Muddy obstacle races test endurance, offer rugged fun at four events in Riverhead

With the second annual Survival Race set to go off at the Baiting Hollow 4-H camp tomorrow, a “Zombie Race” featuring “human obstacles” planned there for Sunday, and two more muddy obstacle challenge races scheduled in Calverton later this year — one at the end of this month and another in August — locals may be wondering what the mud run/obstacle race craze is all about.

Chris Witt, lifelong Riverhead resident and an organizer of the Long Island Adventure Race events scheduled for May 25 and Aug. 10 at the Calverton Enterprise Park, said the growing popularity of these new races is due to participator exhaustion with more traditional races.

“People are tired of the typical 5k race,” said Witt, 39, of Jamesport. “For the past couple of years in our country, these type of obstacle races have become like a craze – they’re all over the place.”

The Long Island Adventure Race is the brainchild of Witt and fellow lifelong Riverhead resident, Bill Borges, 42, of Calverton.

Witt said the idea was born of their enthusiasm to bring “something fun” to Riverhead that would also benefit local charities.

“This race will benefit organizations like the North Fork Breast Coalition, the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch, Heidi’s Helping Angels, and Stony Brook Children’s Hospital,” Witt said. “We’ll also be making donations to the local ambulance and fire departments.”

Witt said Dean Del Prete of the Survival Race has been helping him and Borges organize the Long Island Adventure Race since last October, when the town board approved the proposed event.

“They’ve been working with us a lot to make sure our logistics are OK. They’re really great guys,” he said of the Survival Race staff, which includes fitness book author James Villepigue.

Villepigue, who wrote “The Obstacle Race Training Bible,” said the growing popularity of mud runs could be connected to a youthful nostalgia.

“When we’re young, we’re free,” he said. “All we care about is having fun and this may be a way to revert to childhood again, where we don’t have a regiment or to do what people expect of us.”

The inclusion of obstacles and varied terrain may also contribute to the growing popularity of the races, he said, helping folks “tap into the essence of being outside and taking on the elements of nature.”

He said traditional half- and whole marathons have “become boring for the mainstream,” adding that the obstacle races are not only easier on the joints, knees and lower back, but distract participants from the pain of exercise.

A focus on family fun make these race less intimidating for someone looking to “complete” rather than compete,” he said, which will be especially evident in the second Survival Race event this weekend at the 4-H Camp: the Zombie Race on Sunday, which features “zombies on the course attempting to steal your health flags and eat your brains!” according to the race website.

“The Zombie race is more entertainment than fitness-based,” Villepigue said of Sunday’s event. “Zombies” are human obstacles, chasing down runners carrying red “health” flags. “These zombies will attempt to steal their flag during the race, but are not allowed to physically touch runners,” he said.

The Riverhead Town Board criticized organizers of the Survival Race at an Apr. 11 work session meeting for not seeking a mass-gathering permit considering high participation numbers from last year’s event. Organizers then agreed to cap participation in each race at 4,000 participants. The Zombie Race on Sunday is sold out, according to its website and tomorrow’s Survival Race has a limited number of spots available in the last two “waves” of the day. Each race has 13 “waves” of up to 300 participants. The town board approved the group’s special event permit by resolution adopted yesterday at a special meeting convened after its regular weekly work session.

“It’s an incredibly successful event,” said Villepigue. “It’s important that we make sure that everybody is satisfied and that’s not just the participants, but those towns we’re allowed to hold our races.”

Witt of the Long Island Adventure Race said he is hoping to bring an extra twist to the obstacle races he’s planning for Calverton.

“This won’t be your typical mud run,” he said. “We’ll definitely spice this up a bit. We have a lot of top secret challenges and obstacles and each one will have both an easy and difficult way to pass it.”

Photo caption: Brian Nigro, of Riverhead, left, competes in a mud run last year. Courtesy photo.

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