I am going to have to start off by saying that you would never find me involved in obstacle course racing.  I find my coffee table to be an obstacle in the living room and have banged my knee on it countless times.  I wouldn't survive such a gruelling and competitive sport.  That being said, obstacle course racing is the fastest-growing sport in U.S. history.  Every week, thousands of marathoners, CrossFitters, and casual weekend warriors shell out money to run through mud and fire, crawl under barbed wire, scramble over ten-foot walls, and dodge baton-wielding gladiators.  Journalist and endurance athlete Erin Beresini dives right into this strange sport and the world that embraces it.  In Off Course: inside the mad, muddy world of obstacle course racing she illuminates the history, psychology, science and sociology of this new sport that's taking the endurance world by storm.  If anything in the above description has you thinking this sounds like a good time then be sure to check out Beresini's account of  this popular military-inspired sport.  For myself, I think I will just brave the obstacles in the department stores and shop around for a smaller coffee table.