Gender in OCR

Obstacle course races are a sausage-fest. There's no use denying it. Men typically outnumber women 2- or 3-to-1 at any given race, and sometimes the ratio is even more skewed. Because the origins of obstacle course racing are steeped in military training, it's easy to see why it attracts a lot of men who want to prove themselves physically capable without making, you know, a military commitment.

So there's lots of dudes out there. The obstacles are mostly biased towards male strengths, let's be honest. Good technique will get you up a rope, but so will brute upper body strength. The average fit man can do maybe 10 pullups, and the average fit woman can do...zero. So why should women do OCR?

What I love about obstacle racing is, even though it is male-dominated, it is extremely respectful of women. The men who participate in these events have a clear admiration of women who participate, and it shows in the way they behave toward women on the course. Men are oddly protective of us ladies out there. And not in a condescending, "oh, the little girl can't get up the wall, let a big strong man help you" kind of way. It's genuine. There's care there. There is a mutual respect as an athlete. These guys are stopping or stalling their own race to help us out on the obstacles where there is a clear male bias and the men are physically able to help (tip: men won't get you up a rope). The camaraderie is real. Women become part of the brotherhood.

On the obstacles, a woman by herself can basically *expect* male assistance, and here's the best part...the guy will expect absolutely nothing in return. It can be such a breath of fresh air, sadly, for a woman to receive aid, be able to say "thank you," and have that be the end of the obligation. Again, it comes down to that mutual respect, that unspoken acknowledgment that "yeah, I'm a man, I know this is freakin' hard for women, I'm here to help level the playing field by sacrificing my fast time."

Let's look at the basic types of obstacles to see what I mean.

1) Grip strength: obviously, men have the advantage, despite weighing more.
2) Climbing: again, heavier weight, but natural upper body strength 2-3x greater than women.
3) Heavy carries: women generally are required to carry about 2/3rd the weight men are, which helps equalize. For tire flips, a power move, the women's tires are half the weight of men's.
4) Crawls: actually, women might be slightly better at these, because of our smaller stature (usually, haha) and low center of gravity.
5) Calisthenics/burpees: men usually are better at these. VO2 Max, and all that.

So women, if you are considering OCR but are intimidated by some of these obstacles, remember that racers take care of each other out there. If there are somehow no dudes around when you get to an 8-foot wall, you can always form a posse of ladies and haul each other up. Every skill I listed above can be improved upon. Even if you aren't as strong as a man physically, you can still crush a course.

And men: keep helping us if we ask. It's chivalrous.