During the race, competitors must overcome more than 20 different obstacles: ice baths, barbed wire, four-meter-tall battlements, etc. The race course can be completed by either attacking it on one’s own– as part of an individual event, or as a team, that can be made up of one’s friends, acquaintances, relatives, colleagues or just people driven by a shared interest in building character. Upon completing the race, each participant gets a medal.

2022 saw more than 4,000 people in Krasnoyarsk, Perm and Tobolsk compete in extreme races with distances ranging from 3 to 11 kilometers. In addition to the residents of the cities where the project is being implemented, the list of contestants included guests from the cities of Yekaterinburg, Kurgan, Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, Tyumen, Achinsk, Divnogorsk, Khabarovsk, Ulan-Ude, Izhevsk, Naberezhniye Chelny, and others.

In 2023, extreme races were held in Noyabrsk, Perm, Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Svobodny. The 5 races drew more than 6 thousand contestants willing to crawl under obstacles with barbed wire, climb a vertical wall, traverse mud-filled trenches and ice-cold water pools. They raced over the distances of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 kilometers. Sports and active pastime enthusiasts experienced a lot of excitement and tested their teams’ cohesion and competitive spirit. People with disabilities took part in the races over the short distances of 3 and 5 km where they were accompanied by their fellow team members throughout the entire lengths of the courses.

Svetlana Ilyushkina, a participant of a Character of Steel race held in Nizhnevartovsk: "This is a great opportunity to bond with my friends. I didn’t expect to see so much support and help from complete strangers. We are extremely happy that an event like this finally came to our region, and we hope that next year Character of Steel will come back, too, and that we will race again!".


Alexey Yeshchenko, a participant of a Character of Steel race held in Voronezh: "This so far has been the best athletic event I was fortunate to take a part in this year, an extreme 5 km obstacle course race held at the Beliy Kolodets Sports Center. It wasn't easy, but we did it! Now we are 100% certain that there is nothing that can break us, because we have got Character of Steel. Huge thanks to all organizers and participants! It was really great. And we'll do it again in 2020. I strongly recommend it, folks!".


Alyona Volkova, a participant of a Character of Steel race held in Tomsk: "It took us a long time to decide whether or not to enter in the race as a whole family, but in the end it was definitely worth it. We had never experienced anything more extreme than that. Events like this do indeed bring families, colleagues and friends closer together. Everyone was very helpful; this is a race where all people around you do care about you!"