presented to athletes for thousands of years. The Ancient Olympic Pentathlon included five events contested over one day, thought to have started with the stadion (a short foot race) followed by the Javelin throw, Discus throw, Long jump and ending with wrestling. The event was first held at the 18th Ancient Olympiad around 708 BC, and is quite similar to the model day Spartan Race, which includes running, javelin (spear) throw, jumping and wrestling with various objects and weights.
Early History
The concept of using obstacles for competition has been in sue since the 1800s, including the 200m Obstacle Swim at the 1900 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, with the first formal land based races in the Obstacle Run of Military Pentathlon, first held at the Military Physical Training Centre, at Freiburg, in the French occupation zone in Germany, in August 1947. Only Belgian, Dutch, and French teams took part in the competition. Since 1950, annual world championships have been held. The sport has grown in popularity, and now over 30 countries participate. The sport's governing body, the CISM, now also organise pentathlons aimed at naval and air force personnel.
Modern History
It is widely thought that Tough Guy is the earliest contemporary OCR, with the first race held in 1987. All video recorded 1989 through 2009. The HiTec Adventure Racing Series (1996 - 2002) was an early version of the contemporary race and included "special tests" (man made obstacles), mountain biking and kayaking. The Balance Bar races in the United States expanded on the success of the Hi Tech series, including a televised national series and championships. The Muddy Buddy races in the United States (results here) were a national obstacle race series produced by Competitor Group from 1999 to 2010 and was the first major series to introduce mud elements and remove additional equipment. Muddy Buddy was the event format that transitioned adventure racing to obstacle racing as we know today.
Contemporary Races
In 2011, approximately one million people registered to participate in obstacle racing events in the United States (US), 4.5 million in 2015, 5.6 million in 2016 and over 6 million in 2017. Globally the number of participants is thought to be 20 million.
There are many variations of obstacle race courses that accommodate a wide variety of athletes. Ninja races such as the Wolfpack Ninja Tour are typically 50 m to 100 m in length with many obstacles and little running. OCR track races are typically held on athletic tracks and vary between 400 m and 5,000 m. Cross country courses range from one mile and up, with most races between 5 km and 10 miles. Longer endurance races vary up to 100 miles, including Spartan Beat, Ultra Beast and Agoge. Fixed time events include World's Toughest Mudder (24 hours) and Spartan 24 hour World Championships. There are also events that are based on hours. For example, the 36 hour Agoge or the 24 hour World's Toughest Mudder. Obstacle Course Races with inflatable obstacles are becoming increasingly popular, including Britains GUNG-HO race.
Development of the Sport
Spartan Race founder Joe Desena set a goal to take the sport to the Olympics and tapped adventure racer Ian Adamson for the task in 2014. He subsequently founded the international sporting federation, now known as World OCR, the Fédération Internationale de Sport d’Obstacles (FISO), based in Lausanne, Switzerland. World OCR is a non-profit, member based sporting organization and the world governing body for Obstacle Course Racing. As of 2018, World OCR had national member federations in 75 countries in five continental confederations (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania), the largest number being in Europe. World OCR applied for membership of GAISF in 2017, with a goal of being recognized by the International Olympic Committee.
In the summer of 2017 an application by UIPM (Modern Pentathlon) to add obstacle laser run as a mixed team medal event was rejected for the 2020 Olympics.
In recent years, obstacle course racing has been emerging onto the college scene in the United States. Universities, like Texas A&M University, have launched organizations and club teams that feature obstacle course training.
Notable events
Rugged Maniac
Rugged Maniac was founded in 2010 by former lawyers Brad Scudder and Rob Dickens. The very first race was held in October 2010, in Southwick, Massachusetts. It has since expanded to 24 cities over the United States and Canada.
In 2014, they were featured on ABC's Shark Tank and secured a $1.75 million deal with Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. On January 16, 2016, Rugged Maniac (Under their company name Rugged Races LLC), appeared again on Shark Tank in an update video. Since first appearing on the show, the Rugged Maniac event has expanded to Canada, increased in sales from $4.2 million to $10.5 million before and after Shark Tank, expanded to 28 cities, and created a second race called "The Costume Dash 5K", which debuted in Boston in October 2015.
