“Ah-roo!” “Ah-roo!”
This is the call-and-response chant of modern day Spartans, as heard by yours
truly several weeks ago in Barre, MA. I
accompanied my boyfriend to his first-ever Spartan race on a farm in Barre
where he scaled greased walls, carried boulders, crawled under barbed wire, and
ran about 8 miles with over 2,100 other racers. About 5,000 Spartans raced in
Barre over the course of the weekend.
Spartan
Race is one form of Obstacle Course Race (OCR). Other popular OCR events
include: Tough Mudder, and other mud runs; BattleFrog; CrossFit Games; Ironman;
Ultraman; Peak Races; Death Race; and weekend warriors. The sport is growing in
popularity so quickly that by the end of this summer, I wouldn’t be surprised
to see new forms of OCR springing up. According to journalist Erin Beresini in
her book about her immersion in the world of endurance racing, “Off Course:
Inside the Mad, Muddy World of Obstacle Course Racing”: “Obstacle course racing
is the fastest-growing sport in U.S. history. Every week, thousands of
marathoners, CrossFitters, and casual weekend warriors shell out money to run
through mud and fire, crawl under barbed wire, scramble over ten-foot walls,
and dodge baton-wielding gladiators. They are a new wave of athlete for whom
running thirteen or twenty-six miles just isn’t enough. They crave a primal
challenge…” The USA Obstacle Racing
Association (www.obstacleusa.com) estimates that over 400
obstacle racing events are produced in the United States, and almost half that
number are produced in other countries.
OCR
appeals to many different people on many different levels. For one thing, not
all OCR events are technically races. Many mud runs, for instance, are not
timed events, so there is no competitive pressure to finish as fast as you can.
You can instead take the course at your own pace, meaning that more people of
varying abilities can take part, and you don’t necessarily need to train for
months and months to make it through. Spartan Race, although it’s a timed race,
offers different levels of racing depending on your preference. The Spartan
Sprint is 3+ miles with 20+ obstacles, the Spartan Super is 8+ miles with 25+
obstacles, the Spartan Beast is 13+ miles with 30+ miles, and the Spartan Ultra
Beast is 26+ miles and 60+ obstacles. Joe De Sena, co-founder of Spartan Race,
includes a disclaimer in the front of his book, “Spartan Up! A
Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Peak Performance in
Life,” that “living a Spartan lifestyle, although rewarding, can be dangerous
and should be considered carefully.” As someone who lived with a
Spartan-in-training for months, I can attest that those training for a Spartan
race work and train extremely hard. In the end, the Spartan experience is worth
all the pain, but the work to get there can be grueling.
As
Beresi points out, OCR also has great appeal as a way to reject organized
sports as we know them. While OCR courses do have some rules, there is not a
large governing body in place to regulate everything about the sport in the
same way as in professional basketball or soccer, for instance. Psychologists
also theorize that OCR attracts thrill-seekers and risk-takers, people who
crave novelty and variety.
In
addition, OCR tends to attract military types, and not without good reason.
Sponsorship of OCR has become big business, with the US armed forces spending
millions of dollars on sponsorships annually, according to Beresi. OCR
satisfies racers’ curiosity about military life, providing an environment of
camaraderie and extreme athleticism similar to that of the military, but
without the dangers of the battlefield; BattleFrog courses are even designed by
current and former Navy SEALs. Meanwhile, sponsorship gives armed forces
recruiters direct connections with potential recruits.
Camaraderie may be
one of the strongest draws for some participants in OCR. Unlike traditional
racing, you’re not in it alone. People can and often do compete as a team,
helping each other through and over obstacles. Strangers stop to help each
other and shout encouragement. One the day my boyfriend raced in Barre, a team
of coworkers and friends were racing with a man in a wheelchair. This team
carried their friend on their shoulders through mud pits, over walls, and
across water obstacles. As De Sena writes, “Spartans help each other, and no
Spartan gets left behind.”
Beresini’s and De
Sena’s books are great places to start to learn more about Spartan Race and OCR
in general. “Learning to Breath Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal
Future of Fitness” by J.C. Herz is a good overview of the history and current
state of CrossFit. On our website, type “obstacle course racing” or “Spartan
race” into the Search the Catalog box. Click on the Articles and Reviews tab to
find articles and even videos related to OCR. According to my very own Spartan,
http://www.spartan.com/ and http://obstacleracingmedia.com/ are very useful websites.
Ah-roo!
