Some Army Rangers or Airborne soldiers would be good at that event. Many great athletes at Fort Benning.
You're joking, right? Rangers, yes; Airborne, hell no. 75%+ of non-SOCOM Soldiers would barely be able to walk 10 miles. This isn't thew Army of WW2; most of the Army is overweight and lazy. Most enlist just to "serve" for three years in a desk job and claim disability, which they will inevitably get. The going rate for PTSD right now is 70%, which amounts to $1,663.05 per month.
Isn't that what Spartan racing and obstacle racing is or was? I haven't paid attention to know it still is popular.
The one guy I know of from my town who did Spartan races was an excellent mountain runner who won Mount Marathon. I first heard of him as someone who won a lot of local bike hillclimb races (when the physical newspaper would cover that kind of thing). I think he was pretty famous as a Spartan racer with a nickname and all.
Found a video of that guy training for the 2015 Spartan Worlds (he ended up being the first over-40 guy).
Matt "The Bear" Novakovich is training for the 2015 World Championship in Lake Tahoe. He wants you to be prepared to dominate the mountain. Follow along as h...
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I recognize some of the names of Spartan racers as elite mountain/ultra runners (Amelia Boone, Jon Albon, Rory Bosio). Also saw another fast runner/trail runner from my town that I didn't know did Spartans in the top 5 of that Worlds. It looks like if you ignore the theoretical (Alan Webb, Isaiah Harris, Nick Symmonds, etc.) the people with actual motivation to train for and do the type of thing the OP is asking about from the running world are mountain/trail/ultra runners. I see no middle distance or track guys in the results.
10 miles is too long and 20 lbs isn’t heavy enough to make this an interesting question—the answer is obviously strong obstacle course racers/MUT runners (Max King would’ve won multiple world championships in this during the 2010s).
Now shorten it it to 3-5 miles, and let there be some climbing and have it on a not-too-technical trail, and make the weight 40-50 lbs—then I think it becomes interesting. Nordic skiers, OCR athletes, strong MUT athletes and XC runners, orienteers, possibly some boxers and/or wrestlers, triathletes, speed skaters, maybe even some soccer, tennis, or rugby players—all of these groups come into play In addition to your stronger 1500m-10,000m runners (Josh Kerr, Ollie Hoare, and Joe Klecker come to mind, and Mottram would’ve been a beast back in the day).
Mid-d is a good answer. So is long distance really, maybe unless the weight gets increased a bit.
Triathletes would probably be pretty good.
Yes, triathletes is a good pick -running endurance and upper body strength. As a matter of fact this could be an all Norwegian fight between world’s best triathletes, xc skiers (nowadays huge muscular upper bodies) and a solid built endurance runner like Jakob Ingebrigtsen…
They have the aerobic capacity of elite runners, are way stronger physically, train to run uphills fast and generally run 10+ hours a week on hilly technical terrain. They also tend to enjoy stupid challenges. They also generally have bigger body types which means that the 20 lbs extra weight would matter proportionally less.
Soccer is the obvious answer to me. Elite soccer players are widely considered to be the best all around athletes in the world. They have lots of strength and endurance, so they would be great at a challenge like this.
Also consider that the carrying technique would make in difficult/impossible to run properly, so a significant amount of core and upper body strength would be required to move quickly, especially over technical terrain.
Mid-d is a good answer. So is long distance really, maybe unless the weight gets increased a bit.
Triathletes would probably be pretty good.
Yes, triathletes is a good pick -running endurance and upper body strength. As a matter of fact this could be an all Norwegian fight between world’s best triathletes, xc skiers (nowadays huge muscular upper bodies) and a solid built endurance runner like Jakob Ingebrigtsen…
^^ this is the answer. And I'd personally go with the XC skiers in an overall top 10. But really, who here is going to bet against Jakub? He's 165lbs and runs 115 mpw... a 20lb sack isn't going to hurt him.
Distance running. You say kill their pace but their slow jog is a fast run for any other sport's athletes and the distance will be an issue for other athlete's. Now make it over 50lbs and then you start thinking things like decathalon style athletes.
hard to see anyone beating nordic skiers or 800/1500 runners in this contest. Ever seen a nordic skier without a shirt? Those guys and gals are very strong. And obviously as aerobic as anyone in the world.
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