Mud Run, OCR, Obstacle Course Race & Ninja Warrior Guide

The Best Mud Runs for Beginners

Brett Stewart

You'll Never Forget Your First Time

…nor should you. Almost as sweet as your first kiss, your newbie experience at any type of new sport can be immediately daunting and filled with apprehension, but once you fight through the fear, it can lead to a life-changing experience. Now, imagine sharing that kiss with hundreds of other athletes – wait, I didn't mean it like that – let's say you're sharing the joy of developing a new passion and surmounting any challenges with hundreds around you doing the same thing and feeling the same way, and maybe, just maybe, kissing a fellow athlete… wait, no. Enough with the kissing metaphor.

Seriously though, your first event can be an absolutely amazing experience that you'll want to share with others and relive/revisit over and over. There's a reason (actually many) that people from all walks of life get absolutely insanely addicted to obstacle course racing and mud runs – hell, this is the fastest-growing sport in the history of sport!

Every single obstacle gives you the opportunity to prove you’re up to the challenge and build your confidence, so “leave it all on the course” by giving every obstacle your best effort devoid of the caustic limiters of your ability: fear and trepidation.

Before You Sign Up

Check Your Ticker: The very first thing you should do before signing up for any event is to get your lazy ass checked out by a doctor. Seriously, no one wants to see you get carted off the course by EMTs because you weren’t healthy enough to sign up in the first place. Once you get the green light from your doc, spend some time checking out the event’s website. Review the distance and conditions to get a good idea of what you’re in for when you show up on race day—if you still have the guts to sign up.

Know The Rules: Pay special attention to the rules. It’s your responsibility to know what’s expected of you on the course. No, you can’t fight back against the zombies chasing you, and impersonating Chuck Norris with a spinning back kick to a gladiator is not allowed. Some events will give you recommendations on clothing or gear to wear. If they don’t offer that info, you can check out our Gear Guide.

Get Your Head in the Game: Getting your body and mind ready to compete is the most important element of pre-race preparation. Some events are a fun excuse to get mud in a few hard-to-reach crevices of your body and afterward have a beer with your friends, while others are extremely challenging endeavors that’ll test your physical and mental fortitude. If you’re signing up for the latter, it’s important to prepare for some of the rigors you’ll encounter on race day by running, exercising, and even taking an ice-cold shower or two. If you're looking for a free Training Program, we've got that for you right here: “Training to Crush the World’s Most Bad-Ass Courses” program, where we’ll prepare you to dominate all obstacles. You’ll find dozens of tips, tricks, techniques, and real-life exercises you can use to get ready to tackle some of the most common obstacles you’ll find on race day.

In “What the Hell Are You Thinking?” below we’ll cover the mental aspect of signing up, showing up, and toeing the line to take on these amazing challenges.

I've even written up a step-by-step tutorial: “6 Steps to Becoming an Obstacle Racer: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How?” that can help you with all those nagging questions, and even a Op-ed piece on Why “I Can't Do It” is total bullsh*t.

Choose The Right Event

All of the below events are big on fun, and in descending order of difficulty. The 5k Foam Fest is the easiest, all the way down to Spartan Race Sprint as the hardest “beginner-friendly” races. If you're looking for a good reason to get muddy and experience a challenging obstacle course race (the cool kids say “OCR”), our best suggestion is to start with Warrior Dash or Rugged Maniac. Yeah, we know you're the adventurous type – but recommend getting at least one OCR under your belt before you move up to Spartan Race Sprint; even the short distance is pretty darn difficult with mandatory obstacle completion (the only one on this list that requires it)!

What the Hell Are You Thinking?

Friday afternoon before your first/biggest/hardest race, you’ll most likely let a few co-workers or friends know what your plans are for the weekend. That is, assuming you haven’t been blathering about it for the last few weeks to anyone who’ll reluctantly lend you their ear.

It’s all good. You need the positive and negative energy from all the well-wishers and boo-birds. Take it all in. Let the well- wishers be your safety net, you know you have supporters in your court. Use those naysayers who say “You’re nuts!” as motivation that you have something to prove—not to them, but to yourself. That last bit is important: You’re doing this for yourself first, and secondly to make others proud, raise money for charity, or even as a tribute to a fallen friend. You’re the one that needs to show up and compete—make sure to prepare your mind and body and toe the line with the right training and can-do attitude – here you go:

Yes, You Can.