Rugged Maniac features 25 obstacles over a 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) course. It is designed to be more family-friendly and catered to people of all fitness levels, due to the shorter distance but larger number of obstacles. The run ends with an all-day festival of beer, food, mechanical bull riding, adult-sized bounce houses, and sponsor exhibition booths.
Spartan Race
Spartan Race (2010) was an outgrowth of the annual Death Race (started in 2005), with courses vary in distance and difficulty from "Sprint" courses (3+ mile with 20+ obstacles ), to "Super" (8+ mile with 20+ obstacles), and "Beast" course (13+ mile with 30-35+ obstacles. For endurance enthusiasts, Spartan also offers the "Ultra Beast" which is 2 times through the "Beast" course and the "Hurricane Heat" which involves tasks that set up the obstacle course the night before. Average finishing times for the events range from 30 minutes to 6 hours, depending on the particular course and fitness level of the racer. Race venues are located around the world and have included ski slopes, state parks, paint ball parks, and more. Any competitor who completes a Sprint, Super, and Beast in one calendar year (Jan. 1 - Dec. 31) is said to have completed the Spartan Trifecta. In the US, the Spartan Race World Championship was held in Killington, Vermont from 2012 until 2015 when it was moved to Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe. The World Championship has been held in Squaw Valley in Olympic Valley, CA near Lake Tahoe every year since 2015. Prizes for World Championships in 2016 included: Overall Champions (Men' and Women's) 1st place $15,000, 2nd place $10,000, 3rd place $5,000, 4th place $4,000, 5th place $3,000; Elite Beast Championship (Men & Women’s â€" 40+) 1st place $500, 2nd place $200, 3rd place $100; and Elite Ultra Beast Championship (Men & Women’s) 1st place $1,000; 2nd place $500; 3rd place $250; 4th place $100; 5th place $100.
The first Spartan Race World Championship was held in December 2011 in Glen Rose, Texas as an eight-mile Spartan Race course comprising 36 obstacles and included a USD$20,000 prize purse. Beginning in 2012, the Spartan Race World Championships were held annually in Killington, Vermont, and at Squaw Valley, CA since 2015 with a total of $500,000 in cash and prizes.
Tough Mudder
In 2010, Tough Mudder's first event was held in May 2010. The Tough Mudder is not technically a race and is instead focused on teamwork and completion of the event rather than finishing under a certain time.
Tough Mudder courses are between 10 and 12 miles and contain various military style obstacles.
The final event of the Tough Mudder season is the World's Toughest Mudder. This is a 24-hour event in which competitors will run a shorter Tough Mudder course that has much more intense obstacles than a normal Tough Mudder and is designed to be more grueling as well. The goal for a participant in World's Toughest Mudder is to complete as many laps as possible within a 24 hours period. The athletes (solo male, solo female, team) who complete the most laps are declared the World's Toughest Mudder. The top male and female each receive $10,000 and the top team receives $12,000 (total).
Warrior Dash
The Warrior Dash was founded in 2009. Because Warrior Dash does not assign penalties for skipped obstacles, it is often considered an obstacle course event rather than a race. While Warrior Dash does not meet all the requirements to be considered a race, organizers do award their top finishers with non-cash prizes. All finishers receive a "warrior helmet" â€" a horned helmet.
As a shorter event, winning times for a Warrior Dash may be as short as 15 minutes. While Warrior Dash features many of the same obstacles found at other races such as mud crawls, water features, and cargo net climbs.
Terrain Racing
Terrain Racing has 40 races in the United States each year on5 km courses with 20+ obstacles.
Savage Race
Savage Race has 12 events with approximately 104,000 finishers annually and are typically 10 km in length with 25 obstacles.
Chakravyuh Challenge
Founded in 2016 and named after the near-invincible battle formation from Indian mythology (Chakravyuha), the Chakravyuh Challenge is the first obstacle course race to be hosted in the exotic state of Kerala in India. The competition tests the participants' agility, bravery and problem solving capability by pitting them against obstacles involving slush, water, ropes, inclined slopes, team building exercises, fun mazes and more.
