Prison Break – the race is on!

June 30, 2015 · 0 Comments

This past Saturday more than 1500 people crawled under barbed wire, jumped into an ice bather and flung themselves over walls on purpose. It was all part of the Prison Break Race that made its annual stop in Mansfield.
What is Prison Break Race? In a nutshell it’s a 5 km obstacle course race with the added diversion of being captured by prison guards. Think capture the flags meets – flag football – meets Tough Mudder. A race that will definitely get your heart rate pumping!
Obstacles such as “prison sewer”, “hay bales” and “nut cracker” make up three of the many different obstacles challenges. While you’re trying to make your way over a wall, or through a muddy bog, you have the added challenge of trying to stay away from “prison guards” who will take one of your 3 flags the first opportunity they get. If you make it to the end of the course with flags remaining, you avoid being sent to the “mud hole” (punishment for having been “captured” by the prison guards).
The Prison Break Race was the creation of a team of 8 professionals who happened to also be ex-military, triathletes, kite surfers and Ironmen participants. All of whom you can image get board running in a straight line. Going by the name of Ultimate Races, they also organize the Lachine Half Marathon and the Verdun Triathlon.
Races are divided into three categories. The Elite Wave which was won by Kyle Smith with a time of 28:24.2, the General Wave won by Brendan Fox at 42:40.9 and the Team Category won by Grand Valley Institution with a combined time of 3:25:32. After the race all runners are invited to an after party race with DJ, Rock Band and BBQ even if you didn’t manage to finish with any flags left to your name.
Most participants agree that the race is about endurance and teamwork and emphasize that a lot of upper body strength is needed to get through the course. One participant by the name of Alex Lantanville from Beeton ran the entire obstacle wearing his firefighting gear, an extra 55 lbs., in hopes of collecting donations for the Breast Cancer Foundation and to honour the wife of a dear friend, Capt. Rayanne Dubkov, also a firefighter who lost her battle to breast cancer recently and Prison Break committed to match donations.
For more information on future Prison Break races and dates you can go to their website www.prisionbreakraces.ca

By Michelle Austen