Esrar Obstacle Race sprints through the rainstorm in Aspire Park

The Esrar Obstacle Race took place in Aspire Park yesterday. Runners arrived at the venue as early as 6 AM to sign up and warm-up before the race began at 7 AM.

The race was the very first event of its kind in the State of Qatar. It was sponsored by Diverse Sports Managementm in collaboration with Aspire Zone.

A prominent media personality and former tennis player Mohammed Saadon Al-Kuwari and Qatari Olympic Champion Moataz Barsham both attended the event to support a healthy and active lifestyle for everyone in Qatar.

Esrar means "Endurance" or "Persistence" in Arabic, and that is what helped the runners complete the 4K long obstacle race. The race consisted of 14 challenging obstacles - all with some creative names such as The Tall Wall, Farmer's Fence, The VERY Tall Wall, Monkey Business, Sand Bagger and others.

The runners signed up for the race in advance with a QAR 400 fee, a percentage of which went towards Qatar Charity to help those in need.

The first three contestance to complete the Esrar race also received cash prizes as follows:

First place - USD 1,500

Second place - USD 1,000

Third place - USD 500

Daniel Martins, a male participant, enjoyed the race even though the rain made it more challenging. "If anything, it (the rain) only made it a bit more difficult as some of the trails were flooded a bit. I don't know if that was intended or not but it made things a little bit tougher, a little muddier," Daniel said.

Some runners even come to Qatar to participate in this race. Hasan Al-Rayyes, a Kuwaiti citizen, arrived to Doha just to run this obstacle race. "The race was great. The obstacles were very challenging but the distance was perfect. We had to start off really fast and continue to sprint all the way to be able to finish in a competitive rank," he said.

"The monkey bars were supposed to be challenging but it was the easiest obstacle. The most challenging one was the birth canal as it had water hitting everyone and we had to crawl on the sides," he said.

For Hasan, the weather was refreshing. "I wanted the weather to be this way. If it was sunny I wouldn't have finished in this time. The water splashing in some obstacles was also refreshing," he said.

The final round of the race was female-only. Liegh Osborne, a resident of Qatar for more than 6 years, was the winner of that round. "The race was really good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The birth canal was really scary. I felt like I was trapped and claustrophobic but the rest of it was really good fun. I enjoyed it," she said.

"I do all the running events such as the Ooredoo Marathons and a couple of triathlons," she added.