WHY OBSTACLE COURSE RACING IS ONE OF THE BEST ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS
In a world where childhood has become increasingly sedentary, finding activities that challenge kids physically, mentally, and emotionally has never been more important.
That’s exactly why Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) has become one of the fastest-growing youth sports in the world.
At HartFit ELEVATE OCR, we believe obstacle course training offers children something that many traditional sports simply cannot: the opportunity to develop complete athleticism while building confidence, resilience, and problem-solving skills that extend far beyond the course itself.
OCR Develops Real-World Fitness
Most sports specialize in a handful of athletic qualities.
Obstacle course racing develops nearly all of them.
Children participating in OCR training learn to:
Run over varied terrain
Climb ropes and cargo nets
Balance on unstable surfaces
Crawl under obstacles
Carry objects
Jump, hang, swing, and traverse
These movements build:
Strength
Endurance
Coordination
Balance
Agility
Grip strength
Cardiovascular fitness
Instead of becoming good at one movement pattern, kids become better athletes overall.
OCR Teaches Problem Solving
Every obstacle presents a challenge.
How do I get over this wall?
How do I cross these monkey bars?
How do I carry this object without dropping it?
Obstacle course racing constantly asks children to think, adapt, and find solutions.
Success isn’t always determined by who is strongest or fastest. Sometimes it’s about creativity, determination, and the willingness to keep trying when something doesn’t work the first time.
These lessons transfer directly into school, sports, and life.
OCR Builds Confidence
One of the greatest things about obstacle course training is that progress is easy to see.
A child who couldn’t hang from a bar for five seconds eventually hangs for thirty.
A child who couldn’t climb a rope eventually reaches the top.
A child who was afraid of a wall eventually conquers it.
Confidence isn’t built through participation trophies.
Confidence is built through accomplishment.
Every obstacle overcome creates evidence that a child is capable of more than they believed.
OCR Teaches Resilience
Life doesn’t always go according to plan.
Neither does OCR.
Kids fall off obstacles.
They miss grips.
They fail attempts.
Then they get back up and try again.
Obstacle course racing teaches one of the most important lessons a young person can learn:
Failure is not the end of the process.
It’s part of the process.
The ability to recover from setbacks is a skill that will serve children long after their athletic careers are over.
OCR Gets Kids Outside
Many children spend far too much time indoors staring at screens.
At HartFit ELEVATE OCR, our athletes train outdoors in the fresh air, dealing with real-world conditions instead of climate-controlled environments.
Sunshine.
Wind.
Rain.
Heat.
Cold.
The environment becomes part of the challenge.
Kids learn adaptability, toughness, and an appreciation for outdoor activity that many modern children are missing.
OCR Is for Every Child
You do not need to be an elite athlete to benefit from obstacle course training.
Our goal isn’t to create professional obstacle racers.
Our goal is to help kids become stronger, healthier, more confident versions of themselves.
Whether your child dreams of competing in Spartan races, wants to improve performance in another sport, or simply needs a positive outlet for energy and fitness, OCR provides an incredible foundation.
Join Our Kids OCR Class
HartFit ELEVATE OCR is proud to offer a dedicated Kids OCR Class every Saturday at our outdoor obstacle course facility in Peyton, Colorado.
Children will learn obstacle techniques, running mechanics, strength development, teamwork, and confidence-building skills in a fun, supportive environment.
Whether they are completely new to fitness or already active in sports, our class helps kids develop the physical and mental tools needed to succeed both on and off the course.
Kids OCR Class
When: Saturdays at 9:30 AM
Where: HartFit ELEVATE OCR
15650 Valdez Circle
Peyton, Colorado 80831
For more information, class registration, and upcoming events, visit:
Because the goal isn’t simply to raise stronger athletes.
It’s to raise stronger kids.
THE 10 MOST COMMON SPARTAN RACE MISTAKES (AND HOW TO AVOID THEM)
Every Spartan Race finisher has made mistakes.
Some cost seconds.
Some cost podium positions.
Some cost athletes the race entirely.
After more than 15 years in obstacle course racing, nine Spartan Ultras, countless Spartan finishes, and years spent coaching athletes of every ability level, I’ve noticed the same mistakes appear over and over again.
