Super Hero Scramble

If you ever hear me say "Oh it's just a little more than 4 miles, that'll be easy" again, please hit me. 4.5 miles of deep mud, brutal hills, and obstacles is not so easy. In fact, it pretty much did me in.

Just after Christmas my college friend Jen sent me a link to a Groupon like deal for an adventure race. A fun race with a friend for cheap? I was in!

Wheaton Running Club Represents

And then it rained all spring, including this weekend, where a massive storm dumped 4-5 inches of rain in the past 2 days. Last night I woke up to hear it absolutely torrential down pouring. Due to the rain, the start of the race was pushed back 3 hours to allow the worst of the rain to finish. The downpours stopped, but the ground was a muddy, soggy, mess.

My first impression of the event was not favorable. There was off site parking at a sketchy Greyhound track, where they charged us $10 to park, then we waited in a long line for the bus to the start, followed by an equally long wait to check in, and then a $5 fee to check a bag. The first wave, which should have already started was still waiting as there was a problem with one of the obstacles. So we decided to at least make lemon aide out of lemons and hop in and start with that group rather than waiting around forever.

The race started by climbing straight up a steep hill. It was un-mowed, rocky, and pretty technical. Then we got to go back down and then back up again before hitting the first obstacle. We scaled a big tall net, crawled across a big suspended net, and then climbed back down another net. It was a little scary because there were so many muddy people on it at once. The whole thing was shaking and it didn't seem that safe. Then we were into the woods. This was the big surprise. The "running" between the obstacles was brutal. We were either going up hill or downhill and basically bushwacking a trail through the woods. There was poison ivy, pricker bushes, and fallen trees. Plus, from all the rain there was mud everywhere. Going up hill I kept sliding backwards, I was out of control slipping on the downs, and stuck wading through deep puddles on the flats. There was hardly anywhere that I could actually run. My legs and lungs were on fire.

Seriously the race seemed to go on forever and I was struggling. The scariest obstacle for me was jumping of a very tall platform into a small pool below. The water was all muddy and I had no idea what I was jumping in to. We also got to drag cinder blocks through sand, carry cement bags through a few river crossings, scale a bunch of tall walls, walk across a 4 inch beam high above the water, and crawl under a whole bunch of barbed wire. The second to last obstacle was a rope climb. I was determined to do it because I didn't want to have to do the burpee and spin penalty. I was majorly struggling but I did it. However it totally gassed me and I just couldn't do the last obstacle- scale an inclined wall with the help of a rope. The wall was so muddy my feet didn't have any traction, and my arms just had nothing left to push me. So, I was stuck cranking out a set of burpees just inches from the finish.

Finally I was across the line and I was in rough shape. I was bruised and bleeding and for a solid 10 minutes I felt like I was either going to pass out or throw up. It was honestly one of the hardest things I have done in a long time.

Although a fabulous after part was offered, we weren't impressed. You had to pay if you wanted food, the music kinda sucked, and there wasn't anything else to do. So muddy and wet we climbed back onto the bus. I wouldn't do this event again, because I didn't think it was well managed, but I definitely have to do another mud run to prove I can do better.