Off Course

“Beresini uncovers the growing sport’s most compelling characters and provides the most authoritative insiders’ guide to date.” — Outside “Obstacle course racing has taken the endurance world by storm, and in Off Course Erin Beresini gives us an insider perspective into the conflict and appeal of these masochistic suffer-fests, culminating in her quest to complete the granddaddy of them all, the Spartan Ultra Beast. A must-read for anyone currently competing in, or considering taking on, one of these newfangled racing events.” —Dean Karnazes, best-selling author of Ultramarathon Man Everyone has seen the pictures on their social media feeds: friends or family wearing mud-spattered athletic gear, holding a medal to proclaim they’ve crossed the finish line of an intensely grueling race. Indeed, obstacle course racing is the fastest growing sport in U.S. history. Every week, thousands of athletes shell out money to run through mud and fire, crawl under barbed wire, scramble over ten-foot walls, and dodge baton-wielding gladiators. Erin Beresini’s Off Course chronicles the author’s period of training and competition in obstacle course racing. As she investigates the world behind this military-inspired amateur competition and the industry surrounding it, Beresini meets the diverse characters who compete in these races and uncovers the sport’s biggest scandals, lawsuits, and rivalries. And through her own race training, Erin illuminates the history, science, and psychology of this sport that is taking the endurance world by storm. “[Beresini’s] narrative has humor and heart, and a carnival of characters . . . By the end of her riotous narrative, I had to wipe mud from my glasses at least twenty-six times.”—Gary M. Pomerantz, author of Their Life’s Work: The Brotherhood of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers, Then and Now