Wow, what a course. I was part of a team of 9 and we all planned to basically stay together so figured time wasn't a factor. I was a bit worried I might be the one lagging behind due to my cold the last 2 weeks but that didn't turn out to be true. Started off slow on the drag racing track which is like running on a dirty movie theater floor. Incredibly sticky. You then run across the parking lot to the 1st obstacle the rope bridge. It wasn't very sturdy given 10 or more people on each one so instantly up to you knees/waist in 50 or so degree water. Wasn't difficult to navigate though. Ran about 200 yards and there it was the platform we'd need to scale in order to jump about 20 feet into flat out frigid water. When you're standing up there it seemed very daunting only because you thought you knew how cold the water was going to be. Finally my turn to jump (probably a 10 minute wait) and boy was the water cold and deeper than I thought. Came up to the surface and didn't feel very calm. I could see folks walking chest deep about 30 feet away so just thrashed my way to that point and then walked. Eventually reached the "underwater tunnels" which were really just barrels boarded together that you needed to go under (or around if you wimped out). Was dreading going under the 3 times needed to get through them but why bother to sign up for this if you're not going to do the obstacles. Came up after the 3rd one and started walking out and got hit with an instant brain freeze headache. Never experienced that before and luckily it cleared in about 2 minutes or so. Ran another 200 yards and they had you walk/swim back across to the other side of the lake again. At this point everything south on the body was basically numb. From here on out I doubt I'll get everything in the exact right order but not too long after we had to go over these ricketty cargo nets that had too many people on them so they would kind of snap back when someone would jump on or off. I think this is where I picked up a huge black/blue/purple welt under my right arm. Then we headed to the mud mile which was some basic up and over mud pits with some pretty deep and sticky stuff. This is when I knew this was going to be a lot more mud than past mud runs I had done. We started off runnning through them but ended up walking as really was at about the same speed anyway. Eventually made our way to this muddy hill you needed to run up without any ropes. Many people were sliding back down. I did manage to make it up first try but some on our team were struggling so we stayed at the top helping to pull up other folks if they could get close enough to the top. I believe up next was a nice mud crawl under a net that just kind of layed on top of you. You had to keep using your hands to pick it up in order not to hang yourself! Here's where I lose what came in what order but there were a few miles on the course where it was just twisty, turny running through piles of mud after piles of mud. Just insane as my shoes must've weighed 10 lbs each. Also had these 10 to 12 foot high walls with just one little ledge about 1 foot of the ground. There were 4 of those. I didn't quite have the hang of them the 1st two so I needed a little boost but the last 2 I figured out how to get a leg up and just pull myself over. The tire carry was a little different than the course picture as everyone carried their own normal car tire around the inner track. Still difficult but not too bad. The firewalker obstacle was small but so hot and smoky you literally couldn't open your guys or barely breath so I just hoped the person in front of me knew where they were going. It was very intense and proves why you need a good plan to escape a fire in your house as it was very easy to become disoriented a bit. Somewhere around mile 9 or 10 they had us doing some trail running and jumping over and under some logs. This is where I lost my watch as when going under a log I put my left arm down and it went up to my armpit in mud and my watch came off somewhere down in the muck. I didn't realize that happened until a little while later when we stopped to wait for the rest of our team and I went to check our time. There was another obstacle where you had to walk/crawl under a net but no real big deal and the same with running through the tires though they did get you a bit winded. There was one other mud crawl on the course where you were actually crawling under barb wire. That definitely makes you stay low! At some point after finally getting a bit warm and doing some actual running you get to mile 11 and you hit a big backup at the monkey bars/Log Bridge. In actually the log bridge was just a balance beam over the water. The monkey bars were about 20 on each side with the 1st side going upward and then at the middle they started going back downward. Just crazy hard after 2 and a half hours of torture. Of course as soon as you let go you fall and are waste deep in freezing cold water. Same for the balance beam thing except the water was mid chest level. Man was I freezing after that! I was so happy when the military guys on the other side were handing out some of those space blanket things as they really did help a bit. On the way back in we had to go through some more mud tunnels which just tear up your knees/elbows/forearms (we went through 2 or 3 of them earlier in the race at some point) and this time they caused my abs to feel like they might actually rip from my body. You're actually in a plank position while going through there and my body was starting to have had enough. After that it was basically home free and my legs felt surprisingly good. Unfortunately half our team was not feeling so good so we basically jogged to the final surprise obstacle which was this electrical shock gauntlet type thing you had to run through. No big deal but they did give out a nice little zap. At that it was about 3/4 mile to the finish so 3 of us were feeling good so we ran ahead to try and warm up a bit but stopped short of the finish so we could all finish together - frozen, beat up and bloodied.

It was fun doing it with a team but would like to try running the course at my own pace as I'm sure some of the things would've been much more challenging if I didn't get some built in rest while waiting.

There was no warming down or up! It was getting windy and the sun had gone in so it was just god awful cold. Grabbed gear on the way out as they kind of herd you through a long extended chute with our shirts, etc. to be picked up. Since our clothes didn't make it into the bag drop before it closed we had to walk back to our cars incredbly full of mud and cold. They did have some fire hoses and firemen willing to wash you down but the thought of getting wet again wasn't appealing in the least. Couldn't actually change in the car as was just full of mud so had to do it in the parking lot which meant it was a full moon out all over the place as a bunch of folks were just getting changed anywhere they could.


It wasn't about the time so nothing really.


Loved the race. It would be perfect in beginning of june or so or even September when the water was at least 65 or so and not 50. Never felt anything like that water. The organizers pretty much set it up as advertised and it was difficult which is why we were all there. Will try and do another one of their events when it fits into my schedule.