It all started as a high school entrepreneurship project. Students were asked to write a plan for their dream business so 17-year-old Wil McLean put pen to paper, and what came out was a vision for a gym based on playground fun. Little did he know that this creative musing would eventually evolve into the real thing: 10,000 square feet of recreational recess for fun-loving adults and athletes alike. “Over time, as I opened other companies and did other things like personal training and massage therapy, this business plan slowly grew and evolved, until one day my business partner Eddie and I dusted off the plans and brought it to life,” recalls Wil.
Inspired by obstacle course training and races like Tough Mudder, which were really taking off in 2014, Wil and Eddie designed Pursuit OCR to be a balance of the key required elements of an obstacle course race (lifting, climbing, running, etc.) with a uniquely youthful and nostalgic feel. “The course has a bit of the playground structures that we grew up with,” says Wil. “It's our early ’80s child fantasies of what we would have wanted to play on when we were kids, as well as the aesthetic feel of an ’80s community centre with bright neon-pop colours because we wanted it to be a playful, youthful place.”
In May of 2015, they took over an old wood shop in an industrial building at Queen and Dufferin. Along with their program director Mikey, they set to work, building the play-structure of their childhood dreams. “We built the whole thing over the summer, literally on blood, sweat and tears!” laughs Wil. “I rented out my apartment and lived in the back of my truck!” Pursuit OCR opened its doors in October 2015 and has built a strong community of fit, fun-loving, young-at-heart adults ever since.
