South Jordan’s Holbrook 'Hobie' Call gaining notoriety by being the nation’s best obstacle racer

SOUTH JORDAN — Even though he dropped out of the Death Race last week in Vermont, and lost the hundred grand he could really use, life couldn't be going much better than it's going right now for Holbrook "Hobie" Call.

It isn't every year that you discover someone invented something that combines everything you're good at — and you happen to be better at than everyone else.

Hobie, 34, who lives in South Jordan with his wife, Irene, and their five children and installs air conditioners by day, is an obstacle-course specialist by weekends, and by far the best the sport has ever seen in its young but burgeoning existence.

Out of six single-day events held in 2011 in America on the circuit known as Spartan Races, Hobie has won every one of them. He's the Lebron James … er, Dirk Nowitzki … of obstacle racing.

The only American event he didn't win was the Spartan Death Race a week ago in Vermont. Unlike the one-day events, which cover anywhere from three to eight miles and last a few hours, the Death Race covers a far greater distance, lasts at least two days and has a dropout rate of more then 90 percent. The entry form comes with this warning: "Please only consider this adventure style race if you have lived a full life to date."

Hobie joined the 90 percent after going slightly hypothermic after a fun first night that included a lengthy stay in 40-degree water. For a guy with about 6 percent body fat, enough was enough, although Hobie makes it clear he only dropped out because he knew he couldn't win, not because he couldn't finish. His goal for the race was to stay on course for the $100,000 that Joe De Sena, the co-founder of the Death Race and the Spartan series, offered to anyone who could win 14 events this season, including the Death Race. When Hobie mulled it over in the frigid water that the money was out the window, so was he.

"If I wasn't going to win I didn't want to risk hurting myself or burning myself out," he says with his perpetual grin.

Because not being able to Spartan race the rest of year would have been like shutting down his own private Disneyland.

"Oh my gosh, it's so much fun. I feel like a kid again for the first time in years," says Hobie.

Everything Hobie likes, the Spartan race does.