Louisville to Host Mean Streets: America’s Largest 5K Urban Obstacle Race Series
Louisville, KY – June 26, 2012 — Remember watching that chase scene in your favorite movie and thinking…”It would be so cool to be an action hero; climbing over cars, scaling walls, scrambling over fences and jumping off of buildings!”
Well now you can… welcome to Mean Streets.
Mean Streets has announced that it will host its inaugural event in Louisville, KY on July 7th. According to Annie Wadley, Director of Marketing, “We are really excited to kick off the Mean Streets race series here in Louisville. We have a great running community and Louisville’s beautiful downtown area is the perfect place to launch our race series.”
Mean Streets promises to be one of the wildest, most exhilarating races in the country. Participants race through 3 miles of city streets encountering over 40 themed obstacles like Dumpster Dive, Wall Street, Traffic Jam and Cat Burglar. Each obstacle is designed to be both challenging and fun.”We wanted to design a race that would challenge the athlete but that the average person could have fun competing in as well,” said Wadley.
Mean Streets takes the best of a traditional 5K race and combines it with the excitement and thrill of an obstacle course. BUT – this is not just any obstacle course. The founders of Mean Streets did not look to boring military style boot camps for inspiration…they wanted something more fun – more fantastic. They looked instead to Hollywood!
Each Mean Streets obstacle was inspired by the best chase scenes Hollywood has to offer. Participants will be challenged physically and mentally as they climb, scale, crawl, balance and run.
AND… just to make it a little more wild, a little more daring and a LOT more fun… they will be doing it all at night!
There are familiar obstacles that you might encounter in your typical mud run, like balance beams and wall climbing, but there are plenty of other obstacles that you won’t find anywhere else. On one planned obstacle, called Cat Burglar, participants must climb the fire escape of a mock building, squeeze through an open window, scoot across a tightrope to a nearby ledge, sneak through another window and then ride a zip line back to the ground!
In Dumpster Dive, the final obstacle, runners climb another mock building where they must jump from a two story ledge into a dumpster filled with foam chunks. Like we said, this is no ordinary obstacle course!
At a time when mud runs and zombie chases are popping up everywhere, the folks at Mean Streets think their race has what it takes to stand out in the crowd. “It is obvious that people are looking for a change of pace. They are bored with the traditional 5K. Mean Streets offers people a chance to really experience something unique,” said Wadley.
In addition to the unique racing experience, runners and spectators will also have a chance to enjoy live music, food and beer at the Mean Streets Street Party. “We have some great bands lined up, so even if you’re just coming out to cheer on your family and friends you are sure to have a good time.”
Louisville will be the first city scheduled for this fall’s race series. Other cities on the 2012 calendar include Nashville, Indianapolis, St Louis, Chicago and Pittsburgh. “In addition to the five scheduled races this fall; we are already working on our race calendar for next Spring.”
To register for a Mean Streets event or for more information about sponsorship and volunteer opportunities visit www.MeanStreetsRacing.com.
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