Hurt on the Hill: A Longitudinal Analysis of Obstacle Course Racing Injuries.

BACKGROUND

Obstacle course racing (OCR) has become a popular sport in recent years as it challenges participants' mental and physical endurance through a combination of trail running and obstacles. There is currently only a limited amount of published work reporting injury types or rates at these events.

PURPOSE

This study aims to build on the current literature, analyzing injury rates and patterns at OCR events.

METHODS

A secondary data analysis of deidentified medical charts from 33 OCR events in Canada from 2015 to 2017 was conducted. The scope of on-site care was first aid.

STUDY DESIGN

Descriptive epidemiology study.

RESULTS

A total of 1782 injuries occurred over 3 seasons from 73,366 participants, with an overall average injury rate of 2.4%; 1.0% (n = 17) of injuries required emergency medical services transport to a local emergency department, and the majority of these injuries were musculoskeletal in nature. The most common injuries treated were lacerations and musculoskeletal-related injuries; 93.9% of the injuries were able to be treated on site. These findings, in conjunction with the published literature, suggest that OCR medical teams should anticipate injury rates of up to 5.0% and a transportation rate of approximately 4.5% of those injuries to local emergency departments.

CONCLUSION

The injury and transportation rates found in this study are congruent with the current literature and, most notably, they demonstrated a stable trend across a variety of course lengths (5-42 km ) and numbers of obstacles (≥20). While the majority of injuries may be treated on site, there is still a serious potential for life-threatening emergencies to occur.