We are Rugged Maniacs

I just love testing my limits. I love doing races that are different and festive and fun.

I love these new races that are popping up everywhere.

I love being a Rugged Maniac.

After winning the Jacksonville race last month I now I needed to try this race again. When I saw that the Charleston race was on the weekend that there was no trail run I had no excuse. I’ve got to go back and do this race again. I signed up and was committed.

At the last minute Teresa decided that she could go so on Friday evening we drove to north to go be rugged maniac.

This would be Teresa’s first race like this and only my second so we were both a little nervous.

We got to the course early and had plenty of time to check out the obstacles. We were able to see most of the obstacles before her race so we had a great idea of what was out there. Of course we didn’t see everything…

At high noon Teresa’s race went off. She worked hard on the early running section and ended up pretty tired by the time she got the first set of walls. She made it through just fine but had a little trouble on the first high wall. It took her three tries but she made it over the 8 foot high wall like a trooper.

The way over I yelled, “This is the Rugged Maniac; not flower class.” You can hear that on the video.

She got over the walls and headed out to run more.

Out the woods Teresa came and she headed into the final barriers. She did great except for the “lily pads” where I told her to just run across and not stop. She stopped and fell into the water. I bet she won’t do that again. I tried to tell her…

At the end she got to do what she was most excited for. Yeah, the low crawl through the mud and then the run through the finish line.

She finished in about 36:39 minutes happy and muddy. Or was it muddy and happy. Either way she had a great time and enjoyed herself so much. I think that 26th our of 142 in her age group was awesome!

OK, now it was my turn.

It took about 5 steps for me realize that this was going to be a race against the clock. I distanced myself from the field almost immediately. Into the corn fields I went….

In Jax almost all the obstacles came in the first 5 minutes then it was a long winding sandy run to finish with the mud pit; that suit me just fine. I’m not fast but I can run strong through the sand. I was really able to hurt the field with my strengths. In Charleston it was different. The first long section was running on solid surface. I ran very hard and gave a little too much. I would pay and pay dearly.

The first obstacle was a bunch of criss-crossed bamboo sticks. I’m not sure my jumping over them with 2 legs strategy was a good. Looking back now I would say that made me a little tired.

I soldiered on. Then it was another good long run to the 4 walls. Two walls to go under and scrape my back and two to go over (about 4 feet) and tire out my already exhausted legs.

Then a run; blah.

Up and over the cargo net, through the swinging tires…then the high walls.

In Jax I popped right over these things because they were 2 minutes into the race. Here it was a might bit harder. Over the second set of 4 walls and then onto the haunted trail.

I assume that the haunted trail was some sort of Halloween thing that they do here. It was pretty fun. Actually it was a little scary how tired I was and how much I had slowed down. Clearly I had gone out WAY to fast and now I was paying the price.

When I reached the first set of walls there was a guy there telling me that I was 5 seconds faster than the fastest guy that had come through so far. Great. Actually not so much…

The haunted trail seemed to go on forever. Finally, mercifully I popped into the field that I know meant all the water and mud obstacles and the glorious finish line.

Getting on my hands and knees to crawl through a sandy tunnel under bamboo leaves looked like a lot of fun before the race; now not so much.

I jumped over the lily pads with a little more success than Teresa then it was to the top of the slip and slide.

In the Jax the slip and slide and the water obstacle were separate. Here they were connected.

Head first into the cold, muddy water I went.  Yummy.

Then I had to go under/over a bunch of “logs” in the water. Holding your breathe to go under was very hard and going over was tiring so it was a very difficult barrier to cross. You’ll see Teresa go through these in the video.

One more muddy mound of dirt to climb over, across a narrow bridge and the run the mud to the finish.

Man what a tough race! So much harder than Jax.

I haven’t seen many results yet. My time was 22:47 which didn’t put me in 6th. I. Not really a good performance for me. I really struggled in the last mile. At least I won my age group.

I really don’t care though. It was so fun and I was proud to be there for Teresa.

After we got cleaned up we sat on a hay bale and I drank a beer. We listened to the band and saw all the happy and muddy people walking around. It got me to thinking about how happy I was to be there at that race. I truly was in my happy place. The post race euphoria, a good beer, a fantastic girl who’s willing to get muddy…

Really? Could life be any better? For me it clearly could not. So when is the next one…