The Event: The Ultra Beast is the first marathon/marathon+ length obstacle race. Competitors had to go through an application process and not everybody was accepted. It consisted of 2 laps through the regular Beast course with time cutoffs to ensure competitiveness. Anybody finishing in under 11 hours was awarded a Spartan Race 2013 Season's Pass.

The Event: The Death Race is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical beating. Hard, grueling terrain mixed with strenuous challenges and combined with a healthy dose of mind games make this event unique in the newly evolving world of obstacle races, and as far as I know it, it is unique in the more established adventure race world as well. Competitors don’t have any realistic idea about course length in miles or hours, and the only given is that they’ll have to chop wood somewhere along the line.

The Event: Civilian Military Combine (CMC) is just what the name implies: a combine. It’s a combination of a lifting event followed shortly by an obstacle race. The lifting event is four exercises done for a minute and thirty seconds each with a rest period of thirty seconds between exercises. The exercises are done for max reps with max total reps being worth the most points. The exercises are thursters (75 lbs men/45 lbs women), kettlebell swings (20 kg men/12 kg women), burpees, and 20” box jumps. In an industry of copy cats, this is a refreshing and unique challenge.

The Event: Tough Mudder is currently one of the big names in obstacle course running. They combine distance, quality obstacles, strenuous terrain, and the freezing cold to challenge participants both physically and mentally.

They say they are “possibly the toughest one day event of the planet”, and while I wouldn’t go that far in describing their events, they are definitely tough and challenging. Tough Mudder is not a timed race. They make it well known they see themselves as a challenge and that your fellow Mudders are to help you through the course and not step on your head to get over an obstacle (unless you offer of course).

The Event: S.E.R.E. is a team event, and this is the basic level of their challenge. There will be Advanced and Xtreme levels to come. Basic is meant to be a physical and mental challenge where trainees carry a ruck containing 20% their bodyweight in sand and whatever other supplies that are on the packing list or that they feel they need. It is led by former/current military personnel and is inspired by the military’s S.E.R.E. school in that teaching survival skills also plays a role in the challenge.

The Event: The GoRuck Challenge isn’t a race. It is a team challenge that generally covers about 15-20 miles over 12-15 hours where classes are led by ex-Special Forces cadre through a series of challenges designed to tax the class members mentally and physically while bring them together as a cohesive unit. Class members carry a backpack (aka a rucksack) during the entire challenge with 4-6 bricks in it depending on their bodyweight. Classes are capped at around 30 people. This is their idea of “Good livin’”.

The Event: World’s Toughest Mudder is the Tough Mudder organizations championship event. Where other Tough Mudder events are billed as not a race but a challenge, World’s Toughest Mudder (WTM) is most definitely a race with $10,000 going to the male and female winners. The obstacles are beefed up and conditions are bad. This is to be a true challenge for Mudder veterans.

The Event: Metro Dash is not a mud run, but it is an obstacle race. It’s a challenging sprint through a “gut wrenching, muscle pounding, make you want to through up (their typo not mine) obstacle course”. In a type of racing dominated by longer distances with 5000 meters being considered short, Metro Dash offers a unique experience by packing obstacles into 600 meters.

The Event: The Rugged Maniac recently held in Southwick was a 5k Adventure Run billed as being designed by the Navy SEALs and combining “the most rugged terrain and burly obstacles”. It’s also not billed as a “race” but as a “race and music festival”.

The Event: The GoRuck Challenge isn’t in race format like the other events I’ve done, so it will be hard to compare it to anything else or to even fit it into my template that I have for reviewing these things. The GRC is a team event capped at 30 people per team ( or “class” ) created by a former Green Beret and inspired by his Special Forces training. It covers 15-20 miles over 8-10 hours of “Good livin’” through a major city with cadre presenting various challenges and tasks to your team. However one of their mottos is “Under promise. Over deliver”, so it’s safe to assume you’ll put in more time, more miles, or both.

The Event: Spartan Races call themselves the “world leader in obstacle racing”. They have multiple event formats from their 5k Sprints, to their 8 mile Supers, to the 10+ mile Beasts, culminating in the multi-day Death Race. This was the first Beast, and it was obvious they were going to try to make a splash competing with other events out there of similar distances.

The Event: It’s a 4 mile obstacle course run part on-road and part off-road. They don’t want to be known as just another mud run. In their words, “We are not a trail run or mud run - we build obstacle courses.” They also offer a Mini Ruckus Challenge for children.

The Event: By now everybody into Adventure Running has heard of the Tough Mudder. It is essentially the event by which all other events are measured. It combines long distance, strenuous courses with some of the best obstacles that anybody is offering.

I’m not sure about their tagline of being possibly “the toughest one day event on the planet”, but they are tough and challenging. Most importantly, they are fun.

The Event: The Tough Mudder is billed as the “toughest one day event in the world”. This particular inception of the Tough Mudder featured 19 obstacles spread out over 12.1 miles of mud, fun, and pain.

This event holds some special meaning to me because I raised a little over $1500 for it that went to the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in honor of my aunt who passed away from the disease a few years ago. Click for Michael J Fox Foundation’s website...

The Event: Ruckus Boston described itself as the most physically demanding obstacle course available. It’s a “3+” mile course that took place at the Marshfield Fair Grounds in Marshfield, Massachusetts. It features “authentic, military-grade obstacles”.

The Event: The Rugged Maniac recently held in Southwick was a 5k Adventure Run billed as being “not for the faint of heart, frail of body, or weak of mind... to push your limits and determine how rugged you truly are”. It was to be an event that combined “the most rugged terrain and burly obstacles”.