Top 5 Tips for Pacing Yourself During an Obstacle Course

Once you have sorted out the pre-competition details such as a clever team name and in which race you will compete, your focus should turn to the Ruckus course itself.  With April 6^th and Kansas City’s event rapidly approaching, we encourage our participants to have an idea of how they will attack the race.  We’re here to give you a few tips on how to pace yourself during this unique running experience—the mud obstacle course: 

 

1. Have a goal in mind before the race.  First and foremost, Ruckus is about enjoying a fun and unique style of exercise.  But we also understand and encourage our runners to push themselves to the best of their abilities.  Knowing your pace beforehand can be crucial.  So before you toe the starting line, try to have an idea of a time or position at which you hope to finish.  If you have partaken in a Ruckus before, try to beat your previous time.  Or maybe you want to try to finish in the top half of your starting wave.  Regardless, go into the race with a goal!   

2.  Run with a partner, or a few.  This is more of a personal preference, but if you are in the business of maintaining a steady pace, competing alongside a friend, family member or co-worker is a great way to not get ahead of yourself.  It’s crucial to plan ahead and make sure that you will be in the same wave as your teammate; otherwise your day might be ruined!

3. Don’t start too fast.  We can tell you right now that your adrenaline will be pumping as your grouping heads for that first obstacle.  But don’t get ahead of yourself!  There are more than 20 obstacles looming ahead of you.  Stay within your limits, especially if you are attempting the four-mile Challenge race.  The first quarter-mile of the course is not going to make or break your final time and placement, but if you don’t have any energy left with half of the race left, it’s a whole different story. 

4. Pick which obstacles you really want to attack.  With countless challenging obstacles littered throughout the race, you probably aren’t going to be able to give 100% on all of them.  After exploring the course, make sure you have an idea of which obstacles you can attack full speed ahead.  If you think you are upper-body strong, then go after the Nose Bleed Nets and Gr8 Walls of Ruckus.  If you rely more on your speed and agility, then attack the Down-n-Outs and Tirefield.  Either way, try to push yourself on at least a few of the obstacles!

5. There is no pace at the end of the race.  Plain and simple—give it everything you’ve got once you start sniffing that finish line.  You should be proud of yourself for having come out to exercise on a Saturday in the first place, but you should really make it worth your while and sprint the end.  You have the rest of the weekend to relax.  This is a perfect chance to earn some bragging rights over your running partner!

The way you run your Ruckus race is totally in your hands.  We just suggest you have an approach in mind.  We don’t want to find you taking a nap in the Mud Garden mid-way through the race!  So pace yourself and you’ll be a RuckStar.  

Ruckus: A Corporate Team Building Experience

“Quick everyone!  Get to the conference room!  It’s time for a team building seminar!”

Those words should never be said with enthusiasm. Ever.

There is nothing more boring than PowerPoint presentations and free bagels to “bring a team together”. Yet this activity is exactly what companies do to “excite” their employees about working together. Great teamwork isn’t developed with crazy fonts and smooth transitions.  Team building should be more...well...fun!

Teamwork makes the dream work.

So, if you want to build up your corporate team, what activity should you plan? That’s an easy one; Ruckus!

Build Emotional Bonds 
Ruckus helps build the emotional bonds that are the building blocks of trust and teamwork. The physically challenging course at Ruckus acts as the common enemy for your team to rally around. At the end of the Ruckus race, there’s nothing more rewarding than cheering all of your team members as you all cross the finish line, worn out and covered in mud. An out-of-breath nod to a teammate that says “that was tough and challenging but we beat it together” speaks a whole lot more than actually saying it in a conference room setting.  Plus if you can overcome our obstacles as a team, you can overcome a lot of tough clients together too!

Team Activities vs. Individual Activities 
When trying to build cohesiveness within your team, competitive events that are individual based don’t work. Activities where coworkers only have to worry about themselves are just as ineffective as seminars (think bowling, laser tag, or paintball). These types of activities create a “me first” mindset; participants want to shine individually and are only concerned with their own success. On top of that, if there is tension between some team members, do you really want to give them paintball guns?  We didn’t think so.  The best solution is to set up a team and run Ruckus together!

Foster Trust 
If you really want to build cohesiveness within a corporate team you won’t do it with terms like “synergy”. Trust falls are a great idea, but if people fail to catch you, trust isn’t the only thing often broken or damaged. True team building occurs when people are able to come together around a common cause.

Ditch the laser tag and steer clear of the conference room. Gather your team for Ruckus Kansas City on April 6, 2013 to turn your corporate get-together into a muddy good time! Sign your team up quickly because wave times sell out fast. Let Ruckus be your new corporate tradition!

Get more Ruckus tips, tricks and advice on Twitter! @RuckusSports