The Big Interview: Adrenaline Rush
Ahead of another event in Bristol this weekend, John Gladwin, director at Inmotion Sport and a 1500m Commonwealth Games silver medallist, speaks to sportindustry.biz about the idea behind Adrenaline Rush, and its unique partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support.
Firstly, tell us about the history of Adrenaline Rush and how it came about?
We work very closely with Macmillan Cancer Support and we were discussing the success of the obstacle racing area of sport and they were keen for something specialist in that area that they could become a part of, but nothing existing really fit.
We devised the idea of Adrenaline Rush, ran it by them, and now they are partnered with us on the event – something that is slightly different to most charitable involvement with sport, they are not just a beneficiary of the event, they are partners with us in the event.
Unusually for a charity they really bought into it and are our assault partner in the event which means that they take a share of profit in the event as well as potentially as anyone hopefully raising money over and above the entry fee for their cause.
Obstacle Course Racing is becoming a fairly crowded sector now, what makes it different from everything else?
We wanted to bring those elements to an urban environment so while there are the standard elements – the usual obstacles as such – we wanted to make it a bit more fun. It’s not just about being the toughest, which I think is the area in which virtually all these obstacle races are in. We were reading through the obstacle list yesterday in the office and were thinking, while our obstacles are tough there is an element of fun to all of them, well most of them.
For instance, we’ve got joined swimming buoys swinging which you will need to avoid while you are walking along your plank walk. We wanted to bring some funny elements and perhaps not take it quite as seriously as other events. That said, there are some tough ones in there as well. It’s not called Adrenaline Rush for nothing. We’ve got a five metre high jump onto an air bag as a sort of finale. I think there are some scary and fun elements. We’ve got a blacked out shipping container which you’ll have to work your way around the maze whilst there are haunting house noises going on as well. We wanted to bring a bit of light-heartedness to an assault course activity.
Where does the balance lie between making it accessible for a high number of people to take part, and still make it a challenge?
Yeah, absolutely, and I guess because we haven’t run one, we hope we get it right first time. We’ve got a series of four through the summer and two in October which will be longer events. So I’m sure we’ll tweak but hopefully we’ll get 95% of it right first time out. A lot of thought has gone into it and you’re right there’s a fine balance between fun and jokey and it not being a challenge at all and something as hard as the others, be it Tough Mudder and that sort of thing, which is really about toughing it out. It’s a great event but it is a completely different market.
What did you have lined up this year?
The Olympic Park in May was our first event so it was obviously a great venue to launch. Then we had a lovely venue near Glasgow city centre, then on to Manchester – which was undulating and really gave us license to use that environment for additional obstacles. So the obstacles change venue to venue to some degree.
We also have Bristol this weekend with some big open areas of grass, a few hills, and there’s a river. We’ll use those elements as well and bring some different elements to that to use the environment.
Finally, these events were still in their infancy five years ago; where do you think they might be in another five years?
I wish I had that crystal ball! Some things have really surprised me. We’ve been in and around the business a long time. You come up with an idea that you think will be great and sometimes it is and other times you think ‘crikey, this isn’t working out’.
From an obstacle point of view, I don’t think it will get any tougher, they may get scarier and a bigger scale and in more central locations. That’s what I think in the obstacle arena. I’m sure something will come out from the field and take us all by surprise. Something will come out of nowhere. Something will come out and you’ll just think wow wouldn’t have thought of that. We will see.
What I’m certainly encouraged by is that we’ve had is almost a 50/50 split between guys and girls, which shows how keen everyone is to give it a try.
That’s exactly how we’ve positioned it and it’s come out like that, which is a good thing. A lot of the social media has been a lot of people getting together and daring each other to do it. It’s that kind of competitor rather than being absolutely the toughest.
