OK - where to start? I always thought about doing this one. I looked at it and they are doing it in Floyd Bennet's field which was the location of the first NY Spartan 5K. Cool. Close by to home, Jeremy racing, Lee watching, mud flying... Cool.
I'm a little annoyed tho with Rugged Maniac tho. They charge for everything... Tax, really? Chip-Timing, really? Spectating ticket for $ 10.00, really? Ugh... Whatever...It's gonna be fun.
So, in order to get timed, you must be racing in either the 9:00, 9:15, 9:30 or 9:45 time slots and you must pay an extra $ 10.00. I signed us up for the 9:15 time slot. Gotta be there at least an hour early and so we had to leave by 7:15-7:30.
Got there easy peasy. Seemed weird tho to me as just a week ago, I was running right there at 3 am in pitch black conditions with my headlamp.
Parked and Jeremy and I went to stand in line. Lee went to look around but then to buy a spectating ticket. Later I realized she didn't neccessarily need that. It's more of a beer ticket. She gave hers away.
Anyway, Jeremy and I checked in and fortunatly I was knew enough to ask what's next. The girl didn't volunteer that info. Nice... We went to get our shirts and our chips. By the way, I really like the shirts. Feels really soft. It's not a tech shirt but it's really soft and nice.
I borrowed some sun tan lotion spray and sprayed Jeremy. He sprayed me but not evenly but I didn't realize it right then. Multiple trips to the car to put stuff away and get stuff and I borrowed a little more spray from a firefighter. Gave him my beer ticket. Anyway, the 9:00 am group goes off and we are called to line up.
Nice touch: In order to line up in the (one and only) corral, you had to go over a 5 foot wall. Hey, if you can't do it here and now, how are you going to do it later on taller walls? I liked that.
Jeremy wanted to start in the back. It is chip timed after all...I went to the front because I didn't want to pass all these people. Lot of people here didn't seem like they were fast or anything so to the front I went.
While there, I saw a monkey bar rings and was concerned. When Jeremy was in 3rd grade, he decided that they were too easy in the park, so he sprayed them with water to make them harder. He then proceeded to fall and break his right arm. I called Elizabeth and told her to tell him to be careful. She thought I was being ridiculous about it... "Of course he will be careful. I should tell him not to fall and break his arm?" Hm...I don't usually worry and I was concerned while she wasn't. Interesting.
Off we went...There used to be an interactive map on their website. Not any more which sucks. Gonna have to try to do this by memory but 26 obstacles might be alot to remember. I do have the list of them but not all of them are obvious what they are.
Even tho we were in the same wave, as usual he needs to do his own thing so I took off. I saw Elizabeth at obstacle number 15 and continuued on my way. Once I finished, I walked back to 15 and waited with Elizabeth who started getting real worried about "where is this guy?!?". In any case, I then stayed with him to an extent and Elizabeth proceeded with photography detail. I stayed with him until obstacle number 20 but I'll talk about that later.
I sent the list to Jeremy and he did his best to describe from what he remembers the obstacles. Interestingly enough, the list provided by Rugged Maniac, doesn't list all of them. I will number the ones they mentioned and use an asterisk for the unmentioned ones. I will also go in order of obstacles as opposed to numerical order. You'll see what I mean with the first obstacle.
2 - Sand Dunes - Right away at the start you go up a little dune. It's not terribly high, perhaps 8-10 feet, but it's used to weed the field. You have to scramble up this thing, sort of blaze your own path as there are weeds and sharp leafed plants there. Once you get to the other side, you make a U-turn and come right back. Quads burning you proceed. This really was the first obstacle even tho they list it as number 2.
1 - Foam Frenzy - Lot of foam and another dune this time made up of sand. I avoided the foam. What's the point? Up and down and on. At this point, I'm in 5th place for my wave.
3 - Barricades (X3) - 3 small walls. Get over them.
4 - Jacob's Ladder - Ladder climb up then on other side back down.
5 - Spider Web - Cargo Net on the ground. Crawl underneath it. This other guy and I worked together on this. I definitly tried to stay in a drafting position here, a little left and back to make sure he is lifting it for me as much as possible. Hey, gotta be a smart racer...
6 - Ninja Escape - Stepping Stones Ninja Warrio Style. I liked this one. Jeremy jumped and landed with 2 feet on each stone. I jumped like the show, 1 leg on it and jump to other stone.
7 - Pack Mule - ???
8 - Napoleon Complex - More big walls.
9 - Fulcrum Fun! - Teeter-Totter set up on the field. Get on one, start walking and the upside falls down. Run down and it fixes itself right back.
10 - Head Scratcher - ???
11 - Beam Me Up! (X2) - Climbing Walls.
12 - Slam Dunk - Step up a ladder and into a slough (a hollow filled with mud water). Climb down the ladder.
13 - Let's Cargo! - Cargo Net.
14 - The Gauntlet - Balance beam over water with gigantic balloon punching bags. They were extremly light and easy to push. I would have preferred that they were heavy and would really push you off the beam. As it was, it was just a nuisance.
