Adventure runs liven up races.
New challenges and obstacles inject fun into road races
How about a little adventure with that 5K run?
For people wanting more than a road race with a start line and a finish line, there’s the adventure run, the latest fun fitness craze already making a big summer splash in Edmonton.
Participants find themselves crawling on their bellies in the mud under barbed wire, or scrambling over a threemetre wall, or being doused with coloured powders along a running route.
“It’s attracting a whole new category of individual to physical activity, not specifically running,” says John Stanton Sr., Edmonton founder and CEO of The Running Room. “Some of these events are like running a gauntlet,” he adds laughing, “but they are fun.”
James Linthorne, a certified exercise physiologist at MacEwan University Sport & Wellness, says about half of his clients, even non-runners, are doing either the Color Me Rad run or the Spartan Race — both first-time events in Edmonton. MacEwan offered an eight-week training clinic for people registered for the latter run.
Although he personally loves competitive, timed road races that simply go from point A to point B, adventure runs are wildly popular because many people are bored with linear running, Linthorne observes.
“People participating in the Color Me Rad run, go into it because it’s fun and non- competitive. You’re wearing white clothes but they’re going to splatter you with paint along the way, so it’s not about who can get to the end the fastest, it’s more about challenging your friends and trying to stay the most non-painted,” he explains.
On the other hand, Spartan Races are tapping into the CrossFit population who love to go to the gym and have a great workout, because that’s what a Spartan run is.
“You’re going to have to do chin ups, an army crawl through mud, and then you might have to run 400 metres, 500 metres or 800 metres,” Linthorne says.
“So now it’s about getting through the challenge, and just finishing the race means success.”
It’s the same thing with ultramarathons or trail running, like the 5 Peaks races or the Death Race that are longer than a marathon, at the other end of the race spectrum, Linthorne adds.
Adventure runs are part of a larger movement that goes back more than 20 years to when charities became part of road running, says Jim Denison, an associate professor in physical education and recreation and director of the Canadian Athletics Coaching Centre at the University of Alberta.
“People started seeing other reasons for running road races than improving their time or being competitive against other people.
They started seeing races as more about fun, and community coming together. Similarly, wearing costumes became popular, as well as running as a team. The colour run is just another example of how road running is becoming less about competition and more about joining in, spirit, fun and community,” Denison adds.
Stanton calls these races “a great equalizer” because they’re about competing against yourself and being courageous enough to do the event. “There’s also an entertainment factor as well as the fitness thing.”
Such events also appeal to people who like to be the first to try the next big thing whether it’s Tae Bo, yoga, hot yoga, cross-country races or colour races, he says.
Edmonton’s first adventure-type run this season was the Scion City Chase in May, billed as an Urban Adventure Series. Approximately 1,000 people, in teams of two, navigated the city, using only their feet and public transportation, completing scavenger-hunt-like challenges and stopping at checkpoints along the way. Registrations are already being taken for next year.
Next up is the Spartan Sprint, June 29 and 30, at Rabbit Hill Snow Resort. Organizers promise “fire, mud, water, barbed wire and, occasionally, hell on Earth.”
Everyone who crosses the finish line gets a finisher’s medal, a race T-shirt, “scrapes and bruises, and awesome stories to tell.”
Arguably, the most colourful adventure race will be the Color Me Rad run on July 6 and 7 on the grounds of the Edmonton Expo Centre. Both days sold out the first days they were offered. Sixteen thousand runners (8,000 per day) plunked down $35 to $55 each as well as raised funds — a portion of the proceeds go to the Stollery Children’s Hospital — for the experience of being bombed with coloured powder along the route.
(Colour runs were inspired by the Hindu spring Holi Festival, also known as the Festival of Colours, when people in India celebrate in the street, throwing neon-coloured powders and water at each other.)
“I had heard of coloured runs from people who had done them in the States, but I didn’t realize they had already taken off in Canada so I was quite surprised when Color Me Rad approached us to be the beneficiary,” says Joanna Begg Pattison, community initiatives co-ordinator with the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation.
“I was amazed how quickly it sold out. It’s not a race where people enter to go as fast as they can. It’s pure fun.”
If you like zombies with your fun, there’s Calgary’s first 5K Zombie Survival Race, July 20, or the second annual Zombie Run, a 3K obstacle course in Sylvan Lake, Oct. 19. Runners are chased by zombies that try to infect them by stealing flags dangling from their belts.
Although they are primarily fun, Linthorne cautions that weekend warriors could still suffer an injury or medical problem during one of these events if they haven’t trained for it.
“I think adventure runs are a good thing because it gets people out and active, but what’s important is that we actually train for that type of event, because if it’s the (Edmonton) Spartan Race, you’re going to be jumping over obstacles, running up and down a ski slope so the terrain is quite difficult.”
Stanton says it’s important to know your physical limitations, understand what the event is, the challenges involved, and if those challenges fall within your limitations.
That said, “I think getting people to see that exercise is fun and playful and enjoyable is a great message so I’m all for it. Whether it’s mud or paint — whatever it takes.”
edmontonjournal. com To watch a You Tube video of a Color Me Rad 5K race in Vancouver, read this story on edmontonjournal.com/ fitness and click on the link to the You Tube video.