If you’re preparing for your next Spartan Race, avoid these ten common errors.
1. Not Running Enough
The biggest mistake in OCR has nothing to do with obstacles.
Spartan Race is primarily a trail running event interrupted by obstacles.
Many athletes spend hours practicing monkey bars and almost no time improving their running.
The result is arriving at every obstacle exhausted.
2. Focusing Only on Grip Strength
Grip strength matters, but technique matters just as much.
Athletes often believe they need stronger hands when what they really need is better body positioning, improved efficiency, and smoother movement through obstacles.
3. Ignoring Carries
Bucket carries, sandbags, Atlas carries, and other loaded movements routinely destroy race performances.
Most athletes don’t practice them nearly enough.
If you want to improve your Spartan results, start carrying heavy things.
4. Starting Too Fast
The excitement of race day causes countless athletes to burn themselves out during the first mile.
A pace that feels easy at the start can become disastrous later in the race.
Be patient.
Spartan rewards athletes who finish strong.
5. Neglecting Strength Training
Running is critical, but so is strength.
Pulling, climbing, crawling, lifting, and carrying all require a foundation of strength that many runners overlook.
The strongest Spartan athletes are rarely specialists.
They’re well-rounded.
6. Training Obstacles While Fresh
Completing an obstacle in a gym is one thing.
Completing it after miles of running, climbing hills, and carrying weight is another.
Your obstacle training should include fatigue whenever possible.
7. Wearing Untested Gear
Race day is not the time to experiment.
New shoes, socks, hydration packs, or clothing can quickly turn a good race into a miserable experience.
Nothing new on race day.
8. Ignoring Nutrition and Hydration
As race distances increase, fueling becomes more important.
A Sprint may forgive poor nutrition.
A Beast or Ultra usually won’t.
Practice your nutrition strategy before race day.
9. Avoiding Your Weaknesses
Most athletes spend their training time doing things they’re already good at.
Unfortunately, races expose weaknesses, not strengths.
The fastest way to improve is to attack the areas you avoid.
10. Forgetting the Purpose
Spartan Race was never designed to be easy.
The obstacles, hills, weather, mud, and discomfort are the point.
Athletes who enjoy the process and embrace the challenge tend to stay in the sport longer and perform better than those focused solely on results.
Final Thoughts
There is no secret workout that guarantees Spartan success.
The athletes who consistently improve focus on the fundamentals.
They run.
They carry.
They climb.
They train outside.
And they address weaknesses instead of avoiding them.
At HartFit ELEVATE OCR, we believe obstacle course racing should build more than fitness. It should build capable humans who can handle adversity both on and off the course.
Master the basics, avoid these common mistakes, and your next Spartan Race will likely go much better than your last.
OCR GYM VS. NINJA GYM: UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE
One of the questions we hear quite often is:
“What’s the difference between an OCR gym and a ninja gym?”
The answer is simple.
Neither is better than the other.
They’re just built for different goals.
If your goal is to compete in Ninja Warrior-style competitions, a quality ninja gym is exactly where you should be. The athletes are incredibly skilled, the movements are highly technical, and the level of grip strength, body control, and obstacle proficiency required at the highest levels is nothing short of impressive.
But obstacle course racing is a different sport.
The mistake many athletes make is assuming that because OCR contains obstacles, obstacle training is all that matters.
In reality, obstacles are only one piece of the equation.
A Spartan Beast can cover 13 miles.
An Ultra can exceed 30 miles.
Even shorter OCR events often involve significant amounts of running, climbing, carrying, hiking, crawling, and moving through difficult terrain long before an athlete ever reaches an obstacle.
That’s where OCR-specific training begins to separate itself.
A successful OCR athlete doesn’t simply need to complete obstacles.
They need to arrive at those obstacles already fatigued and still perform.
They need the aerobic engine to run for hours.
The strength to carry buckets, sandbags, wreck bags, logs, and other awkward loads.
The durability to move over uneven terrain.
The grip endurance to hang onto obstacles after miles of climbing and descending.
And perhaps most importantly, they need the ability to transition seamlessly between all of those demands.
That requires a different style of programming.
