Tag Archives: GBC

The Green Beret Challenge, the time had come once again for me to take on a different iteration of this challenge. This time I would toeing the line with a Spartan World Champion who we also know as a Green Beret. Having tackled the Commando and 24 Hour Versions of Mark Ballas’ concoctions I knew that whatever laid before me, ‘easy’ was not going to be the term used to describe it.

You see the event name and you know you are in for it, but what does that actually mean? Endurance/Adventure races for the general OCR community are still fairly new and everyone venturing into the field has a different take. Spartan was the first to stumble into the concept when a Hurricane literally made them have to do a tear down in short order. What, at first, was a large volunteer/racer participation, was the birth of Hurricane Heat. Since then, we have seen the 12 Hour join their ranks, which is more driven towards purposefully breaking you. It is attempted by participants doing some things that at times feel like they have no purpose outside of getting you to say “that’s it I’m out”. Next, we saw the advent of BFX, which gave you a minimum threshold to hit, but ultimately, for most, it was about you tapping out, then BattleFrog saying, “you are done” and you still get the medal.

We all know the big players of OCR, but as we look to challenge ourselves more and more, sometimes we need to look at things a little differently. Green Beret Challenge (GBC) is one of those takes, a Veteran Owned-Race Series that will hit Georgia, Pennsylvania and Texas this year; offering a different take on how we view Obstacle Course Racing. Mark Ballas was kind enough to take some time to talk about this great race and the areas it takes on. In addition they partner with a charitable organization in the area they hold an event in. For example in Texas, GBC has partnered with Sean Valigura to support the Chris Kyle Memorial Run, currently held at the Rough Creek Lodge in Glen Rose Texas each fall.