Know Obstacles: Special training course built on fitness facility grounds

Anyone who wants to prepare for next year’s Spartan Race in Bigfork or any other obstacle-racing challenge now will have a training ground in Kalispell.

A Spartan-inspired obstacle course, built under the umbrella of a limited liability corporation called Know Obstacles, is taking shape next to Kalispell Athletic Club in north Kalispell.

The course offers cargo nets for navigating both vertically and horizontally, climbing ropes, a balance beam, a tight rope, weight-carrying features, a balance beam, a traverse wall, a javelin throw and a Burma loop (an agility exercise that involves swinging chains).

One area of the property gives space for a run of about 120 yards to add to the fitness aspect of the course.

“I started thinking I’ve got this empty piece of property and nothing to do with it,” Kalispell Athletic Club owner Stan Watkins said. “Everyone says it’s a great idea — but it’s costing way more than I thought it would.”

Part of the cost is in the expense of making sure the course is durable. Safety is key when building a course like this, Watkins said. The beams are “good stout timbers cemented into the ground,” he said. “We’ve built in a lot of safety features and the spooky parts we’re taking down every night. The cargo nets will be rolled up.”

The obstacles are built much lower to the ground than they were for the Spartan Race, Watkins said.

The course will be available to the public in a number of ways, Watkins said.

Classes based on the obstacle course, along with corresponding fitness training, will be at 6:30 a.m. Monday through Friday and 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

Watkins also plans to have solo races every Monday night, contests for teams of four on Tuesdays, and teams with unlimited participants on Wednesdays, with all race nights beginning at 6:30 p.m. Courses will be arranged for different ability levels with changing combinations.

Other nights will be “open gym,” when people can pay by the hour to practice on the course.

The current plan is to keep the area open until Nov. 1. People must be 18 to use the course.

Watkins is aiming to take advantage of a growing trend in fitness circles. The most popular obstacle races — Spartan Race, Tough Mudder and Warrior Dash — have grown exponentially, with hundreds of thousands of participants in 2012. It’s a dramatic increase from 2007, when just a few thousand took part in the first Warrior Dash in America.

The first Montana obstacle race took place in May, when a Spartan Sprint was held south of Bigfork with nearly 4,000 participants. More than 60 percent of them traveled a distance of 100 miles or more to compete. The next Bigfork Spartan race is June 14, 2014.

As an example of someone cashing in on the craze, Watkins said the cargo nets for his course were ordered from a man in Connecticut who makes them by hand.

“This boom has made him a rich guy,” Watkins said. “He’s three weeks out when you order a net — they’re just busy.”

Kalispell Athletic Club is located at 770 West Reserve Dr. Call 752-9098 or visit www.kalispellathleticclub.net

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.