We Don't Just Build Obstacles for Other Races. We Built Our Own
Most obstacle course races (OCRs) are put on by event companies. The people who own the race aren't the ones building the obstacles and have usually never fabricated a single piece of what athletes run through on course.
But Midwest OCR is different.
We are Race Ready Obstacles, a veteran-owned obstacle fabrication company based in northern Illinois. We travel the country building and setting up full obstacle courses for OCR brands at events nationwide. Major brands like Savage Race use our Race Ready grip attachments on their own rigs ( I'm looking at you Gibbons). We’ve built for OCRWC, Abominable Snow Race, Frontline OCR, and more.
We are, as far as we know, currently the only obstacle builders in the country who also own and operate their own race.
That’s Midwest OCR. Our course. Our obstacles. Our race. September 19th, 2026 at The Cliffs Insane Terrain Off-Road Park in Marseilles, Illinois.
And if you want to train for it, we can help with that too.
What It Means That the Builders Own the Race:
At Midwest OCR, the people who designed every obstacle, fabricated every grip, and mapped every foot of that course are the same people who will be at the venue on race day. We don’t hand this off to anyone. We build it ourselves, along with dedicated team (who are all OCR racers themselves), the same way we build courses for other OCR brands around the country, except this one is ours.
That means every obstacle at Midwest OCR was built with intention. The difficulty curve, the obstacle placement, the terrain interaction, all of it was designed by people who have spent years building for the best events in the sport and know exactly what makes an obstacle genuinely challenging versus just frustrating.
That’s a level of craftsmanship and course design integrity that simply doesn’t exist anywhere else in OCR. We’re not aware of a single other race in the country where the obstacle builders and the race owners are the same people. If one exists, we haven’t found it.
Why The Cliffs Is the Perfect Venue:
Illinois isn’t exactly known for dramatic terrain. Most OCR venues in the state are flat and surrounded by cornfields. The Cliffs is a completely different story.
Set on 300 acres in Marseilles, about 90 minutes southwest of Chicago, The Cliffs Insane Terrain Off-Road Park features wooded trails, genuine ravines, creek crossings, and hills. Real hills. The kind that will have your legs burning before you ever reach the first obstacle.
This is a rain or shine event. Because real OCR athletes don’t wait for perfect weather.
Who This Race Is For:
The honest answer: everyone. Midwest OCR was designed with a range of athletes in mind: welcoming enough for first-timers, demanding enough for elites, and fun enough for families.
First-timers & beginners: The course is designed with approachable obstacles and a community-first vibe. We want you to finish. We want you to love it. We want you to come back.
Competitive athletes: The terrain at The Cliffs combined with our race-built grip obstacles will challenge even the most experienced racers. If you want to podium here, you’ll have to earn it.
Families: We welcome families and encourage kids to experience the challenge of OCR in a fun, safe, supportive environment.
The Obstacles: The Same Quality You’ll Find at Major National Events
Here’s where it gets real. The grip obstacles at Midwest OCR aren’t just your basic cookie-cutter obstacles that you'll find at every other race. They're tough. They're unique. And they're going to challenge you.
If you’ve trained on Race Ready grips at home before race day, these obstacles will feel familiar. That’s not a coincidence, it’s the whole point.
How to Train for Midwest OCR Right Now:
September 2026 feels like a long way off. It isn’t. The athletes who will crush this course are already training, and the ones who will struggle are the ones who waited until September.
The good news: you don’t need a fancy facility or a full obstacle course to get ready. All you need is a pull-up bar and the right grip attachments, the exact same ones hanging on the Midwest OCR course.
Phase 1 (Now through Summer): Build the Foundation
Focus on dead hangs, pull-ups, and basic grip work. Start with the rings, stirrups, and t-handles which build grip endurance without destroying your forearms. Aim for 3 sessions per week.
Phase 2 (Summer): Add the Vertical Holds
Introduce the Steel Nunchuck and Rope Grips. Work on transitions between grips, not just static holds. Practice moving from one attachment to the next without touching the ground. This is where race-day confidence is built.
Phase 3 (Late Summer / Early Fall): Simulate Race Conditions
Do your grip training after a run, not before. On race day you’ll hit the rigs with fatigued arms at every mile. Train that way. Practice the full sequence in one set without stopping.
The Kind of Savage Grip Package from Race Ready Obstacles includes the Twirly Beard, T-Bar, Steel Nunchuck, Rope Nunchuck, and Stirrup, essentially everything you need to replicate a Midwest OCR rig in your own backyard. Hang it on a pull-up bar, a backyard rig, or your local park’s monkey bars. Train smart. Show up ready.
We’ve spent years traveling the country building obstacle courses for other people’s races. We know what a great course feels like. We know what separates a memorable race from a forgettable one. And we’ve always believed that the best version of that experience deserved to exist right here in the Midwest.
So we built it ourselves.
Every obstacle. Every grip. Every foot of course tape. Designed, fabricated, and installed by the Race Ready Obstacles team, the same team that builds for some of the biggest names in OCR.
We’ll be there on race day because we built it, we own it, and we care about every single person who crosses that starting line.
We’ll see you at The Cliffs this fall.