At HartFit ELEVATE OCR, obstacles are not isolated skills.
They’re integrated into the workout the same way they appear in competition.
Athletes may run before an obstacle.
Carry before an obstacle.
Perform strength work before an obstacle.
Or complete multiple obstacles while already under fatigue.
Because that’s what racing actually looks like.
Our goal isn’t to create the athlete who can conquer an obstacle while fresh.
Our goal is to create the athlete who can conquer that same obstacle after several miles of running, carrying, climbing, and working.
That’s why experience matters.
For over a decade we’ve coached athletes competing in Spartan, Savage Race, Frontline OCR, Highlander Assault Challenge, OCR World Championships, endurance events, and ultra-distance obstacle races.
We’ve coached beginners who simply wanted to finish.
We’ve coached athletes who stood on podiums.
And we’ve coached athletes who learned that the obstacle itself was never the problem.
The challenge was everything that happened before they got there.
The reality is that most OCR races are won and lost between the obstacles.
The athlete with the biggest obstacle repertoire doesn’t always win.
The athlete who can run efficiently, recover quickly, manage fatigue, carry weight effectively, and still execute obstacles under pressure often does.
That’s why OCR deserves its own training methodology.
Not because ninja training isn’t valuable.
But because obstacle course racing asks different questions.
And the answers require a different approach.
If your goal is Ninja, train for Ninja.
If your goal is OCR, train like an OCR athlete.
The difference matters.
THE GREATEST MOMENT IN FLATliners HISTORY
The greatest accomplishment in FLATliners history wasn’t a race win.
It wasn’t an Ultra podium.
It wasn’t a championship qualification.
It was the day a group of women from a small gym in Illinois stood on the podium at the OCR World Championships alongside some of the biggest names the sport has ever produced.
Third place.
A distant third, according to the results.
But to me, it felt like first.
What most people don’t know is how unlikely many foolishly thought that podium really was.
For years, I had heard every version of why our athletes, especially our women, weren’t good enough.
Always from other women, claiming to be leading the parade for the support of women.
Too much obstacle training.
Not fast enough running.
Too much focus on obstacle endurance.
Too much time spent on things other people considered unnecessary.
Even some athletes who had once been part of what we built eventually came to believe that what we were doing wasn’t enough.
That our women weren’t at the level required to compete with the best.
Then came OCRWC 2022.
The Canyon obstacle became the defining moment.
A team that had reached the obstacle ahead of us—and was expected by many to finish ahead of us—watched the race unravel there. The obstacle training that so many people believed we overtrained became the very thing that changed everything.
Because it turns out it doesn’t matter how fast you arrive at an obstacle if you can’t get through it.
Years of technique work.
Years of grip training.
Years of hearing that we focused too much on obstacles.
In a single moment, all of it mattered.
I can still remember watching Rory emerge from Canyon and realizing what was happening as she made her way to Erin and Bea and the course’s final stretch.
The realization that they were actually going to do it.
The realization that years of work, sacrifice, criticism, and doubt were about to culminate in a World Championship podium.
I remember standing there with tears in my eyes as they stood proudly upon the podium.
Not because we had won.
But because I knew exactly what those girls had overcome to get there.
I knew the cynicism and the circumstances.
The countless criticisms nobody saw.
I knew how many times they had been overlooked or outright denied to be mentioned or promoted.
And I also knew what would happen next.
People would diminish it.
They would point out that it was third place in a year post COVID, where attendance numbers were down.
They would compare times.
They would explain why it wasn’t as impressive as it looked.
Because that’s what people do.
But they weren’t there.
They didn’t understand that standing beside legends of the sport wasn’t the accomplishment.
The accomplishment was proving they belonged there.
For one brief moment, the entire world saw what I had been seeing for years.
And then it was over.
Ironically, the accomplishment itself would be followed by a decision that ultimately all but broke me.
Because success doesn’t always strengthen relationships.
Sometimes it exposes cracks that were already there.
Outside influences entered the picture.
The culture that had produced that accomplishment slowly became something different.
The wound wasn’t losing athletes.
The wound was losing them to the very thing I had protected them against and cultivated them to defeat only to watch something I had poured years of my life into become unrecognizable.
