Nic Maszk finished his collegiate running career in 2018, but he wanted to stay active.

“I wanted to keep doing something, but I was tired of track,” he said.

Running was an obvious choice, following his years of competing in cross country and track at Baker High School and Eastern Oregon University.

But he’s competitive.

“There’s not a league for competitive runners after college,” said Maszk, 28, who lives in La Grande. “I wanted to find something I could still be competitive with.”

That “something” is obstacle course racing, or OCR.

“It’s a combination of trail running, road running and obstacles,” he said. “They looked fun.”

Some well-known events are the Spartan races, and Tough Mudder.

The idea is to run between obstacles, which could be climbing a wall or carrying a heavy object for a certain distance.

His favorite challenge is “any variation of monkey bars.”

“You have to be really dynamic as you swing — it’s an obstacle I failed at a bunch of times,” he said.

His least favorite task is carrying something heavy, like a bucket full of gravel.

To prepare for these races, Maszk keeps in shape with running, swimming, rock climbing and weight training.

Distances vary by race. For instance, Spartan races can be 3K, 5K, 10K or a half marathon.

“The longer the race, the more obstacles,” he said.

International race

This weekend, he’ll participate in his first European race — the OCR World Championship Sept. 15-17 in Belgium.

He’s part of a U.S. team in this event, which will bring 60 countries together for this obstacle course race.

And although his choice of races looks a bit different than when he was in college, these events still fuel his competitive spirit.

“I think it’s more fun, but my intensity in racing hasn’t changed,” he said.