After crawling through a mud pit under low-hanging barbed wire, one of many hazards in store for the 1,300 participants in Saturday's Mudd, Sweat & Tears endurance race at Otway Nordic Centre, there will be no avoiding yet another obstacle.
Everybody is going to get zapped by an electrical charge.
That's a stinging promise from John Reed, race organizer and founder of the Mudd, Sweat & Tears race series.
The eight-kilometre Otway course follows ski trails blocked by walls and other wooden structures, monkey bars, tire traps, mud pits and a small pond. The obstacles have been designed by army cadet trainer Greg Clarke, and some of them will be downright nasty.
"We have a big mud pit and two crawls - one's a mud crawl and one's a electrified barbed wire crawl and we zap people at the end of the crawl," said Reed. "There are little ribbons that hang down from a crossbar and the charge is very minimal. We like to surprise people as they race."
Racers are entered as individuals and on teams. To help people get past the obstacles, teamwork is not only allowed, it's encouraged. That could mean helping someone get over a wall or lending your shoulders to carry some of the burden to get past the hand-over-hand monkey bar obstacle. There is a price to be paid for failing to complete an obstacle - a penalty of 30 burpees.
If the 1,300 mudders already registered do show up to go through the course Saturday, it stands to be the largest single sporting event ever to take place in the city. By comparison, the Prince George Iceman multisport endurance race held in February, which is the largest annual sporting event in Prince George, attracts less than 700 participants. Even Reed, a Rossland resident who saw about 1,000 people take part in the season-opening Mudd, Sweat & Tears event May 9 in Westbank, is blown away by the response in Prince George.
"This is our largest registration for a first race in a new market - we have people coming from all points around P.G.," said Reed, who started the series in 2013.
"It's a super-fun event. It's probably one of the most social races I've done, and it will be a good challenge. It's not a timed event and we have a ton of teams coming in from everywhere. There are lots of racers here who do the Tough Mudder in Whistler."
Other than bragging rights, there are no rewards for finishing first, either as individuals or on a team. Each finisher gets a T-shirt, finisher's medal, and, if they are of legal age, a beer ticket.
Spectators are welcome. The start/finish area will be an action-packed spot to watch, as will the main mud pit at the old biathlon site about one-and-a-half kilometres west of the Otway Rotary Lodge. Reed said 16,000 square metres of dirt will be dumped into a tarp-lined water hole to form the makeshift quagmire.
To accommodate the large field, starts will be staggered in heats and each heat will typically include a wave of about 175 racers. The first heats start at 9 a.m. and the last racer is expected to cross the finish about 3:30 p.m. A wash area will be set up to allow people to remove the grime after the race.
A portion of each entry fee will be donated to the B.C. Professional Firefighters Association Burn Fund, which raises money to send young burn survivors and their families to camp for one week in July. As part of the online registration process, racers were asked to make an optional donation to the Burn Fund. Several Prince George Fire Rescue members will be on hand Saturday to help oversee the race.
White Goose Bistro will bring a food truck to Otway for the post-race barbecue. An after-race party with a DJ is also planned for the Generator night club Saturday night. Half of the $10 cover charge will be donated to the Burn Fund.
Prince George is one of five stops in the series this year. The series is also coming to Fredericton, N.B. (Aug. 22), Panorama Ski Resort near Invermere (Sept.12) and Regina (Oct. 3). Mudd, Sweat & Tears is going global this year, with a November race planned for Australia.
