Spartan Race is coming to Hong Kong: five exercises to get you mud-ready

Crawling under barbed wire, scaling three-metre tall walls, throwing a spear and jumping over fire while being caked in mud and drenched in water – it’s all short work for Hallvard Borsheim, a Norwegian who competes in obstacle course racing all over the world. But the sport is not just for serious athletes like him; in recent years, obstacle course racing has gone mainstream all over the world.

Hong Kong will have its first taste of international-standard obstacle course racing in November in the shape of the Spartan Race. Some 8,000 people are expected to tackle some 20 obstacles over a 6km course at Kam Tin Country Club in Yuen Long.

“We wanted to do something that’s not just another run,” says Charlz Ng, founder of Hybrid Group, the organiser of the Spartan race. “Looking at the number of runners, trail events and sports clubs in Hong Kong, [it shows] the demand is there.”

Obstacle course racing has been called the fastest-growing sport in history, with some 4.9 million people worldwide having participated in an obstacle course race in 2015, according to industry report

“Obstacle Race World: The State of the Mud Run Business”. In 2016, the number is expected to grow to 5.3 million.

Spartan Race – one of the industry’s big three, along with Tough Mudder and Warrior Dash – started in 2010 with 500 competitors in its first race in Vermont in the United States. By the end of 2016, some one million people will have taken part in 170 Spartan events in more than 25 countries. In Asia, South Korea was the first to have the event in 2013, followed by Malaysia and Singapore in 2015, and very recently, along with Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan and mainland China joined the list.