Here's a pic of the course for reference:


Once the gun went off, they crowd spaced out quickly and the pace wasn't too bad. The first feature was a wall of water being sprayed across the course by one of those ant-dust water trucks. We were all of 1/4 mile into the race and soaking wet! Imediately following was the cargo net obstacles which were really nothing more than palstic cargo netting you had to either jump over or go under. One dude clothes lined himself on one of the go unders! Dude dropped like a rock!

Once through there, we could start to get our run legs under us. I was in maybe 7th, the lead guys all just ahead of me. I started to move up and passed 6th to move into 5th. Just after mile 1, we came to an inflatable town thing you had to crawl through. The first 4 guys went straight into it but when I came up, the volunteers yelled, "Go around!". So I ran around to the other side where the lead guys were getting out. I looked at the kid volunteering and was like WTF? He said you have to go enter here ont he far side, crawl through and then back again. Well the lead guys just went through one way and I wasn't going to do all that if they didn't, so I just carried on in the same spot I had been in before. After the race, I told the race organizers what happened and that I didn't go through the thing, but they could have cared less and I didn't advance my position, so whatever, no harm no foul.

The next mile we weaved around the golf course of the local Sheraton Hotel on a rec path. 4th place was just ahead of me, a young guy I sort of know from the local tri scene. I also knew I was way faster than he is. I ran up along side him and he tried to put on a little spurt which faded within seconds. He was breathing pretty hard as well. I ran right next to him for about 100 yards just to make the point, running smooth and barley making a sound with my breathing, and then moved ahead. That was fun, he's a super nice guy but all of 24 years old. It's fun to spank the kids. ;)

The next obstacle was the Sheraton River crossing which was a short run through waist deep water at man made river which is part of the resort. I don't even want to think how funky that water was! 3rd place was about 10 feet in front of me and my shoe's weighed a ton! I caught him and ran next to him as we made our way out into the desert on a hard pack trail. I said hello and mentioned my issue's at the first obstacle. I told him I would report myself at the finish to the RD.

I began to drop him as we came to mile 3 and the next inflatable obstacle course. This one was tough as you had to climb, crawl, fall over the obstacles and climb a short wall. By the time my feet hit the ground again my HR was jacked and it took me a little time to settle down. I thought the obstacles would give you a break but instead they were killer! It was also starting to get hot and windy out there. 2nd place was about 100 yards ahead of me. i had no thoughts of running him down, I just kept going as hard as I could to keep the guys behind. I never even looked back. 2nd place, however, was looking back at me. By mile 3.5, he was getting closer when we came to the slip and slide. You dive head first down a inflatable track and end up in a pool of water. It came at the right time as I was getting really hot. it felt AWESOME although now my shoe's were soaked and heavy again.

I think it was about mile 4 and I moved up into 2nd, just before the hill climb and and dirt hill thing, which was easy to get across. Now I needed to try and gap 2nd and hold on. First was completely out of sight at this point. Then we hit a killer headwind at mile 5 and the last slip and slide. I was starting to get very done with this race! Ijust ran as hard as I could and only at the very end before the mud pit did I look back to see if I was alone. I was.

THE MUD PIT. It was so cool. I was alone and only the second person to get into it. The crowd was chanting."DIVE,DIVE,DIVE!" I climbed up to the edge and did a belly flop into the muck! You had to crawl under three rows of flags to get to the end. It was great. I climbed out and rounded the corner to the finish where they had showers set up to rinse off. 1st place was till there and 3rd and 4th came in about 1-2 min after. We all hung out and chatted.

Nothing, it was a blast and a great threshold workout. Take out the obstacles which probably added about 2.5-3min total time and I was likely running low 6 pace. What was cool was that I ran my pace and was able to reel in those guys who paced poorly. I never got anxious or worried, i just ran and let the results be what they would be.

Beer. Beer. And then after the awards, Jamie, Andrew and I stopped at Kilt Lifter Pub and had another beer. :)


The blister I have on my heel from last weekends Las Palomas triathlon! Hurt like a biatch!


This was an awesome event and we will be back to do it again!