Military athletes are coming together to compete against civilians for charity in the Civilian Military Combine (CMC) competition on Saturday in Camelback, PA.
Noted as a "one-day enlistment" on the CMC website, the CMC attracts a community familiar to CrossFit to perform tests of strength, endurance and agility with an added military element.
Competitors running alongside military heroes to support charities, such as Livestrong, Operation Home Front and Heroes of Tomorrow, will be challenged with four strength elements and a five-mile mountain race with military obstacles. The strength event, named The PIT, consists of two bodyweight resistance exercises and two lightweight resistance exercises designed to equalize the playing field between power athletes and endurance runners to better determine the best overall conditioned athlete.
Competitors accumulate as many repetitions as possible of the barbell thruster, the burpee, the box jump and the kettlebell swing before running 5.4 miles of mountainous terrain with more than 20 obstacles. Some of the military-themed obstacles include ladder walls, water crossings, mud pits, foxhole tunnels, hurdles, log carry and ranger ropes.
The race structure was developed by strength and conditioning coaches from the CrossFit community, United States Armed Forces and USA Triathlon.