Building An Obstacle Course Training Ground

 

I recently volunteered to help out at the opening day of a Commando Course, or an Obstacle Course Training Ground, set up to help people train for events like Tough Mudder, Spartan Races and a range of outdoor extreme sports and bootcamps. The Course is in the gorgeous rural setting of Samsonvale, north-west of Brisbane. It’s an ideal location, only about 45minutes drive from the heart of Brisbane City, and close enough to towns to be able to find a hot coffee within a few minutes of finishing; or spend an afternoon at one of the local pubs.

Brenden Anderson designed and built the course, with the help of quite a few friends and colleagues. The land is naturally hilly enough to keep the hill sprinters happy; and plenty sharp drops into a range of creek beds and gullies, to get you feel like you are getting some serious running, before any obstacles were even built. And anyone who loves a bit of a Mud Run will get a good outing, especially in wet weather. The morning was a raging success, with people buzzing about it for many hours after.

The course mapped out on the day was about 2kms long. I think Brenden was hoping for rain to make it even tougher, making sure the watercourses were running and there was plenty of mud to be had; but there were just some aspects of the Course not even Brenden could control, and it was a sparkly sunny day. Everyone still managed to come through feeling pretty wet and dirty though. As for what the obstacles were – well you’re just going to have to do a run through yourself to find out! One of the great things about the Course is its scope to be able to be changed with each group going through. Some of the obstacles are pretty permanent naturally; but there are many variations possible with the less “structured” obstacles; and plenty of spare land around the area today for a Trainer/Group to bring in extra equipment to vary the level of torture.

I had a bit of a chat with Brenden to find out a bit more about what it was like to build an Obstacle Course Training ground. After all, there just aren’t that many around!

You obviously love participating in Obstacle Racing, how long have you been doing the races yourself?
Only about 12 months

Why did you decide to build an Obstacle Race Training ground?
At the start, it was just for personal use, just for me, and maybe a few friends, to train in. But then it just skyrocketed, with more and more friends interested, and gyms heavily involved in training for mud run events, showing an interest. Now, more and more trainers and groups are keen to give the place a work-over, so we’ll continue to develop it even further.

From your first thought of building the Training ground, how long did it take to finish it?
Well, it’s not finished, I don’t think it will ever be; I’ll be always adding new obstacles and changing where things are, to keep it interesting for me, and for other people using it. We first built a trail run on the property, pretty much straight away, then over every weekend I could, we’d add more obstacles and change it around. It probably took 4-5 months until now.

What were some of the trickiest things you had to deal with in getting it built?
Equipment. Luckily I own an earthworks business, so have plenty of earthmoving equipment and a great workshop facility to build some of the obstacles. If I didn’t have this it would have just been too hard and too expensive to do. Oh, and having access to the land was important. Having an acreage block in a good easy part of town to get to, with natural creeks, gullies and hills – you can’t do it without it.

You had a few small groups running the Obstacle Course over the past few weeks, but 4th May was the official opening day, when you had about 80 people competing in a relay team 90 minute event; plus about 20 volunteers, and spectators, sprawling all over your property. How did you feel on the morning of the event?
Cool, all good, oh, but a bit concerned about the numbers and how that would work. I hoped there wouldn’t be bottlenecks and the course would just cope with the numbers. It’s one of the complaints I heard a lot from people who’d run in a lot of Events, about having bottlenecks where they’d had to wait 15 minutes, or even much longer, to get onto an obstacle. I was also a bit concerned about the safety of the people, there’s just inherent risk to anyone wanted to do Obstacles. I wanted to keep the obstacles hard, but not dangerous, you think you’ve covered off as much as you can, but it’s always in the back of your mind. Safety is important.

How did you feel while it was being run?
Cool, good. Doing the relay style was a good idea, to split the numbers actually out on the course at any one time, especially for our first bigger group to run it. I did a lot of running myself, running between stations to check on things, talking to volunteers at each station, and adjusting markings so people could see their way more easily.

Did everything go as well as you expected?
Pretty much, it was a really great day. A few people deviated from the track. I thought everything was really obvious of where to go, but then I’m really familiar with it and some people went of course a bit in spots I really didn’t expect them to. We had marked arrows on the ground, and some people were actually standing on them and still asking where they had to go. I’m glad we had the amount of volunteers we had to direct people. I really didn’t think that many were going to be needed beforehand, but we certainly couldn’t have done it without the volunteers. There were the volunteers at each Obstacle, and even the guys directing cars in for parking. It was also great that we didn’t seem to have bottlenecks at all.

What didn’t go as well as you would have liked?
The water supply on the course – it didn’t rain! The creek-bed was dry, I would have preferred it to be a good mud run for everyone, apart from the specific obstacles we’d set up with mud, regardless. I like to run the course more when it’s muddy and it’s been wet because all the creeks are flowing and there are more things you have to jump over. But it’s just one of those things you have no control over when it’s an outdoor course, and at least it will give people a different experience each time they come out.

Is there anything you’re now going to modify after seeing a larger group go through?
Not really. Possibly a bit more permanent marking of directions and obstacles. Build more obstacles. But then we were always going to do that anyway.

What Obstacle, or part of the morning, did you think went really well?
Monkey Bars. A lot of people really loved the Monkey bars, and it flowed really well over them. I liked the tyre run too; a lot of people hated them because it’s really hard, uphill and it hurts; but that’s why it’s good. The organisation of the whole day went really well, even down to directing the car parking, the volunteers were great, and we just didn’t have any dramas.

How do you see the Obstacle Course Training ground being used from here-on?
I’d like to finalise things so we can really get it open to the public. So people can pay just to enter the ground and come and do a training run. And of course so Professional Trainers can either run regular bootcamps and training days out here. I’d eventually like to add in equipment for a circuit workout, so you could do this as well while you’re here.

You already have a great variety and number of Obstacles on the course. Are you planning to add or change obstacles in the next six months or so?
Yes, lots! Our current wall is about 2.40m, I’m planning to build a 3.0m wall soon, because that’s the standard. I’d like to get in a bit more for the upper body – Rope Climb, Hercules Hoist, some Over and Unders, and a Traverse Wall, and yeah, just loads of things. I’ve got a massive list so it will keep getting better and better!

 

PARTICIPANTS’ FEEDBACK

Having chatted with a whole load of participants over the few days after the Open Day, I’d have to say the Universal response was that everyone loved the day and the Course. Oh, except for all the normal whingeing about sore muscles and bruises –pfffft! Most people seemed to love the Tyre Wall, with the 12m-long Monkey Bars loved by about half the people I talked to, and hated by the other half. The mud pits and mounds presented a few challenges. There were plenty of other Obstacles that individuals loved and loathed, depending on their own strengths and weaknesses. And almost NO-ONE said they particularly Tyre Run, but maybe because it was one of the longest Tyre Runs I’ve ever seen, and uphill as well – nasty! But I can guarantee with that feedback the Tyre Run is sure to stay – after all, it IS meant to be a challenge!