Obstacle obsessed

Since being introduced in 2013, the Warrior Race has taken South Africa by storm, with more than 21,000 warriors now participating in these challenging obstacle races. Four Warrior Races have already taken place this year, with four more to go; the next race takes place in Natal, then in Cape Town, followed by the last two in Johannesburg. 

So why has it become such a hit so quickly? All is revealed in DO IT NOW Magazine's interview with Warrior Race Director, Pieter Swart, as well as his future plans for this popular obstacle race.

Q: What made you decide to start the Warrior Race in SOUTH AFRICA?
To get something new going in South Africa. I think that South Africans are, by nature, very adventurous, so I wanted to give them something different to the usual triathlons, trail runs, and so on.

I also saw that there was definitely a market for obstacle courses, so I started working on the concept in the middle of last year, and put it into action at the end of last year. And here we are now, almost 20,000 participants later taking part in all the Warrior Races.

Q: Did you expect the Warrior Race series to pick up this quickly?

No, not at all. My two partners came on board only after the first race. Some of them doubted it and the market, but after the first event, they said, "Ok, we're on now, there really is a market for it." The last event in June had 6,500 participants, and although it's winter, we still had 4,500 participants … not bad.

We're looking forward to the next events, which are being held in Natal and then Cape Town. After that, there's the Celebrity Challenge that we are doing in Johannesburg. We're hoping to attract 8,000 participants to that event.

Q: Will non-celebrities be able to participate in the Celebrity Challenge?

Yes, definitely. Corporates will be able to 'buy' a celebrity in an auction, who will do the race with seven of that corporate's team members.

We are hoping to get about 200 celebrities involved: sport stars, soap stars, well known business people, you name it. The day will be normal, with the 8 km Rookie race being used for this event, as it's just for fun and charity. All the money we raise from the auctions will go to a nominated charity, which is why we are hoping to get a lot of people coming to this event.

Q: What are your future plans for the Warrior Race?

Well, we aren't going to change too much. We'll have some upgrades and in terms of the obstacles, we want to keep on improving and bring in new ideas, because the moment you become stagnant, you'll lose your feet in the market. We also want to add two more races to the 2014 calendar year, to make it ten. We would like to have two races in Cape Town instead of one and also another race in the Eastern Cape, such as Knysna.

We receive a lot of requests to have the race in various other areas, but we need to grow the team steadily, as there is a lot of construction and management, something people don't always realise. We currently have a team of 25 people who work constantly for five weeks to get a course done. It's a lot of work, so we will see what happens next year.
  

Q: What is your aim for the Warrior Race?

We have the National Championship in November this year. We are also aiming to reach an overall number of 40,000 participants who took part in all the events this year. Next year, I am aiming for 50,000 participants.

Q: Your biggest challenge?

In every race there are two issues. Firstly, to get marshals is difficult because a lot of people are interested, but then two days before the race people call in saying that they can't make it. This makes it difficult for us because you need to have marshals at every obstacle. But we are working on this for future races.

Secondly, when we build the obstacles and can see that it's not going to work, we then need to bring in an engineer to help and give us advice.

Q: What would you say the best fitness is for Warrior?

Big guys don't do very well and I think it's their heaviness that holds them back. I would say that a moderate type of build is beneficial for Warrior, and the perfect athlete for the Warrior would be someone who does CrossFit and runs about
15 to 20 km a week.

Q: Most extreme obstacle?

All Warrior Race obstacles have been varied, but the most extreme one so far is the 'Tazer' obstacle, with 10,000 volts running through various wires of which Warriors are required to run through, in water, to get to the other side.

Q: Worst injury?

The usual broken and fractured ankles. The issue here is that a lot of people don't know how to run on a trail. People are used to road running, where they run on their toes, which makes the ankle unstable and this can lead to injured ankles.

Another issue is that once the whistle goes off, people become silly. They don't look where they run, they rush the course, and aren't very careful, which leads to injuries.

To help avoid injuries, every obstacle is tested by various members of the Warrior team for safety precautions and to make sure that participants have a chance of completing them.

Q: Benefits of taking part?

The benefits gained from obstacle courses are that this is an all-round form of physical exercise; and apart from requiring both mental and physical abilities to overcome the obstacles, team work is essential to overcome some extremely difficult challenges throughout the course.

Look out for the next Warrior Race, which will be held in Ballito, KwaZulu-Natal, on 3 August 2013, and has a total of 4,000 participants competing.

Warrior Race statistics:

• 60 tons of wood is used in each race.
• Close to 8,000 man hours, if not more, are spent on each race.
• Each race requires approximately three weeks (120 - 130 hours) of excavation work.
• Clay soil is preferred for the Warrior Races because when clay soil gets wet, it becomes compacted and extremely slippery, thus making the obstacles much harder.

Warrior Race #4 fast facts:

The 'Mud Monster' was improved by adding for the Warrior #4 by adding an extra mud hill, making it a total of seven mud hills to conquer. The first water ditch was 2,5 m deep and took a TLB two days to dig.

The 'Wounded Soldier' was reintroduced into the Black-ops course, and is where Warriors need to carry a 20 to 30 kg bag of sand for 100 m and back.

The 'Belly Buster' was introduced and is where participants are required to get onto their bellies, grip the wooden beams, and pull themselves up and over by using the groves that were cut into the wood.

The 'Tazer' obstacle was introduced, with 10,000 volts running through various wires, which participants had to run through to get to the finish line.

The 'Yellow Mamba' was introduced and is based on the previous races' slide obstacle, but now participants have to slide for 5m, fall for 3m, and land in water.

How obstacle courses started

Before obstacle courses became a trend as a form of entertainment, this form of all-round exercise was originally used as a way of training in military forces throughout the world. As early as the Roman times, obstacle courses were used to train soldiers, then the Greeks adopted this way of training, particularly rope courses, for their soldiers. In the 1900s, the French military made obstacle courses a standard form of training. From them onwards, obstacle courses grew and were used all over the world for military training.

Obstacle races vs. obstacle courses

There is a difference between obstacle races and obstacle courses. Obstacle races are competitive, whereby participants are timed and held to a strict standard of performance. When participants cannot complete obstacles, they are required to do burpees as a penalty. Obstacle courses are not competitive or timed, therefore participants can skip obstacles if they do not want to do them without any penalties.