I did this run in April in Maryland – it was a blast! FIRST LET ME SAY – if you have time and can get to one of their events – DO IT!!!! This was a blast – I’ve done only a few “mud runs”/obstacle runs – and this was excellent. One person I talked with after I was finished compared it to the Spartan races – saying it was on par with them. I’m not a great runner – I am SLOOOOOOOWWWW, but this was perfect for me.
For our event – it was a little chilly, overcast (without the clouds it would have been warmer), but we found the farm with no trouble. We walked around looking at some of the obstacles – there was a course map – we had 19 (yes NINETEEN) obstacles on our course (some will have more, some will have less- depends on venue). We got to view #1, #7, #9, #13, #17 and participate in #18., and see #19.
So – to give you a good recap – I’ll just highlight a few obstacles WARNING- I am PETRIFIED OF HEIGHTS which was surely tested (I only had to be rescued once!). BUT IT’S FUN I SWEAR 🙂
ANYWAY – my group was up at 10:00 – the MC was talking, trying to fire up the group (no problem there – we were jumping, cheering, clapping for fire/ems/police/military) – as the music plays in the background. Suddenly thru the music (phone rings… “911 emergency” …) – a mock 911 call. You get the call to start – dash up 2 flights of narrow stairs (no rails) – can you hear me hyperventilating yet haha?
First one – DISPATCH DESCENT – up the stairs, down the fireman’s pole – woohoo! – run around the corner. It was a nice easy run, steeply downhill and curving around.
#4 – MAZED AND CONFUSED – crawl through the maze, smoke, dark – FUN!
#5 – SMOKE JUMPER – this was one was cool – I was waiting for it after seeing Thursday’s news story. You climb up the cargo net, grab the zip line and slide about 10 feet at the most to a stop. SO … my fear of heights kicks in. I must have sat on the edge of the drop for about 5- 10 minutes trying to talk myself into it. I even got up and walked back to the cargo net and then didn’t even want to think about how to get down (it took a lot of “don’t look down, breathe” in my head to even climb up in the first place. 🙂 Thanks to the guys manning this obstacle – they didn’t make me feel stupid – kept saying “because you are a hero!” every time I said “What was I thinking? I can’t do this”. Finally, I just went, hoping my shoulder would hold. As soon as my feet were within 1 foot of the ground, let go! woohoo! I survived!!!!
NUMBER 9 – TOWERING INFERNO-RAINING STAIRS. WONDERFUL OBSTACLE – finagle your way up a long tube – 2 stories or so – and SLIDE DOWN into a nice (cold) tub of water. Watching this before my wave – all we heard was “woosh” – “WOW THAT’S COLD” from everyone who came down. I couldn’t make it 🙁 I just had no arm strength to jump up to the first step in the tube, and had to run around 🙁 (goal for next year – work on climbing walls!!!!!)
ENTANGLEMENT was #11 on my course – I have to say was my favorite – another one of those crawl through. They have a long tube at the end full of wires/ropes/strings – you have to maneuver through the strings to the middle, which is a big box, same theme, to another tube that has the same thing – strings/ropes/wires. The comments I heard as people were going through it – couldn’t stop laughing. I remember the scene from Entrapment where whats-her-name (married to Michael Douglas) – Catherine Zeta Jones shows 007 Sean Connery how to move through the beams to steal the prize – I didn’t look like that but it felt like I was twisting and becoming a pretzel. Thanks to the guys who were making me laugh as I squeezed through (there were 3 – 4 tubes so multiple people were going) – “so this is what childbirth feels like… for a kid” “Squeeze on out dude…” “move your fat butt man!” – it was great! I ended up flipping over in the 2nd tube – knee brace kept getting stuck so I just flipped over, pushed through and used my arms to pull out. Woohoo! made it
For obstacle #13 it was a hike – I’d say we probably went about .5 mile or so to the BASEMENT ENTRAPPED obstacle – where I needed rescuing! You could either climb up the hose or the ladder – I chose ladder – fun – about 2 stories up again I think. Then you had to walk down the firehose – there was one below you and two at armpit level – sit down on the arms and scooch down – well after 10 min of debating why in the world I was up that high I tried and panicked. Thanks to the team from Westfield/Westville who helped me – they stood underneath and helped me figure out how to move and balance, and then got a table over to me so I could slide off. I was so upset that I froze, but glad they were there. So I was rescued on the firefighter course 🙂 definitely weird
#17 – HAZMAT ZONE – BLUE SLIME! jump in, move through the slime – it was fun! PLUS I KNEW I WAS ALMOST DONE!!!!!
#18 – I saw my daughter as I rounded the final turn to the finish – this one was BYSTANDER BLAST – it was great – you jumped into the tub of water and the bystanders get to blast you with water – needless to say I moved fast through that one.
Final run/jog/groan/ hahaha to the finish – FEARLESS FINISH – run and jump over the fire! I was going to do this no matter what – it was great – I felt like a goof jumping and I’m sure my pics will look sillly but I did it!
It was a BLAST! Seriously, if you like a challenge, and are into something different – do this. The medals were great – the FOOD was amzing – loved that BBQ – the shirts are nice. Also paid $25 to get digital downloads of ALL my pictures -that’s very reasonable.
PLUS they had a kids section – for kids 4 – 6 they have mini obstacles, and then for older kids (you have to be 14 to do the #notjustamudrun) as well. The kids we saw there were having a good time.
Can’t wait to do this again. Hopefully they’ll come down to my neck of the woods so I don’t have to drive so far!!!