Watching the thing I was most proud of slowly transform into a reminder of what had been lost every time I saw that jersey. The kind of torture no one quite understands, until you have no choice but to walk away.
Eventually, the team dissolved.
The gym closed.
The chapter ended.
And yet, when I think about FLATliners, that’s still the image that comes to mind.
Not the ending.
Not the disappointments.
Three women standing on a World Championship podium while the rest of the world wondered how they got there and refused to give them credit for it in the circles that mattered, even while appearing to celebrate.
I knew how they got there.
We all did.
And nobody can ever take that away.
Not the critics.
Not the sport.
Not time nor the gatekeepers who decide what and who is important.
Not even the people who eventually walked away.
For one moment, the truth was not spoken but displayed on stage for all to see.
And it became both the pinnacle of our achievements and the beginning of our unfortunate demise.
STOP SEPARATING OCR AND HYBRID FITNESS
Somewhere along the way, we started acting like obstacle course racing and hybrid fitness are enemies.
They’re not.
In fact, they’re two halves of the same conversation.
And the obsession with separating them may be one of the biggest mistakes the fitness industry has made in recent years.
OCR Has Always Been More Than Running
When most people think about obstacle course racing, they think about obstacles.
Monkey bars.
Rigs.
Walls.
Rope climbs.
Carries.
And while those things certainly matter, they’re only part of the equation.
The reality is that most obstacles aren’t won or lost because of grip strength.
They’re won or lost because of what happened before you got there.
Your heart rate.
Your breathing.
Your pacing.
Your ability to recover.
Your ability to think while exhausted.
Anyone can hang from a bar when they’re fresh.
Can you do it after a mile-long climb?
Can you do it after a bucket carry?
Can you do it after you’ve been redlining for twenty minutes?
That’s where races are decided.
Not on the obstacle itself.
But on the engine that carried you there.
Technique Matters More Than Strength
One of the biggest misconceptions in OCR is that stronger athletes automatically perform better.
If that were true, every powerlifter would dominate obstacle racing.
They don’t.
Because obstacle proficiency is a skill.
A learned skill.
A practiced skill.
A technical skill.
The best OCR athletes understand leverage, momentum, body positioning, efficiency, timing, and rhythm.
They know how to use their hips instead of their arms.
They know how to conserve grip instead of crushing every hold.
They understand that hanging with straight arms is often better than flexing every muscle possible.
They know how to move through obstacles rather than fight through them.
The athlete who understands technique can often outperform someone significantly stronger.
I’ve seen it countless times.
The strongest person on the course isn’t always the fastest.
The athlete who wastes the least energy usually is.
Hybrid Fitness Builds The Engine
This is where hybrid fitness enters the conversation.
Because while OCR teaches movement skills and obstacle proficiency, hybrid training develops the engine that allows those skills to show up under fatigue.
SkiErgs.
Rowers.
Assault Bikes.
Running.
Carries.
Wall balls.
Functional strength.
Threshold work.
Zone training.
All of it develops the cardiovascular system and muscular endurance necessary to perform when the body wants to quit.
Hybrid fitness creates durability.
It creates resilience.
It creates the ability to keep producing output long after motivation has disappeared.
And that’s exactly what OCR demands.
The Best Athletes Combine Both
The best obstacle racers I’ve coached over the last decade weren’t pure runners.
They weren’t pure strength athletes.
And they weren’t exclusively obstacle specialists.
They blended everything together.
They developed a powerful aerobic engine.
They built functional strength.
They learned efficient movement patterns.
They mastered obstacle technique.
They understood recovery.
They respected pacing.
They became complete athletes.
That’s what OCR was always supposed to create.
Not specialists.
Capable humans.
The Future Isn’t Choosing Sides
One of the strangest developments I’ve watched over the last few years is the growing pressure to choose a side.
You’re either an OCR athlete.
Or you’re a hybrid athlete.
You’re either doing obstacles.
Or you’re doing stations.
You’re either this.
Or that.
Why?
The mountain doesn’t care.
Life doesn’t care.
Reality certainly doesn’t care.
When you have to carry something heavy, move quickly, solve a problem, adapt to changing conditions, and continue despite being uncomfortable, you’re utilizing all of those skills simultaneously.
