Complete An Obstacle Race
Ticked off in September 2013
Mud, walls, ice water and barbed wire, the race that makes you crawl, climb and laugh your way to the finish.
The adventure
Obstacle racing takes everything familiar about a running race and throws it into a muddy field. Instead of steady kilometres you get eight-foot walls to scale, cargo nets to climb, monkey bars over cold water and long crawls under barbed wire with your face inches from the mud. Some events add heavy sandbags to carry uphill or a plunge into a skip full of ice.
The best part is how social it is. Strangers give you a leg-up over walls, teams haul each other through the trickiest sections, and the whole field looks the same at the finish: soaked, filthy and grinning. Courses range from 5-kilometre sprints that suit first-timers to half-marathon distances and beyond for those who get hooked, and almost everyone who tries one ends up looking for the next.
Why it’s epic
- Tough Mudder began in 2010 and is known for team obstacles such as Everest, a slippery quarter-pipe climb.
- Spartan races punish every failed obstacle with 30 burpees.
- Tough Mudder's Arctic Enema drops you into a tank of ice water.
- Distances run from about 5 km to ultra events of 50 km or more.
What it is
Obstacle races combine running with climbing walls, crawling under wires and carrying heavy loads.
How to do it
Enter an event such as Spartan, Tough Mudder or Total Warrior.
Top tip
Train grip strength.
Need to know
- Grip strength and upper-body fitness matter as much as running.
- Wear trail shoes that drain well and avoid cotton, which holds water.
- Expect cuts, bruises and cold, so pack a full change of clothes for afterwards.
My experience
Ticked off, but the full story is still to be written up.
Over to you
Is “Complete An Obstacle Race” on your bucket list, or have you already done it? Tell me in the comments, and if you've got a question about it, ask away and I'll answer.