The whole reason I started doing these random 5K's, was because my obsession with climbing and jumping on things. Maybe it's the kid in me, maybe it's because I don’t want to grow up, maybe it's because I can’t run for shit but I have awesome upper body strength, who knows. This race was geared just for that. It was made by the peeps who do Wipeout and one of the Mud Runs (I forget which one. It took place at the Pomona Fairgrounds. As soon as I heard the name I was so in!!!!! It's even sillier then the others, most people dress up or at least wear matching team costumes like we did, there is a huge dance party/DJ set up and a fantastic high energy host who basically "kept the party going".
We got there a bit before 8am (Our wave was at 9am). It was freeeeezing!!!! Our outfits were tanks and I had shorts on, hoping my knee high pink socks would keep me warm enough. Figuring once we start going I'll be fine, since all my other races I've been so hot/sweaty at the end. We checked it out, goofed around, did and impromptu warm up dance thing with this bad ass chick who I think was a fire fighter. And then the dance party started. It was a great warm up!!!!
This guy in an afro called all who was there over to this stage and got everyone riled up. People were jumping and laughing and dancing and shouting. It was fantastic!!!
Our time was called. We headed over to the starting line and waited. The let the individual runners go 1st, then the teams of 4, then the unlimited teams which we were. We called ourselves The Shot Chasers. I found these great tanks online, and D got the socks. I thought we looked pretty freakin awesome!!
Off we went. Our team pretty much stayed together the whole time. Chay and his roomie Kristin (Met her race day - very cool chick) were runners, but kept pace, Court/D are the usual trot/walk gals, Megs was going between them and me, and my knee was especially acting up due to the cold so I was not running much at all. It's all good, my fast paced walk is always fine with me. We'd split and come back together all throughout the race. Part of the reason was one of the drawbacks of the race and that was - alot of the obstacles had a back up. They were somewhat difficult, so you'd get up to it and then have to wait. So if you were doing this race for time - forget it.
1st obstacle - Louche Libre Assault. Two dudes with Mexican Wrestler masks that attacked you with these big sticks with cushy things on the end. Hilarious. I made it thru unscathed.
2nd - The Barriers. They were about 4 feet high cement things. Maybe about 10 of em? I was quite proud here. All of the other people were climbing over them. I literally used my arms, gave myself a hoist and hopped over all of them. I got thru faster than anyone else.
3rd - Zombies. Yup. I was dying. We ran thru these stables and these zombies came tearing out of the stables. I was laughing so hard I almost fell. They would run at you then veer off. People were either screaming or laughing. I loved it.
4th - Mud Tubes. We had to wait a bit here. There were 3 metal tubes going up mud hills and covered in snow. Did I mention the race had extra mud due to the rains? And snow? WTF! We had to crawl up thru the tubes in the mud. There were 2 sets of these. We got quite muddy at this point.
5th - Jump Mud Walls. They had about 3 I think, they were mud hills with a wall on top you had to hop or climb over. You also had to get quite a running start to get up the fucker or you would slide back down. Fun, but coming down was a little ouch on my knee.
6th - Monkey Bars. I aced these!!!!! They were about 6 across I think (6 people could go at a time), if you fell you landed in muddy water and had to walk out. I'm the only one that made it across!!!!!! Also, only me and Kristin made it across on our team. I think Chay would have but purposely dropped off at the end. The monkey bars were thick, but I was so stoked I blasted through them.
7th - Stadium Stairs. Ok, this was a bit rough. We had to run up to the top of the stadium, then down again. They had Eye of the Tiger playing and a giant pic of Rocky at the top. Hilarious. Going up wasn’t too bad, but coming down I had to do this hop thing to avoid landing on my knee and can I tell you - that one calf was sore for 4 days!!!!!!!
8th - Hosedown Tower. Ok, this was not fun. We started running up this area with trees and paths and looked like it was a zoo or something. There were people in towers - HOSING US WITH FIRE HOSES. Did I mention it was freezing out?! There was no way to not get hit, so now I'm wet and cold. Eeeek! We then ran past these guys who were high fiving us as we ran by - I thought they were supportive volunteers. Nope bitches had water blasters. Sigh.
9th - Balls. They had these balls on rope that got hocked at you when you went through. They apparently had paint on them, but I got thru unscathed so I didn’t see that. There were some other balls you ran thru, but the guys didn’t have it together when we ran thru so I had to miss that one.
10th - Tire Mountain. These were tires that went up a hill and were covered in snow. What's with the snow!!!! I tried to be all bad ass here, but almost ate it so had to be a good cautions little girl going up and down these bad boys.
11th - Giant Inflatable Slip & Slide! Now I didn’t mind getting wet here. 2 people went at a time - you ran at it and slide thru just like a slip and slide! So much fun!!!
12th - More Tires. Now we're wetter. F You.
13th - Polar Plunge. When the guy shouted it as we ran the corner I wanted to cry. Damn with cold water!!!! Sure enough you had to jump into this cold cold water that was about waist high and pull yourself across on ropes. Sigh.
14th -This was my favorite I think. It was a giant inflatable thing. One side you climb up the wall with a rope. Which I sailed up faster than most (I love that I can do something good!!!!) then the other side was a giant inflatable slide!!!! So much fun!!
15th - Mud Hills. These were just basically just giant mud hills you run up and down. I was careful coming down. My knee was really acting up unfortunately and I forgot to mention I was coming off being sick so I still had a horrendous cough. I hadn’t worked out for 2 weeks, so I was struggling a bit.
16th - Rope Balancing thing. You had to go across balancing on a rope, and you held one above your head. I scooted across pretty good!
Last one - (There were 20, but I can’t remember the others. They were little ones though, usually tires or mud hills...) This was a rope swing. You grab the rope - swing across. If you fell you landed in muddy water. I felt like a monkey. Loved it.
As we finished they called out our names and team name so that was very cool to hear. This was Megs 1st race so she had a blast and loved hearing her name called.
Afterwards was the giant after party. They had food, beer, a wine tent, vendors and the dance dance party. They also had changing tents and were super organized with everything. Sadly I had to leave early. I wasn’t prepared to get that wet, so my change of clothes wasn’t sufficient and I got really chilled. I also was still coming off that damn flu, so I headed out. I heard from the others though that it was awesome and fun. I'll come better prepared next time and stay to party with the rest.
All in all this race was my favorite. I'm so excited and hoping they do it again next year!!!!
1 comment:
Hahaha! Great photos! Looks like you guys had a fun time :D
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