Forget achieving personal bests, ticking off bucket list items or keeping fit – the new wave of fitness events attract people with the promise of getting dirty, covered in colour, or possibly even zapped.
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Novelty fitness events have almost become the new music festival, with more popping up each year ranging from the tame to the extreme.
Jasmine Davidson, events manager for women's only obstacle course Miss Muddy, said the mud, colour and other novelty factors are encouraging more people to get moving and get involved.
"There's no fun in not being dirty. You've got to have the fun with the messiness," she said.
"And I think it's that sense of accomplishment, once you've done it, it's a bragging right."
Miss Muddy, which is on in Canberra on October 19 at EPIC, is a 5km obstacle course featuring climbing walls, log carrying, mud pits, foam cannons and ice baths.
Davidson said they started the event to cater to females who were keen to do an event no matter what their fitness level, and who may have been scared off by inclusions in other events including open fire and electrical shocks.
"It's based a bit more around the fun aspect than the fear factor," she said.
"If you don't want to do an obstacle, you can always go around it. You don't have to run, and no one's going to yell at you. And there's no burpee penalty."
Brad Mader, marketing director and one of the owners of fun run Color Me Rad Australia, agrees that the novelty factor is attracting more people to fitness events, which is hardly a bad thing in a country facing an obesity crisis.
"About 60 per cent of our runners are first time runners, which is really encouraging and fun to be a part of," he said.
"I meet handfuls of people after the race that go, 'that was my first 5k ever, and now I believe I can do it again or do a 10k'. It really gives them that motivation - there's always that positive aspect of it that it's not as hard as they thought it was."
Color Me Rad started in America - hence the spelling of "Color" - and is now run in 16 countries around the world, with Canberra's event on December 6.
The five-kilometre course includes five colour stations where participants get covered in powder and liquid, plus a big party at the end with a DJ and live entertainment.
"I think one of the things people love about it is it gives people an excuse to get out and run, but also to have a good time and it's not really fitness focused, but it has that background," he said.
"When you were a kid, you just love being able to get into a mess and not care. It's giving you that chance to kind of be a kid again through the colour."
Canberrans can also tackle obstacle coursea and get dirty at Call of the Beast in Tharwa on November 8, and Tough Mudder in the Southern Highlands on November 15 and 16.
Miss Muddy is on at EPIC on October 19. Registrations are open at missmuddy.com.au. Color Me Rad is on December 6 at the Lake Ginninderra Peninsula. Registrations are open at colourmerad5k.com.au/race/canberra.