Just like on an obstacle course.
Just like during a hybrid race.
Just like in life.
The athletes who understand this aren’t trying to separate these disciplines.
They’re combining them.
They’re taking the best parts of both.
They’re building engines and acquiring skills.
Strength and endurance.
Power and efficiency.
Technique and conditioning.
That’s where real capability lives.
Why We Train The Way We Do
At HartFit ELEVATE OCR, we don’t see OCR and hybrid fitness as competing concepts.
We see them as complementary tools.
Obstacles teach movement, adaptability, and problem-solving.
Hybrid training develops the engine that allows those skills to survive fatigue.
Together they create something far more valuable than a race result.
They create capable people.
People who can perform when conditions aren’t ideal.
People who can keep moving when others stop.
People who understand that success is rarely about being the strongest or the fastest.
It’s about being the athlete who can continue producing when everyone else is breaking down.
That’s what obstacle course racing taught us.
That’s what hybrid fitness reinforces.
And it’s a damn shame so many people are trying to separate the two when together they create something far greater than either ever could alone.
THE DAY I LEARNED LIFE DOESN’T CARE.
In January of 1995, I found my friend lying in a snow-covered field.
He had been beaten with baseball bats and left for dead.
I was a kid.
Kids aren’t supposed to see things like that.
They’re not supposed to learn that violence is real. That bad things happen. That life can change forever in a matter of minutes.
But I did.
And while that wasn’t the only difficult thing I’d experience in life, it was one of the first moments that shattered the illusion that life is fair.
For years afterward, I watched people struggle with things that no amount of wishful thinking could fix.
Addiction.
Depression.
Divorce.
Financial hardship.
Loss.
Failure.
Betrayal.
The realization that the people you thought would always be there sometimes aren’t.
The realization that the people who promised they had your back sometimes don’t.
The realization that life doesn’t hand out participation trophies for good intentions.
And eventually, I found myself facing many of those same battles.
The reason HartFit exists isn’t because I wanted to build a gym.
It’s because I became obsessed with a question.
How do you build a person who can withstand life?
Not avoid hardship.
Not hide from it.
Not medicate it away.
Not blame someone else for it.
Withstand it.
Fitness was simply the vehicle.
OCR was simply the vehicle.
The obstacles were never the point.
The point was teaching people that adversity can be practiced.
That discomfort isn’t an emergency.
That challenges don’t disappear because you wish they would.
That confidence isn’t something you’re given. It’s something earned through repeated exposure to difficult things.
Some people misunderstand what we’re doing at HartFit.
They think we’re teaching people how to climb ropes.
Carry sandbags.
Traverse rigs.
Jump walls.
We’re not.
We’re teaching people how to continue moving forward when every part of them wants to stop.
Because that’s what life demands.
Life doesn’t care how motivated you are.
Life doesn’t care how many inspirational quotes you’ve posted.
Life doesn’t care about your excuses.
At some point, every one of us will face something heavier than we think we can carry.
And when that moment arrives, the only thing that matters is who you’ve become before it got there.
That’s why we train outdoors.
That’s why we train in the wind, the cold, the heat, and the uncertainty.
That’s why our classes aren’t designed around comfort.
Because comfort has never prepared anyone for reality.
The unfortunate truth is that many people don’t actually want transformation.
They want relief.
They want validation.
They want to feel better without becoming better.
But becoming unbreakable requires something different.
It requires confronting weakness instead of explaining it away.
It requires accountability instead of excuses.
It requires action instead of endless discussion.
The greatest lesson OCR ever taught me is that every obstacle eventually ends.
The wall gets climbed.
The carry gets dropped.
The race finishes.
But life keeps going.
Which means the real victory was never the obstacle itself.
The victory was becoming the kind of person capable of overcoming it.
That is the purpose of HartFit.
Not to create athletes.
Not to create racers.
Not to create social media content.
To create people who are harder to break than they were yesterday.
People who can face adversity, uncertainty, hardship, and loss and continue moving forward anyway.
Because life doesn’t care.
But you can decide who you’re going to become in response to it.
And that’s a choice worth fighting for.
