Start was a little busy. They separated everyone into I think 7 different waves, and the start was on Columbus where the Chicago Marathon starts, but since we weren't separated by expected pace there was a lot of passing and swerving in the first mile. Lost my friend in the first half mile so went ahead and ran my own pace. Was at about 7:30 on the first mile and felt good. Things got a little tight going over the river, but cleared up once we hit Navy Pier. Continued at 7:30 pace onto the first obstacle after Navy Pier.

FIRST OBSTACLE:
There was a big crowd here as they added a surprised monster truck tire at the beginning that no one was expecting. A lot of people were struggling to get over so had to wait in line to go up and over. Then there were blue police barricades. The website definitely said we were supposed to go under those, but earlier racers apparently decided to go over, so everyone was doing that. (no officials to be found to actually guide anyone on the correct way to complete the obstacle). Then there were tires on the ground we had to stutter step through. Not a big deal except that they were setup horribly. Tires should be staggered so you can step through them. Some of the tires were staggered, some were square. Just had to pound through them. Over more barricades, more tires, more barricades, done and off to more running.
Felt good and kept up pace back over the river towards obstacle 2.

SECOND OBSTACLE:
This obstacle entailed jumping over large plastic traffic barricades, climbing under a cargo net, more barricades, more net, and one last barricade. The barricades were almost a foot wide but not very high so I want to try and plant my hands and swing my legs over without stepping on top. This worked for the first one, but on the second my hand slipped and I nailed my left leg into the top of the barricade, sending me toppling over the other side. I got up and completed the obstacle, but could already feel my leg swelling as I started running again.
Pace slowed significantly as I tried to find my pace with my leg throbbing.

THIRD OBSTACLE:
I will call this one the easiest. Hope over some caution tape strung between traffic cones a few times. Then hop over stacked wood pallets a few times. No issues.

FOURTH OBSTACLE:
After going up some stairs around McCormick place I came to the parallel bars and monkey bars. First set of parallel bars went fine, no issues. On the monkey bars I had some major lateral swing with my legs, but I think it helped me get across. On the second set of parallel bars I got my legs swinging back and forth too much, so I had to drop off and start over. Grabbed some gatorade before heading underneath McCormick Place.
Picked up the pace under McCormick place. For some reason it just felt like a good place to run faster.

FIFTH OBSTACLE:
Approaching Soldier Field I could see the marine hurdles. Popped up on the first one. I couldn't decided if I want to roll over it or swing my leg on top. Got stuck between thoughs and dragged myself over, almost losing my race # on the process. For the rest I popped up and got a foot on the top to get over. Only problem with this was I had to make sure no one was around me because it took a lot of space to use this method. THESE THINGS WERE TOUGH! Got over the last one and ran over to crawl under two Jeeps. This qualified as the lamest part of the race and it should be removed.

SIXTH OBSTACLE (Soldier Field Stair Climb):
I was admittedly worried about this portion after seeing the video online, bit it ended up not being all that bad. There was a lot of ups and downs with stairs and ramps, but I never felt like I was really straining. After nearly 15 minutes going up and down stairs and ramps I was able to get right back into a strong stride out of Soldier Field.

SEVENTH OBSTACLE (FINISH):
Finally I made it to the end, just one obstacle left. First task was to crawl over two taxi cabs. Pretty easy (and I took pleasure in stomping the hood a bit), but from rains earlier in the week everyone had to jump into a big mud puddle in between and after the cabs. Goodbye nice clean white shoes! Cleared the puddles and scrambled on the cargo net over the bus. Only issue here was the nest was really bouncy with so many people on it at once! Got off the bus and crawled quickly under the chain link fence only to be faced with the last challenge, an eight foot wall.

I took a running start, got on arm and one hand up to the top, couldn't hold, and dropped down. I back up and prepared to take another shot. This time I went for a big leap, planting my foot strong. Except I stepped in mud, slipped, and hit the wall like a cartoon character. One more shot! This time I managed to get both arms up, but was struggling to swing a leg over. I was basically doing the running man dangling from the top of the wall. Luckily a volunteer grabbed one leg and pulled it up for me. So I got over and paid it forward by helping to pull up a couple others before hopping down and running to the finish.


My running pace could have been quicker, but I was looking at this as a training run ahead of my 15K in a few weeks. I also would have been more careful on that second obstacle where I hurt my leg. Okay now, just a little tender to the touch. And of course it would have helped if I could have peed before the race.

After getting my gear I went by the medical tent to get some ice for my knee. Waited for my friend to finish and we hit the beer tent.


I thought this was a very cool, fun race, and I definitely will do it again. Couple areas for improvement:
1. For the price paid they could at least spring for a technical shirt instead of cotton. The shirt itself was also really lame (just a small logo on the front, sponsors on the back). It would be so easy to come up with a cool graphic or slogan that would make the shirt fun to wear.
2. There were enough volunteers at the drink stations, but major lack of any kind of officials at the obstacles. No one there to make sure things are organized, flowing, and that people are doing the obstacles correctly (it at all!)