15 - Balance or Bust - Up a ladder and onto yet another balance beam with water around you. Run down a little trail hill down. I clambored up the ladder quickly and this woman who had just climbed up saw me. She asked if I wanted to go in front and I thanked her and ran across. I truly had no issue. It's funny because everyone does this one differently. Being an early wave, not much of congestion. I'm sure later waves had long wait times here. Jeremy did go slow here as did a lot of people. Some people went sideways and some went straight. Some went super slow and others fast. No right or wrong ; just get to the other side!
16 - Anitigravity - Climb up a cargo net, jump down on a trampoline to get to the other side and perhaps to propel yourself up the next cargo net. Repeat and get off. Fun.
17 - Pipe Dream - Time to get dirty. Crawl head first down a tube into a mudpit. Crawl under the wires in the mud or roll sideways like me and then climb up the tube on the other side. Jeremy crawled whereas I rolled. Mine was easier and faster tho when I got to the other side to climb up the damn tube kept moving on me. That's what I get for rolling...
* - Pick up a sack of either 25 lbs or 50 lbs and run up/down a dune, U-turn and repeat. I didn't realize there were options and just grabbed the first one I saw which was 25. Jeremy had a little problem carrying the 25 lbs. I don't think it was the weight as much as he carried it wrong. I tried to help him boost it to the back of the neck letting the shoulders and trapezious do the work. He mainly used his arms.
18 - Command Crawl - Another mud pit crawling under wires.
19 - The Ringer - Monkey Bar Rings over water. My hands were wet and this is the only obstacle I failed at. I simply refused to take the chance. So, now both my hands and feet and of course pants and shirt were completly muddy and wet. This matters for number 19. Elizabeth, who thought I was being ridiculous earlier when I told her to be careful here since the whole broken arm in 3rd grade, started getting worried here that he might fall. Hm...! Jeremy on the other hand did the whole thing from start to finish. NICE! See the video in the images page.
20 - Mount Maniac - This was the big one, the most fun one. This was a Ninja Warior Warped Wall into a cargo net into a big slide down into a pool of water/mud into a short run to the finish. Check out both videos.
So, as I said this was the most fun. Gonna break this into 2 sections: my story and then Jeremy's story.
My story: I saw it and loved it but both hands and shoes were drenched and I was worried. There were guys up there helping people up and I figured I would need help. Person in front of me went and a guy up there caught her and hauled her up. Nice. I made eye contact with the guy, pointed at him and took off. Up and up and I am almost there and I am expecting his hands but right when I needed him, he backed up but I managed to grab the wall and climbed up. Up the cargo net and lost control on the slide and went a little sideways. Finished.
Jeremy's story: He tried the first 2 and just missed. Meanwhile, I saw the ladder where if you can't do it, you can just climb up and went up it. I then cheered him on and watched his approach. He caught the wall on one arm and I put my handon it so he won't fall down while he got his other hand on there as well. He got up a little more so that his armpits were hanging there but he was stuck. I grabbed his pants (wedgy anyone?) and gave him that last pull he needed. He continueed from there and I missed his finish. I stayed there for another 10 minutes or so helping a bunch of people. One girl after she got there, said to me that I now had to help her mom. I asked her who her mom is and then started screaming at her "C'MON MOM!!!!". She did and I grabbed her and they were so happy. Nice...
We definitly had a lot of fun with this one. We went to the car and I wrapped a towel around Jeremy while the car was the other side and he changed to clean/dry clothes. I then changed as well and I took him to Tennis. He was 10 minutes late. Lee and I went to the YMCA. She swam and I took a long shower trying to get all the mud out of every orifice. A very noble and perhaps useless attempt as it takes a week or so until you stop finding mud in odd places.
The beginning of the race is definitly not as much fun as the end. There is a long stretch that you are running in the trails or on the asphalt that's a little boring. Most of the good stuff is at the end.
Unfortunatly, they had a Timing Issue and the chips malfunctioned. There will be a credit and a coupon for better rate for next year and free timing and also finisher medals so maybe I will do this one again after all. Still, this sucks. I know my time but I felt like I did well. I would have liked to see my rankings not that it would have mattered. They only gave awards to top 3 overall male, top3 overall female, faster over 55 and faster under 18. That means neither of us did anything. Still, I was top 3 or 4 in my wave and proceeded to catch up to a lot of people in the previous wave. Oh well...
Funny little story about a band aid. Both Jeremy and I had a little open sore on our elbows. I think mine was from the laneline in the pool while I'm not sure where Jeremy's was from. Still, I told him that we will cover both with a band-aid. It's a tricky area as all joints are. Band-aids usually just don't stay but I told him that we will try. Gotta try to minimize getting sick from the mud getting into the wound. He and I also took extra vitamin C because of this and the swim the next day but I don't want to talk about that yet. Anyway, he didn't thin the band-aids will stay but these are good water proof ones and they did. Still, obstacle number 18 was rough for my legs. He didn't get cut up but both of my shins were all cut up from little stones in the mud pit. Funny that I was worried about a little booboo getting all muddy and meanwhile this happened. I actually had mud embedded in my palms so this was a concern.