OCR AND HYBRID FITNESS TRAINING IN COLORADO SPRINGS
And Why HartFit ELEVATE OCR Exists
If you’re looking for another air-conditioned fitness class with music, mirrors, and an instructor counting reps, HartFit ELEVATE OCR probably isn’t for you.
If you’re looking for a place that develops real-world fitness, resilience, obstacle proficiency, endurance, and mental toughness, then it might be exactly what you’ve been searching for.
The truth is that obstacle course racing has changed dramatically over the last decade.
When I ran my first Spartan Race in 2011, OCR attracted military personnel, first responders, endurance athletes, and everyday people who wanted to discover what they were capable of. Success wasn’t measured by a finish time alone. It was measured by perseverance, integrity, and the willingness to confront challenges head-on.
Today, many gyms market “hybrid fitness” or “functional fitness,” but very few offer actual obstacle training.
At HartFit ELEVATE OCR, obstacle proficiency isn’t an afterthought. It’s the foundation.
Located in Peyton, Colorado, just outside Colorado Springs, our outdoor facility allows athletes to train on real obstacles, real terrain, and in real conditions.
That means:
Rope climbs
Rigs and grip obstacles
Walls
Carries
Crawls
Uneven terrain
Endurance challenges
Hybrid fitness stations
Race simulations
Because that’s what athletes will actually encounter on race day.
More Than Just OCR
You don’t have to be an obstacle racer to benefit from OCR training.
OCR develops:
Grip strength
Upper-body endurance
Functional movement
Balance and coordination
Cardiovascular fitness
Mental resilience
Whether your goal is Spartan Race, DEKA, HYROX, trail running, hunting, military preparation, weight loss, or simply becoming more capable, OCR-style training builds attributes that transfer into every aspect of life.
Why We Continue
The obstacle racing community is smaller than it once was.
Some athletes have moved on. Some discovered new sports. Some stopped challenging themselves altogether.
But challenge itself never goes out of style.
The ability to face discomfort, solve problems under fatigue, and keep moving when things get difficult remains just as valuable today as it was when OCR first exploded in popularity.
That’s why HartFit ELEVATE OCR exists.
Not to chase trends.
Not to create the easiest workout.
Not to appeal to everyone.
But to provide a place where people can rebuild capability, discipline, and direction through controlled adversity.
Looking for OCR Training in Colorado Springs?
HartFit ELEVATE OCR offers obstacle course race training, hybrid fitness, DEKA preparation, Spartan Race preparation, endurance coaching, and OCR-specific skill development in Peyton, Colorado.
Whether you’re preparing for your first race or your fiftieth, you’ll find obstacles, coaching, and challenges designed to help you become more capable than you were yesterday.
Because some gyms help you exercise.
We help you overcome things.
The Unfortunate Decline of America Through the Lens of OCR
What exists today relies almost entirely on the honor system inside a culture that increasingly sees honor as optional.
I recently completed the Spartan Ultra in Colorado Springs at Fort Carson, one of Spartan’s Honor Series events.
The irony wasn’t lost on me.
An event designed to honor military service, sacrifice, discipline, accountability, and integrity instead became one of the clearest examples of how far we’ve drifted from those values.
I’ve been running Spartan races since 2011.
I’ve watched the brand evolve from a niche challenge pursued by serious athletes, military personnel, veterans, first responders, and ordinary people looking to test themselves into something very different. Back then, obstacles mattered. Rules mattered. Most importantly, character mattered.
The athletes who showed up weren’t always the fastest, strongest, or most talented.
Many failed obstacles.
Many struggled.
Many spent significant portions of their races completing burpees.
But they completed them.
Not because someone was standing over them with a clipboard, but because they understood the point.
Spartan wasn’t simply about crossing a finish line. It was about discovering who you were when things became difficult.
If you missed a spear throw, you dropped for 30 burpees.
If you failed a wall, you dropped for 30 burpees.
If you couldn’t complete an obstacle, you accepted the consequence.
The lesson wasn’t about physical fitness.
The lesson was about integrity.
Today, those athletes still exist.
Unfortunately, they’re becoming the minority.
At Fort Carson I witnessed countless examples of what has become normalized throughout modern OCR.
Athletes openly using chalk where prohibited.