The race is open to both men and women and held in three variations - Individual Competitive Category, Team Challenge and Fun Run. With separate cash prizes awarded to the male and female winners of the first two categories. The obstacle race is part of a three day adventure fest, held annually and the circuit itself is designed every year by former Indian Navy commandos.
Adventurey OCR World Championships
The self named "Independent World Championship" is an event owned and operated by Adventurey, LLC, a Brooklyn NY marketing and branding company that "is a market innovator that develops and produces premier sporting events". The first race took place on October 25 & 26, 2014 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The men's event was won by UK's Jonathan Albon, who successfully defended his crown in 2015 and 2016. For the women, the inaugural event was won by Siri Englund of Sweden in 2014 and then Lindsay Webster of Canada in 2015 and 2016. With participation of the sport growing, the organization added a 3Â km course and a team event in 2016.
BattleFrog
Each BattleFrog featured an 8Â km course and at least twenty-five obstacles.
In August 2016, BattleFrog canceled their remaining events for the season and no longer offers obstacle course races.
Notable European events
Tough Guy
First staged in 1987, Tough Guy claims to be the first official and toughest obstacle course race in the world. It is held on the last Sunday in January in Perton, Staffordshire, UK. The race is held twice a year in winter and summer. The winter event requires competitors to compete in near freezing temperatures and contend with ice and snow. The 2013 event was won by Knut Höhler
Strong Viking
Strong Viking is an event series based in Holland, with 32 races across Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Germany.
Toughest
Toughest is a race series based in Sweden, with 15 events across Scandinavia.
Bog Commander
Bog Commander combines fell running with obstacle course racing and mud running. Set on a working hill farm in the spectacular Peak District, this course has been described as "extreme" and "brutal" by its participants. Terrain varies from 1200Â ft to 1500Â ft and includes natural bogs, river runs, massive hills and rough terrain. Man made obstacles complete the challenge.
Legion Run
Founded in Cyprus in 2013, Legion Run is the only obstacle course based in south-eastern Europe. With a motto of ‘We are Legion, we are one of many, we are you’, this non-competitive event emphasizes teamwork and overcoming personal challenges. Legion Run has held successful events in Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece and Hungary, and has quickly established itself as a favorite in the region, particularly amongst members of the CrossFit and combat sport communities, as well as corporations, armed forces and other organized teams.
Legion Run involves a 5 km course with at least 15 obstacles, along with a parallel all-day festival for both participants and spectators. Every participant that crosses the finish line is awarded an exclusive ‘I Am Legion’ T-shirt and a well-deserved beer. In keeping with the team spirit of the event, there are no individual prizes or distinctions, however many participants choose to time themselves.
The Suffering Obstacle Race
The Suffering Obstacle Race was established in 2012. This event offers obstacle races of distances varying from 5K, 10K, 10 miles, and 20 miles.
Getting Tough - The Race
Since 2011, each year on the first saturday in December, taking place in Rudolstadt, Germany. Labelled as "Europe`s hardest Obstacle Race" and voted "Best Obstacle Race in Germany" this Race is part of a full Weekend Event, including a "Sprint at Night" on Friday and a huge After Race Party on Saturday. 24Â km, 1000 meter elevation gain, 180 Obstacles and lots of icy water results in most runners suffering of hypothermia at the finish line. Especially the last 3Â km 'Killing Fields' are packed with Obstacles and topped of by the `Walk of Fame`, a 1Â km long Obstacle park.
Notable African events
IMPI
THE IMPI Challenge Obstacle Trail Run is staged in South Africa.
Jeep Warrior Race
Jeep Warrior Race is South Africa’s largest obstacle course race with up to 9000 participants per event. The Warrior Race offers race distances ranging from 5 to 17 kilometers.
See also
- Freerunning
- Obstacle course
- Parkour
References
Further reading
- "Firefighters Design Public Challenge Course". Gazette/Washington Post. Retrieved February 12, 2012.Â
- "Obstacle Racing". Spartan Conditioning (Articles). Retrieved July 21, 2014.Â
- "'Obstacle racing' is taking off". Canadian Running. December 15, 2011. Archived from the original on April 22, 2012. Retrieved December 22, 2011.Â
