I got $15 off this race through yelp, and with the $9 mandatory insurance, it brought my grand total to around $66. Is it worth that much? Probably not, but I'm glad I was able to participate. I was very nervous going into this race, because of the 14' rope and the 8' wall. In the end, the entire 5K race was a blast!
Now, I would consider myself a lot fitter than the average American, but I still trained for this race by going to Boot Camp more regularly and rock climbing at the Stronghold once a week. So needless to say, for a female, I would say that my upper body is pretty strong.
I thought the race was well organized and it wasn't as crowded as I feared, which was great. In fact, I thought the crowd was pretty mellow. I picked up my bib, time chip, and t-shirt on Friday, so didn't have to pick up on race day. My wave was at 11, so it's one of the later times, which means that most of the latter obstacles would have been sufficiently "muddified" making them very slippery.
We were sent out in groups of around 50, and the first obstacle is the "Quads of the Gods" which entails running up and down bleachers in the stadium. This was definitely one of the more challenging ones for me as the steps were long and there were many, many steps. I ran up the stairs and walked down. After that, there were a series of other obstacles on the trail. Most of the obstacles required some waiting for others to finish. The downside to this is that it affects our overall time. The wait at some were long. I think the longest wait was at the 2 wall climbs. We went through a series of about 7 obstacles before we head into the field, where spectators were allowed.
The first obstacle upon entering the field is for us to carry a sandbag around the restrooms. In the field is also where the muddy events take place. For one, we had to crawl through a mud field on our belly. There is no way to avoid getting all muddy here. A few other obstacles follow this one until we get to the fourth to the last obstacle, which was the 14' rope...the one obstacle I couldn't complete. The objective was to climb up the rope and ring the bell. The only problem is the rope was all muddy and so are you, so everything is slippery. Since I wasn't able to complete it, I ended up having to do 10 burpees. We move onto the log carry, which required teamwork. The second to the last event, which also had a very long wait, was the other wall climb. This one is harder because, although the wall is slightly angled, it was muddy and completely smooth, making it impossible to grip anything. They did provide a rope to help us get to the top, where there are volunteers ready to help us up. Now, most people seem to have a lot of problems with this one. Many were taking a long time and some were slipping and sliding as they attempt to climb it. I, on the other hand, had no issues with this obstacle at all. I pretty much Batman up it. This is from my experiences with outdoor rock climbing. The last event is the cargo, We were required to get through two cargo nets. After that, it's a short distance to the finish line.
Now, my goal was to complete all the obstacles, but I failed due to the rope. But overall, I felt challenged and I got a good workout from it. I ran from one obstacle to the other and tackled every obstacle. There were some participants who were walking from obstacle to obstacle and many chose to forgo a lot of them and instead, do burpees. I guess for some, attempting the obstacles isn't as important. For me, that's the reason why I registered for this race. I wanted to test my upper body strength and I've always been curious to see how I'd do in one of these. My one concern with this event is that there was only one water station. According to layout, there were to be several, but somehow there ended up being only one. Thank goodness there were a few scattered drinking fountains, or else it would have been a miserable experience for most of us. Overall though, I thought it was well run.
Would I do another obstacle course in the future? You betcha I would! Would I recommend the Gladiator Rock'n Run to others. Without a doubt, I would. read more