Nearly every Adam Sandler movie that I can think of has a requisite cameo from Rob Schneider imploring the protagonist, usually Sandler himself, with the simple one-liner:

“You can dooooo iiiiit!”

Well, you can. Channel your inner voice. Repeat that simple phrase to drive you when you wake up on race morning, during the long trek from the parking lot to the check-in, as you take your place in the starting corral, and under, over, across, and through every bit of that course. Crush doubt the second it creeps into your conscious mind with that simple mantra. Destroy fear by unleashing your desire, passion, and drive to deliver on the promise you made to yourself when you clicked that hyperlink to register. Repeat it three, five, or six hundred times if you need to continually remind yourself; write it on your forearm with permanent marker if you think you might forget it! Got your own phrase? Go with that instead, as long as it’ll motivate you to work your ass off and not hesitate for one second and let your commitment fade. Also, keep it short; your brain will be a little busy and the simpler, the better. Extra points if you tattoo your power phrase somewhere on your fleshy real estate; I used to have my own little ritual of writing “Tenacious” on my left forearm with a permanent marker before races, then I went ahead and got it permanently tattooed there! That’s my mindset as I power through the highs and lows of endurance events toward the finish line, find yours or by all means you can use mine!

YOU. CAN. DO. IT.

Fear & Loathing in OCR

Have you heard the phrase “hitting the wall” in a marathon somewhere around the 20-mile mark? Well, it can just as easily happen in the 100 yards BEFORE the start line too. While that “wall” may be a physical limitation for some as they wear down, for the most part it is entirely mental. In any type of endurance event, your mind can be your best friend and your worst enemy—all in the span of a few minutes. There’ll be amazing highs when you conquer a difficult obstacle or pass other competitors, followed immediately by the lows—fear, doubt, outright anger toward other competitors, the course, or that rock in your right shoe that’s driving you insane. The worst part? You’ll have no advance warning when that dark wave will come crashing down upon you. Even during the best race of your life, as you push your body, your mind will fluctuate between light and dark. These highs and lows are relatively universal in endurance racing, so you’re not going nuts if you alternate between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde out on the course.

The best way to deal with these waves is to enjoy the highs while being careful not to push yourself too hard while you’re feeling like a superhero. Maintain your pace and keep your excitement under control so you don’t waste valuable energy that you’ll need for the rest of the race. When the lows come, you need to breathe deeply, relax, and remind your neurons who’s in charge. If the thought of quitting pops into your head, just remember how far you’ve come and how bummed you’ll be later if you bow out now.

TIP: Start slow and keep it steady throughout the race. Sprinting off the line or after each obstacle is a one way ticket to bonkville when your body burns through all the energy (glycogen stores) in your muscles. If you keep leap-frogging with other competitors who are walking or jogging between obstacles and you're out of gas every time you reach one, you're probably running too hard, or over-excited and psyching yourself out. Relax, chill, and pace yourself. You can't enjoy your first time if you're too caught up in running your body to the redline.

Relax. Chill. Pace yourself. Enjoy. This is the only chance you'll ever have to experience your first race, live in the moment.

Obstacles = Opportunities

You chose OCRs for a reason, whether it was to conquer the mayhem with your friends, set a new personal level of excellence, or just to impress that high school heartthrob that you just friended on Facebook. There’s also a pretty good chance you’ve obsessed over the course map and obstacle list on their website since you made that pivotal decision and are either relishing or dreading certain obstacles. Now’s the best time to prepare your mind and body to get you over, under, across, and through them all. The last section gave you the mantra or power thought, and you need to couple that with the commitment to attack each barrier in order to conquer it. By commitment, I mean jumping, pulling, pushing, dragging, and running with the certainty that you have the strength, drive, and ability to crush anything that stands in your way. You need to commit to succeed; you can’t dangle your toe in the water—you need to focus on trusting in yourself and your abilities and jump in with both feet. Every single obstacle gives you the opportunity to prove you’re up to the challenge and build your confidence, so “leave it all on the course” by giving every obstacle your best effort devoid of the caustic limiters of your ability: fear and trepidation.

Crush it.

For those of you who weren't catching all the info I was dropping like mad above, here's a checklist:

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