Athletes taking multiple attempts on obstacles that clearly allow only one.
Athletes skipping obstacles entirely.
Athletes bypassing long, difficult sections of the course, including an uphill barbed wire crawl, while proudly announcing, “We all get the same medal anyway.”
That statement may have been intended as a joke.
I don’t think it was.
I think it perfectly captures the mindset that has infected not just OCR, but much of modern society.
The reward matters.
The effort does not.
The appearance of accomplishment matters.
The accomplishment itself does not.
The rules only matter when they’re convenient.
Accountability only matters when someone is watching.
And if no one is watching, anything goes.
What’s perhaps most disappointing is that Spartan itself appears to be contributing to the problem.
In an effort to remain relevant and attract broader participation, obstacles have become significantly easier than they were a decade ago.
Penalty loops have largely replaced meaningful consequences.
Many obstacles now have little impact whatsoever on race outcomes.
Competitors frequently choose penalty loops without even attempting obstacles. Others skip both and continue racing.
Volunteers, many of whom are unpaid and undertrained, are often placed in impossible positions. Some don’t know the rules. Others don’t care. Others simply don’t want the confrontation.
The result is predictable.
A sport supposedly centered around obstacle completion has become increasingly disconnected from obstacles.
Were burpees perfect?
Absolutely not.
The standards varied.
Execution varied.
Enforcement varied.
They required staffing and oversight.
But they did create something today’s system often fails to create: immediate accountability.
You either completed the consequence or you didn’t.
What exists today relies almost entirely on the honor system inside a culture that increasingly sees honor as optional.
For years, I gave Spartan a pass.
After all, Spartan was never really a pure obstacle racing organization.
At its best, it was a grit company.
A lifestyle company.
A personal development company disguised as a race series.
The obstacles were simply the vehicle.
The true product was self-discovery.
People showed up believing they were capable.
The course showed them otherwise.
Then it challenged them to become better.
That mission mattered.
It changed lives.
But somewhere along the way, in trying to remove barriers to participation, we began removing the very lessons that made participation meaningful.
When failure carries no consequence, success loses value.
When rules become optional, integrity becomes irrelevant.
When everyone receives recognition regardless of effort, eventually effort disappears.
As a Spartan SGX Coach for more than a decade and someone whose livelihood is directly connected to OCR through my gym, I’ve watched this transformation with growing concern.
I’ve offered assistance.
I’ve shared feedback.
I’ve even reached out directly to Joe De Sena over the years.
Like many others who care deeply about the future of this sport, those efforts have largely gone unanswered.
Meanwhile, coaches and facilities that could genuinely help athletes improve are increasingly cut off from reaching the very audience Spartan claims to serve.
The people who still want the challenge.
The people who still want accountability.
The people who still believe obstacles should matter.
Perhaps the most telling moment of the entire race occurred at the spear throw, one of the few obstacles where burpees still remain.
I watched athletes skip their burpees entirely.
Others performed partial repetitions.
Some simply walked away.
Meanwhile, the occasional volunteer would scrutinize the form of one of the few honorable competitors still attempting to complete them correctly.
If that isn’t a perfect metaphor for modern society, I don’t know what is.
The people trying to do the right thing are held to standards.
The people ignoring the standards are often ignored altogether.
What I witnessed at Fort Carson wasn’t merely a race problem.
It was a cultural problem.
OCR was supposed to teach us something about ourselves.
It was supposed to expose weakness, reveal character, and reward perseverance.
Instead, it increasingly reflects a society that wants rewards without sacrifice, recognition without achievement, and outcomes without accountability.
The obstacle course has always been a metaphor.
The walls, carries, climbs, and crawls represent the challenges we face in life.
Some people attack them head-on.
Some people fail and try again.
Some people suffer through the consequence.
And some people look for the shortest route around them.
The frightening part is that the obstacle course never lies.
It reveals who we already are.
If OCR truly is a mirror, then perhaps what concerns me most isn’t the state of Spartan.
It’s what Spartan now reflects about the state of America.
Because the decline of a race series is insignificant.
The decline of integrity is not.
And unlike a failed obstacle, that’s not something we can simply walk around and pretend doesn’t matter.