...OVER 25 YEARS OF COMPETITIONS...
Survivalrunning is a relatively new sport that originated in The Netherlands near the German border.
In the late '80s, two adventurous runners organized an offroad race along the trail of a traditional fox hunting event. (don't worry, no foxes are hurt during this event). Inspired by a TV-show called 'Survival of the fittest' these guys build some obstacles into the course of that running event. And so it happend that on the first sunday of 1988 the first Survivalrun was being held in the village named "Beltrum" over a 15k course with selfmade and natural obstacles.
In the late '80s, two adventurous runners organized an offroad race along the trail of a traditional fox hunting event. (don't worry, no foxes are hurt during this event). Inspired by a TV-show called 'Survival of the fittest' these guys build some obstacles into the course of that running event. And so it happend that on the first sunday of 1988 the first Survivalrun was being held in the village named "Beltrum" over a 15k course with selfmade and natural obstacles.
Since 1991 there is a Survivalrun Association for The Netherlands and Belgium that includes:
Over 32 Race organisations
Over 70 Training clubs 6 Categories 25 years of experience |
2 National championships
1 International competition 7000 members Well executed regulations |
"Isn't it exactly the same as Obstacle Cource Racing?"
"Survivalrunning is not exactly the same as OCR." Although the concept is exaclty the same, there are a few noticeable differences. One important difference are the kind of obstacles used in Survivalruns. Survivalrun obstacles are (significantly) more technical than the obstacles you see in OCR. They require more/slightly different agility, technique and strength and there is more climbing involved. A big part of the obstacles exists out of ropes, beams and nets. Obstacles that require brutal strenght, like carrying heavy objects are limited. Even the world fittest atlethes need some serious specific Survivalrun training to even make a change for a podium spot in the 2 harder categories (RUC, TSC) OCR often have harder running trails then survivalruns. |
Every race is organised by a training club. In this video you see different categories during a race organized by a training club. The course passes their training location.
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Depending on the category, a Survivalrun contains about 20 up to about 75 obstacles. There are categories for the youth and adults (all with their own competition).
OBSTACLE EXAMPLES
Competitors get a red wristband and a t-shirt with their own startnumber which they are obliged to wear at the start off a Survivalrun. The competitors can try every obstacle as many times as they want. If a competitor does not complete the obstacle according to the instructions, the wristband will get cut off and he/she gets 2 hours penalty time.
Typical for Survivalruns is that they are organized by non-profit organisations and that the entree fees are tried to be kept low to make sure participation in the competition is possible for everybody (also youth). Think about 10-20 Euro.
Typical for Survivalruns is that they are organized by non-profit organisations and that the entree fees are tried to be kept low to make sure participation in the competition is possible for everybody (also youth). Think about 10-20 Euro.
Interested in specific Survivaltraining or competing in a Survivalrun?
Simple training (see here advanced training):
Note: This video is used to make Germans enthousiastic to start a training-club. Obstacles are performed slow to make it look smoother.
Also, this is a very limited trainingslocation. 1 of the 5 races of the competion in 1993 (skip to 6:00)
In the beginnen races were about 30k long. Since the beginning of Survivalrun the competition was serious.
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Youth JSCC (5k):
Age group 10-12 years. This kid (10 years at that time) got 14th in 1:00.
The winner finished in 0:42. RUC race (14k):
TIP: turn volume a bit down
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