In an increasingly crowded market of races billing themselves as the “toughest”, “hardest”, “most likely to have you crying for your mother”, it’s very difficult to pick the wheat from the chaff in terms of which races are going to be really testing. “Tough” is obviously a relative concept and will mean different things to different people, but we think that all these events have a core of inner steel which will challenge everyone who steps up to their start lines.
Rat Race Dirty Weekend - 20 miles
20 miles. 200 obstacles. That’s all you need to know really isn’t it? 20 miles off road is a big ask for anyone, but throw endless imaginative, enormous and challenging obstacles into the mix (this race is so big that the obstacles are divided into themed zones) and you’ve got yourself a race whose credentials no one can question. The Burghley House site claims the title of the world’s biggest assault course. What other reason do you need to have a go?
Sign up at www.ratracedirtyweekend.com (use code MUDDYRACE10 to save 10%)
The Nuts Challenge - 28km
With its permanent, high quality 7km obstacle course, the Nuts Challenge could have been content to simply run a great short distance event. Instead they chose to think big and offer multiple laps of the course with the best competitors trying to knock out a full four to achieve the title of “Tough Nut”. It’s not just the grueling challenge of getting your legs to travel the full 28km that merits this event’s inclusion in the list - it’s the psychological burden of going round the same course again and again with a tailor-made opportunity to quit early every time you pass the finish line. Tough, indeed.
Sign up at www.thenutschallenge.co.uk
Tough Guy - 15km
Tough Guy were running their event when many of today’s race directors were still in short trousers and with their pedigree of almost 30 years’ experience they continue to maintain a highly idiosyncratic, old-school approach to obstacle racing. Expect around 250 tough obstacles over the 15km with heights, fire, electricity and confined spaces all making regular appearances. It’s the genesis of our sport and it still packs an almighty punch with its early February date adding extreme cold to an already long list of challenges.
Sign up at www.toughguy.co.uk
Rat Race Man v Mountain - 20 miles
It’s not strictly an OCR, but I hope no one will quibble with its inclusion here. A 20 mile run to the top of Snowden (an ascent of 1,100 vertical metres), and back down again (watch those knees!) with the addition of a number of OCR style challenges at the end. When else are you going to get to climb a mountain, abseil off a bridge, jump into a lagoon, dive under a submerged cage and climb some walls all in the same day? It’s not your average Saturday. For those tough enough to step up to the challenge it’s an experience never to be forgotten.
Sign up at www.ratracemanvmountain.com (use code MUDDYRACE10 to save 10%)
Judgement Day Bordon - 10 miles
Image credit mybibnumber.co.uk
There is an increasing trend for race organisers to demand more from their participants than simply negotiating fixed obstacles and distance - after all, why just run up a hill when you can run up it carrying a tyre/sandbag/other absurdly heavy and barely portable object?! Judgement Day Bordon took this principle to another level with tyre carries, tyre drags, a sand bucket carry and an epic sandbag slog which required racers to lug the wet 30kg lumps over a wall and under barbed wire. For anyone not sick of the sight of them, you also got the opportunity to buy your sandbag at the end of the race to recreate those “just please kill me now” moments at home.
Sign up at www.judgement-day.co.uk (use code MUDDYRACE10 to save 10%)
RockSolidRace - 15km
Tough doesn’t have to mean po-faced and RockSolidRace take their obligations with regards to after-race fun as seriously as they do their obstacles, with the epic afterparty and onsite pub drawing in crowds of OCR-addicts. Underestimate this course at your peril however - it’s one of the most varied out there with 50 obstacles over its 15km length, including some that you won’t find anywhere else. The Green Mile timed section forces everyone with an ounce of competitive spirit in their bodies to use up precious reserves at any early stage, the uphill sack race will obliterate any happy childhood memories you may have had of Sports Day and the Muddy Dunk will give you mud-related nightmares for weeks to come. You’re going to need a pint after this one.
Sign up at www.rocksolidrace.com
Spartan Beast - 20km
One word elevates Spartan Races to a different level from most of their competitors: burpees. The rule is simple: fail an obstacle and you do 30 of them. Yes, you read that correctly. There are 25 plus obstacles on Spartan’s Beast distance races, including all the nasties which are easy for even the best racers to come a cropper on - traverse walls, rope climbs and weight hoists just for starters. Complete 80% of the course perfectly and your burpee count is still going to be in triple figures which is not going to help you on the brutal hills and trail running sections of Spartan’s ultimate event.
Sign up at www.spartanraceuk.uk
Tough Mudder - 10 to 12 miles
It’s fashionable to be a bit dismissive of Tough Mudder as the “corporate” face of OCR, but, love them or hate them, there’s no denying that their financial muscle means that they create innovative, tough courses and when they debut a new obstacle, EVERYONE wants to know about it. A 10 - 12 mile course is never going to be a walk in the park and Tough Mudder are big on the psychological strength required to complete their courses; with high jumps, electricity, ice and confined spaces like the cage crawl, those that cross the finish line can revel in the fact that they faced up to their demons and won.
Sign up at www.toughmudder.co.uk
Dirty Dozen Destroyer - 18km
Home of the UK OCR Championship, Dirty Dozen don’t do gimmicks. They do big, scary, hard obstacles. Expect walls, crawls, carries and more walls, with every obstacle testing the brute strength of the competitors and plenty of hard running to sap the legs in-between. One of the few races which have a “celebrity” face in that of Doug “the Beard” Spence, their race director, Dirty Dozen resolutely plough their own furrow of tough uncompromising courses which promise to leave you aching and bruised.
Sign up at www.dirtydozenraces.co.uk (use code MUDDYRACE10 to save 10%)
Nuclear Oblivion - 42km
What’s better than doing a lap of Nuclear Race’s awesome permanent Essex course? Doing three and a half laps and completing an obstacle marathon of course! Nuclear Races have spent 2014 establishing themselves as one of the class acts of UK obstacle racing and their new Oblivion option, debuting at Nuclear Rush in May 2015, promises to provide one of the biggest challenges in next year’s race calendar. Plenty of people are going to want to sign up just to get three goes on the iconic Deathslide.
Sign up at www.nuclear-races.co.uk
