摘要
The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge about the demographics, injury and training habits of those competing in obstacle race events. Participants included 122 athletes （males, n = 75; females, n = 47） （30.8 ± 9.3 yrs., 172.5 ± 17.5 cm, 76.4± 13.9 lbs.） who completed a voluntary online survey （Qualtrics ）. Eighty-two percent reported competing in high school athletics, while only 25% reported competing at the collegiate level. Eighty-three percent of participants reported completing some sort of training prior to the race. Forty-one percent of participants reported training for less than 3 months while 32% trained for 3-6 months prior to the event. Training consisted of 15.5 ± 13.1 miles of running, 4.6 a： 7.2 miles of trail running and 11.7 ± 35.5 miles of biking. Twenty-five percent of the participants reported suffering an injury during a race and 3% reported being injured on more than one occasion. The most common injuries were overuse injuries （11%）, muscle strains （9%） and sprains （8%） particularly to the knee and ankle. The injury rate appears to be high as 25% of the participants reported suffering an injury during a race. A longer training period with a focus on strengthening the stabilizing muscles of the lower extremities may help lower the incidence of injury.
