Gladiators on the Run

Last weekend I did something I never thought I'd do ... I willingly ate cheese! No, I'm kidding. But I did do something I always thought was quite as unlikely ... I did a mud run! For someone who hates getting dirty and thinks that sitting on grass is 'roughing it', I'm pretty amazed that I was able to do this race. First an open water swim, then a mud race ... what's next for me?

 

The Backstory

I heard about about the race several months ago when the race organizer happened across my blog post about Being Mistaken for an American Gladiator. Nitro from the original American Gladiators left a comment inviting me to the race. Wow, I felt special! I LOVE American Gladiators and watched both the original and remade series. Hmm... running in the mud and with obstacles? Not quite my cup of tea. But what do you know, a few weeks later I signed up. I was committed!

 

The Race

The race course consisted of 14 obstacles over 3 miles.

1. Stairway to Heaven (Running up and down the stairs at the Verizon amphitheatre)
2. Buddha's Burden (Carrying a bag of rice from one spot to another)
3. Terrible Tires (Climbing through tires)
4. Wrecking Ball (Think wrecking balls! Balls in nets being swung at you)
5. Bonus Tires (Running through tires - so nimble, oh yeah!)
6. Fools Spools (Climbing over huge spools. I tried to jump it and smashed my shin. Took the boost up on the second try!)
7. Rope a Dope (Running/climbing up a muddy hill with a rope for assistance)
8. Skid Marks (Sliding down a muddy/watery tarp)
9. Wall of Fame (Climbing over a wall)
10. Cargo Congo Climb (Climbing up a cargo net to go over a wall)
11. Mad Madness (Crawling on hands and knees through mud. Ewe)
12. Mystery nightmare obstacle. (Ack, can't remember what this was?)
13. Hell's Hills (Running over rolling hills - oh yeah,  I got this!)
14. Mud Pit (MORE mud! Boo hoo.. more crawling on hands and knees in mud)
15. Gladiator Barbecue! (Running through flames on both sides)

My Initial Fears

First and foremost - Mud. Lots of mud. Even a little mud scares me. I hate getting dirty! Next up on my phobia list were the obstacles that require upper body strength. I'm sheepish to admit that I'm a cardio junkie. I run and that's about it. I swim occasionally and also lift my 10lb dogs a few times a day, but overall my upper body strength is lacking. Climbing over obstacles and needing the use of my arms was something I wasn't sure I could do.

 

Raceday

On raceday I met up with Kathryn and Debbie from GOTR to head up for the 10am wave of the race. We were geared up in our special shirts for the race and were ready to be tough Girls on the Run! The race was at Camp James in Irvine and was about an hour or so north of San Diego and right off the freeway. (What a plus! I'm all about accessibility for a race) Parking was plentiful and cost $10. No biggie!

We parked and headed over to registration to get our numbers, timing chip, race shirt, and .... inflatable joust stick! So awesome! The joust was my favorite event in the show! As we walked towards registration people who had completed the race in earlier waves were walking towards us to go back to their cars.

You when you're at an amusement park and you've decided to go on a water ride and you wonder just how wet you're going to get? You see a few people getting off the ride with a little water on their shirt or in their hair and you think  "oh good, you don't get that wet on this ride!" And then you walk farther and see someone who is completely drenched. Well, as we walked towards the race we saw some people who looked a little muddy, and then others who looked like they had been completely submerged in the mud pit. Mud from head to toe and even covering their face. Uh oh.. I didn't want to get THAT muddy!!

We were about an hour early for the race so we spent some time walking the course and watching people in the race. The obstacles didn't look as big as I thought they'd be, but the mud pits (yes pitS plural) looked pretty gross. I was getting pretty nervous. Our 10am wave start time finally rolled around and we got ready to go. Gladiators ready?? Ready!

The Race Begins

The race started out with about a one mile run out to the Verizon amphitheater. Easy! I can run! We then got to the amphitheater and ran up the stairs, across the venue, and down the stairs. Running the stairs was fun and I was thinking about how I should schedule some bleacher work into my training. After the stairs we got to the area where we had to pick up a bag of rice and carry it from one spot over to another. The bags were pretty heavy (25lbs) but we managed.

 Next we ran over some tires (wow I felt so nimble! Knees up!) and then got to the "wrecking balls" where people were swinging bit exercise balls at you. Kathryn managed to miss getting hit by any balls while I got smacked by all three. Hmph.

 

Next we had a big pile of tires we had to climb over before getting to the big spools. Some guys in front of me took a running start and managed to hoist themselves up and over the spools. I tried to do the same .... and smacked right into it. I couldn't get enough height. :o( I took a hoist from one of the course assistants and finally got over. Next we got to a slippery, muddy hill that we had to climb up with the help of a rope. On the other side of the hill was the beginning of the end of being clean. There was a hill with a tarp that people were hosing that you had to slide down. Think of grown up slip-and-slide.

 

After sliding down the hill and crawling through some mud (ewe!!) we then got to our first upper-body challenge - the wall! There was an 8 foot wall that we had to climb over. Luckily there were a few foot slots and I made it over okay! Yay! Next up was the cargo climb. I was worried about this too but this went okay as well.

 

My joy was short lived because right after the cargo climb was the first mud pit you had to crawl through. I tried to get through it by crouching down and lifting the strings to duck under. The two guys on the side watching the course were like "get down! You have to crawl!" And then they both started chucking mud at me. Thanks. I was now officially muddy from head to toe. Ewe. On a good note, we were most of the way through the course!

 

Next up were a set of rolling hills that we had to run over. The last hill wasn't that steep but was so muddy and slippery that it was really hard to get up. I took a running start and when I got towards the top I dug my industrial strength acrylic nails into the mud and made it over.

 

 

Next up? Oh goodie! Another mud pit! :o( This time I crawled through like you're supposed to. At this point there was no point in trying to avoid the mud. We were now in the home stretch!

 

The last part of the race was a quarter mile run from the mud pit, through a row of flames, and off to the finish line! We did it! Our pink turned brown team crossed the finish line at the same time - girl-adiator tough! We looked like a group of chocolate dipped strawberries.

The Aftermath

After the race we lined up to take photos. We were muddy and cold, but accomplished! The line for photos moved pretty slowly and as we stood there the mud started to dry. Yuck. We finally got our photos taken and then headed over to the showers. For the first in the history of the world.. the line for the women was shorter than the line for the men!

The showers were in a tarped off area and about four people could shower at a time. I took a spot in the offspray to try to slowly wash off. The water was a little cold and I wasn't making much progress so I just decided to change and wipe off as much mud as I could. Across from the showers there was a huge pile of muddy, discarded shoes and clothes. I decided that my shoes weren't worth saving either (they were a pair I retired from running about a year ago) and I chucked mine in the garbage as well.

 

After the race we headed back to San Diego, muddy, but accomplished. We were all pretty hungry so we made a pit stop for lunch. While we were seated and waiting to order I ran my hand over my hair and felt mud caked into it. Great, I still had clumps of mud on me! I wonder what the waitress thought? She probably though Debbie and Kathryn (who were both much cleaner) had picked up a homeless person off the street to buy a warm meal. :oP

 

More Mud?

The race was fun and I'm really glad I did it because its something I never thought I would have done. Would I do another mud race? Probably not unless there was a compelling reason. Who knows though, I always said I'd never do a triathlon and two tris later I have dreams of a half Ironman! If you are interested in slopping through mud the way I did - you are in luck! This is the first in a series of Gladiator Rock N Run races that will be held all over the country. For dates and locations click here.

 

Thanks again to Nitro for inviting us to the race! We're officially Gladiator tough now!