Pursuit OCR

If you’re a fan of American Ninja Warrior or a Tough Mudder enthusiast, then you’ll want to visit Pursuit OCR (Obstacle Course Race) http://pursuitocr.com/, located on Dufferin St in Toronto.  Its basically the Tough Mudder course, fit into a 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse in downtown Toronto, minus the water and the mud.  

Here’s the basic course outline: you go over several Berlin Walls, then traverse a rope netted wall climb, crawl through a restricted dark tunnel, balance along a bouldering wall section, move across a tire course, cross a rope swing and an unstable wooden foot bridge, down several pole drops, pull yourself up and along an inclined ladder then onto the single high bar pass with tire pull, more rope wall climbs, swing your way across the rings section (over a huge ball pit), climb up and over a steeply inclined wall using a rope, and finally ending with both 11ft and 14ft vertical curved wall runs (aka the warped wall).      

Video 1 - Patrick & Kelly on the inclined ladder 

The course challenges your agility, balance, upper body strength and stamina.  But it doesn’t really challenge your lower body much.  If fact, my legs were the only part of me that wasn’t sore the next day (unless you count the bruises on my knees I mostly likely suffered during the crawling portions and perhaps hitting my knees on the wall run). 

Video 2 - Kelly running up the warped wall

While it was a great physical and upper body workout, the mental aspect of the Tough Mudder race was distinctly missing from this course. Largely because it could be completed in such a short time (e.g. under 30min), lacked the cold water, mud puddles and any significant mileage/distance covered. 

So if you’re looking for a mentally easy, but physically demanding workout, Pursuit OCR fits the weekend warrior type who doesn’t like getting too messy during their training sessions. 

Besides the obstacle course, there are several other fitness areas where you can workout or further challenge yourself with activities like slack lining, box jumping, rope climbing, kettle bell weight training stations, and much more.  My friends and I took advantage of these other activities, letting our upper bodies recover while taking breaks between runs on the Obstacle Course. During the 3 hours we were there, we took 4 runs on the course. On the fourth run there was much more goofing around, including doing summersaults into the ball pit, because really why not, its a big old ball pit?! 

Video 3 - Patrick’s flip into the ball pit

  

I had fun spending the afternoon at Pursuit OCR. It makes for a fun and exciting alternative workout, when you feel up for a change in routine, or want to do something new with your friends.  The $20 day use pass was good value, and I recommend giving it a try.  You should keep in mind bathrooms and change rooms are in short supply in their warehouse space, so you should show up in your gym clothes, ready to go. 

Big thanks to my friends Patrick and Brendan for running the course with me, and also to Brendan for taking the action shots on his phone (which only needed some minor editing).