Have you ever heard of Runmageddon? Well now you will.

What is it?

Runmageddon is an obstacle race held in multiple cities in Poland. They have multiple different race lengths that vary from 6km & 30+ obstacles, 12km & 50+ obstacles, and 21km & 70+ obstacles, and also include the kids and junior races. The races are called Recruit, Classic, and Hardcore respectively. There is also an intro 3km, and ultra 42km, both with obstacles. Similar to Spartan in the way of a trifecta, once you complete each of these distances you are awarded a veteran trophy which then you can insert your medals. This weekend, Runmageddon held the recruit and classic race on August 3rd and 4th in Szczecin, Poland.

Runmageddon has been growing in the number of participants year after year. It originated in 2014. Last year the total number of participants reached over 60,000! This weekend there was well over 1000 racers on each day.  So why race Runmageddon in Poland? They have some fun and creative obstacles, location is always different which has different terrains, and it has a welcoming and positive atmosphere!

Recruit 6km and 30+ obstacles

There are multiple different challenging obstacles I’ve never seen before. One favorite was only for the elite runners.
They use retry lanes in these series of obstacle course racing, so you can try as many times as possible to succeed at an obstacle.
For the 6km Recruit race, they had almost 200 elite runners, and they announced all 200 names as they entered the start area. I enjoyed that. After the 2 elite waves have gone, the open heats started. Workout and stretching are presented by a trainer before every open heat. I thought this was a really neat idea how everyone was synchronized.

Racing in elite

When you are racing in the elite series, you are to complete all obstacles without additional help. If you fail an obstacle, there is a retry lane and you have unlimited attempts to complete this. When one cannot complete the obstacle and throws in the towel, they will have the elite headband taken away and will not qualify for the podiums.

Obstacles worthy to mention

Poledance

One of Runmageddon’s famous obstacles. Before we approached this obstacle, we went into an ice bath and a crawl through the sand. Needless to say, the climb up was tough. It was my first time seeing an obstacle like this. Once you reach the top, you slide down the pole and continue on your way.

Wariat (Madman)

This was the most difficult obstacle of the day. There were many fails and attempts at this obstacle that a queue began. For me to attempt the obstacle on my first try I had to wait 5 minutes. To re-attempt this obstacle, I had to wait an additional 5 minutes. There are only 4 lanes. For all the reasons above, this was only open for the Elite series.  And to clarify, for all obstacles you have to start holding the first bar/ring/rope.

Tire Obstacle

It’s like a rig with tires! First is a zip-line assembly with the tire followed by a grab and a foothold. To finish the obstacle you climb the stack of tires and ring the bell. All the tires are attached with chains and can swing. I felt that this was a really good use of the tires.

A few more obstacles that stood out in this race are as follows.  MultiRig – The assembly was 5 rings followed by 2 long horizontal bars followed by 5 tennis balls holds and the bell. There was a tire crawl where you squeeze between the tires and the ground. An ice bath that was replenished roughly every hour with ice. The football squad! They were only there for the open heat. They were great at motivating the runners.

The Course

Furthermore, the terrain was mainly sand and trails with multiple single tracks through the woods. The 300m run through the bog made up for the lack of elevation ascent. My Suunto watch recorded 6km and 120m of elevation gain. All the heats started with a sandbag, but we dropped it off after 200m. The first couple of kilometers were on the sandy trails.  We had multiple walls and carries and climbs to overcome. The second half was through the swamp. The final stretch of the race was through the water and followed by the main difficult obstacles that were visible for the spectators.

Medals

Finally, each finisher received a medal with the R which symbolizes the Recruit race, the Runmageddon Recruit headband, and a choice of water or non-alcoholic beverage and some snacks.

Overview of the event

To summarize, the Runmageddon event was really well organized. The festival area was surrounded by multiple booths ranging from food, beverages, merchandise, and vendor samplers. The technically challenging obstacles were in view from the spectator area.

Redbull, Canon, and Salomon and any more companies sponsored this event. The Salomon booth was allowing participants to try the Speedcross 4 shoes for the race.

For future Runmageddon races, please visit https://www.runmageddon.pl/