It's the muddiest, wettest, most gruelling, sapping physical challenge you could imagine. Facing the murky waters of the Terror Trench, swimming under water through the Sheep Dip and clambering through knee-deep mud to face a 10-foot high, sheer wall.
For the first time, the UK's dirtiest sport has come together to select its first UK Champion. The fastest growing sport in the UK has earned its first national championships, where the country's toughest athletes will battle it out for the UK Obstacle Course Racing crown.
The inaugural UK Obstacle Course Racing Championships will be held at the London South OCR
venue at Paddock Wood, Kent, on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th September 2014. The best male and female obstacle racers in the country will gather to compete for the title of UK Champion 2014.
The UK OCR Championships will be the final qualifier for the OCR World Championships (held in the USA in October). With automatic qualification guaranteed by winning the UK title, the country's leading male and female athletes will put themselves amongst the favourites for the worlds.
Set to become the key date in the calendar for UK OCR athletes, the championships will be held annually in September. We are promising a spectacular event with obstacles set to challenge novices and elite racers alike.
There will be male and female champions over each of three distances:
• The 6k Dirty Dash event with 15 military-style obstacles
• The classic 12k Dirty Dozen race with 20 military-style obstacles
• And the 18k Dirty Destroyer event with a massive 25 military-style obstacles
Obstacles will include: "Big Walls" (huge 10 feet tall wooden walls); the "Sheep Dip" (a psychologically demanding water obstacle requiring full submersion); and "Terror Trench" (pitch black, muddy, water-filled tunnels) plus a whole raft of other fiendish and testing military style obstacles. All of which conspire to make even the sprint distance, the Dirty Dash (6k), one of the most sapping challenges any athlete can face.
Amateur competitors and the UK's leading obstacle course runners will all compete on the same course - giving a unique opportunity for those new to the sport to pit their fitness against the best in the land. As well as the overall UK champions medals, there will be a veterans category. There will be a cap on the number of athletes taking part set at 3,000 at each distance to ensure the event builds its status as one of the leading OCR competitions in the world.
The UK's greatest OCR athletes have already committed to taking part. The country's leading male contenders for gold: Jon Albon; Ross Phelan; Rich Pringle; Richard Crewe; Sam Cherry; will be joined by the UK's leading female OCR athletes Katie Keeble and Faye Caley. All will be looking to win here and travel to America a month later as UK champions.
The Event Director behind the inaugural UK OCR Championships is Dirty Dozen Races' founder Doug Spence. In the absence of a UK Governing body, Doug has assumed the role of manager for Team GB's OCR team. Such is his desire for the sport, he'll be doing everything he can to ensure that UK athletes dominate at the October World Championships.
Talking about the UK OCR Championships, Doug said: "We've been planning this event for a long time to ensure it's a real test for UK Champions. We won't reveal the exact obstacle combination until the day of the event, but I can say we've got a course that will test the best racers in the UK, yet still give most competitors a chance to complete the course."
Find out more by visiting the UK OCR Championship events website - get involved!