Rugged Maniac-An Adventure Race

Warning: Seriously long post ahead! Mostly a bunch of pictures. Some are a little blurry but I felt I had to include them for the "full experience" Thanks to my younger son Zach for running around taking pics!

Not for the faint of heart, frail of body, or weak of mind, the Rugged Maniac 5K was designed with the assistance of Navy SEALs to push your limits and determine how rugged you truly are.-From the website

Wow I don't know where to start with this one! It was CRAZY! As you all know I was both nervous and excited about doing this race, however I think I was more nervous about the obstacles then the run part although I knew the hills would suck, I had no idea. The course is at a motocross park so that should give you a clue. I'd driven by it before and seen it and still I was mostly oblivious as to just how painful this would be. I was doing this race with my oldest son Josh and we had an afternoon start of 2:30. We arrived about an hour early since I really had no idea what to expect as far as traffic and parking. It was a beautiful day in the mid 70's. We could not have asked for better mid October weather! As we walked around we remarked about how no one seemed that muddy or dirty. And Josh said he overheard someone say there wasn't much. He was really looking forward to the mud so he was hoping not to be disappointed.

Josh and I before the race.
The above shots are just a few random pics of the course but gives you an idea of what kind of hills we would be facing. We had a pretty small wave I would say maybe 30-40 people is all. As you can see they didn't give you a chance to ease into it either we started out going straight up a hill.
"We just started and already I'm holding him up!"After running up that hill we had to run down..and that's when I learned that going down is as hard or harder then going up. The downhills were steep, very steep. A girl right in front of me wiped out on the first downhill! She ended up with some nasty road rash but she got up and off she went.

I had told Josh that he was going to have to stay with me on this race in case I needed help with the obstacles but it really wasn't long before I realized just how much I would be holding him up. I really don't know what the first obstacle that we came to was. It's all a blur, mostly we just went up and down hills for what seemed like a very long time before we even got to the first one. It was hot and I was thirsty. I did little running. My heart rate must have been through the roof and my lungs were burning like never before. At this point I was beginning to believe that it was possible I might just end up with one of BDD's Pukie awards, good think I hadn't eaten lunch! I was sucking wind, it was dusty and it hurt...did I say it hurt? I think one of the first obstacles were a mud pit which Josh was thrilled to see. He loved the mud and made sure to get plenty on him.
As you can tell I did not like the mud quite as much as Josh.
Then I think there was a tire jungle, climb over some huge tires, a pit of logs that you walk across and some other stuff I just can't remember, maybe a small wall. At this point we still had not reached the water stop which I was desperately in need of. I had no concept of time at all. We could have been out there for 20 minutes or 40 I had no idea. It was just up and down, up and down, and the surface we were running in many parts was completely rutted with the big tire tracks from the equipment and just crazy hard to walk on let alone run. Then we had the first of the crawl through the water/mud under barbed wire obstacles and another through this really small tube. The water was cold but actually felt good because I was so hot and in need of cooling down. "Don't try this at home folks! "
I can not tell you how great Josh was during this race. He kept saying "come on momma" in this really cute way and just kept encouraging me. "you've done a 1/2 Ironman, you can do this" I did have to remind him a couple times that I was 30 years older then him. And several times I told him to go ahead and he said no he was sticking with me, that I had paid for the race and he was not leaving me. Thank goodness! It was great to have him there even as I felt bad for holding him back so much. So after another monster hill we get to the first big wall. As you can see I took the easier path on the sides while Josh went straight up the middle. This one did take him 3 tries as he kept sliding backwards.
Here we are taking a breather and assessing the situation.
Hauling my plentiful behind over the wall. I made it but it was a little painful on some of my girl bits. Then more downhills and more mud

We are getting really close to the finish now! I'm so ready! The last obstacle is a water slide and then some wood things you have to climb over in the water. It was soooo cold! And it felt like once you hit the water you just kept going down and down it was crazy! I don't know how deep it was but it felt really deep. But maybe it was just that you kept sliding for along time under the water. And then you pop up and have to make your way over the poles. It maybe would have been easier to go under but I just couldn't put my head under again.


Yes I'm plugging my nose, do you wanna make something of it?

Next up the finish line!

This was sooo hard I had no idea. The obstacles by themselves were not that hard. I completed all but one of the walls that was similar to the one pictured above. I just couldn't get myself over it the 2nd time around and I was afraid that if I did get up I was going to kill my self when I jumped down becuase of the angle of the dirt on the otherside. I also fell off of these post things that you had to walk across. They stuck up out of the ground different heights approximatley 2 feet high. I made it across 3 but missed the last 2. By far the scariest one was the cargo net. (It was to far away for pictures) getting up was no problem, but sitting at the top and having to jump off into the mats, that part scared me. But I did it. I'm very proud of myself for having done this race. I don't know exactly how long it took. The results have not been posted yet, but someone told me we did it in right at an hour. An hour for a 5k. I would say that it truly seemed as hard or harder then the 70.3. It was much more intense with all the hills and I really felt like I challenged myself to do things I would never have thought I could do. I believe I am proud to say that yes....

I AM A RUGGED MANIAC!

Edited to add final results:

Time 1:00:26
Overall place 1580 out of 2230
Gender Place 642 out of 1063