Oh, it was kinda interesting so let me see if I can recap a bit.
Saturday was Hardcore Mudd Run Ultra NY. It was WAY smaller than most other races I've done. Like a few rows of cars small. Like maybe 15 people in the elite wave at 9 and 30? people when I went at 9:30...
Not sure if there was any prizes for the elite wave but I guess I should have signed up, my time was only 10 minutes behind the slowest "winner". Not sure if they were any more picky on the obstacles for that or not...
Anyway, it was a good run. A bit different than I had thought. Let me look at the obstacles to recall...
-Firediver was right at the start, that was simple enough but pretty cool jumping over a couple channels of fire and under a couple more.
-Mudd Run was something of a repetitive theme, a bunch of back and forth mowed paths in a field. Though this first section was up and down hill and through a few smallish mud pits. Not too exciting.
-Landslide I don't even remember unless this was the slide by the pond...
-Cool runnings I guess was the first section through the trees...
This was another issue that could go in either direction...
See, they have an obstacle called "lost in the woods" and it was repeatedly stated by the announcer that the course was 6.5 miles, or 7.5 miles depending on how you went through the woods and that it was very tricky and you might get to a dead end and to just come back, etc...
-So, apparently this first section of woods was NOT intended to get anyone lost... But this was much like the Finger Lakes Trails I've done around home. Which is to say you're just out in the woods with generally no actual trail and you're just looking for the next blaze on a tree. Though they did have some pink tape on these. I guess I did well and found the right way but I really wasn't sure and apparently almost everyone else got lost. So... Not so good if this was NOT the objective here... But I kind of like the rugged terrain so it was kinda fun.
-Rubber bridge is the typical inner tubes on a pond. Eh, it's fine, nothing new.
-OK, I think they misplaced Landslide and that is the slide... Wasn't too impressed with their slide. It was the typical soapy tarp on a hill into a mud pit, but on the other.... 3 of these I think I've done at other races, they were all fun, fast and not really worrying for my safety. This one was somehow not very fast, but still seemed like there were rocks to catch on under the tarp and they'd only cleared one side of the tarp and I kinda slid towards off the side of it into the dirt and into a possibly too small pit at the end. No real problems but it just didn't seem set up well.
-Bobbers were a few rows of 55 gallon drums that you swam under. Quite simple, but the water was nice and warm and I really quite liked hopping in and swimming under them.
-Mission Impossible/Up and over. I think these might be off a bit as well. Basically, it was another not very well marked section of back and forth across a field. Worse this time since the whole field was runnable so I wasn't sure if I was supposed to just stick to the freshly mowed stuff(with no markings at all) or just go straight to the next obstacle. Thankfully there was a somewhat nearby volunteer who told me to stick to the fresh mowed stuff.
That led me to some reverse inclined walls of about 10' I think with a 3/4" rope. I thought I might be able to do it, but dang that smaller rope is really difficult. I managed to get myself on the rope and feet locked on it, but I could get myself up the couple feet to the top of the wall. I was the only one there besides a volunteer. So after a minute or two, I elected to go on around.
-Water stop and a half banana and then to this piece of fence... I've done this obstacle at several other races where it's basically just a tight cargo net on the ground and you crawl under it and it pulls on you. Generally not too bad, bordering on quite easy. Well, this is a section of chain link fence. And again, I was going by myself... This was WAY harder than I had imagined. I spent like 5-10 minutes under that thing. Could barely lift it enough to be able to move myself and could barely figure out which way I should be headed once I was under it and then my Spibelt was getting caught. In the end I made it out, way more energy expended and some pretty good bruises on both shoulder blades.
-Then it was back into the woods where I had previously come out, people were still lost. I was just told this time to follow the paint and that it should kinda go off in a slightly different direction than when I came out of the same opening a little bit ago... Well, I seemed to be following it. Still unsure though. And it was a mix of paint/tape on the trees... Then the paint can lying on the ground near the last paint, but there was still some tape. And then it seemed to dead end... Ok, back to the last tape, look around... Nope... Look some more... Oh wait, way downhill, far to my right in the creek there's another piece of tape. And back on the hunt. Like another mile of randomness through the woods wondering if I'm on the right path or "getting lost"... I finally get out of the woods and there's a guy there and I ask if I was on the right path or not and he tells me that section doesn't come till later and asks if it could use some more marking... Umm, yeah if you're not supposed to worry about getting lost in that section!
-Now we're up to the 10 and 12' walls. Umm yeah, that's about impossible by myself. The last 12' did have a rope though, so i tried and did make it to the top, but there was no way I was going to have the oomph to get myself up the foot or two so I could get a leg over. I caught up to a team at this section and they offered to help, but I didn't get the impression they were going to be able to each lift 100lbs well above their heads...
-So then we're up to the paint ball run where you choose to crawl along hay bales, or run through possible paint balls. The team was going through one by one crawling. No sign of paintballs. I was waiting for them as I talked to the guy and said I wasn't sure which way to go, I've never been hit by a paintball and I wasn't going to get hit in the face, right? So I elected to run for it. It was a short section, I don't think the paintball guys were ready. Took me about 3 seconds to sprint past and then about 2 seconds after I was through I heard a few shots fired. Woohoo!
-Down and dirty... Don't recall, oh yeah it was a crawl under barbed wire. I rolled under.
-Then the cargo mountain... This was a surprise... I've done many cargo nets. Always found them quite easy. This one was NOT... It was attached maybe 15' or more between a couple trees and VERY loose. So, it was a bit more difficult going up, but not bad. But then at the top... Umm this was new... When the nets are loose, my feet are now in FRONT of me, not under me... So how do I get them over the top? The volunteers said something about some people flipping over the top. Haha, very funny. Yeah, I'm sure I could flip over easy enough, but not so sure about not falling straight to the ground afterwards or maybe just busting my shoulder while trying to hold on while flipping... Thankfully the team I had just passed caught up and with a couple guys on there giving it some more tension I managed to maneuver myself just enough to make it over. Still, very scary and difficult compared to all others!
-THEN we come to lost in the woods. I ran into a guy that I thought was quite a ways ahead of me and indeed he was getting pissed at not finding his way out. I kept watch on both sides and thought I could see all the flags, yet they did all seem to end at the same place. Followed the other team and basically figured out I guess the idea was that you were just supposed to loop yourself back to where you started. And sure enough after a bit we found our way continuing on the course. Which then led to more slightly sketchy following of markings through the woods.
-Then to a 40lb rock carry up and down a stretch. No biggie.
-Hmm, they list a few more things, but I'm not sure I recall...
I think it was pretty much just a good bit more trail running over some rugged terrain and thankfully it was more definitive.
-Then to Electric Ave. Now this one was definitely more hardcore as well. Mudder's Electro shock therapy is just a short section you walk or run through and I managed to dodge all of them 2 years ago. This one, not so much. It's down at ground level so you can only roll or crawl through and they all touch the ground so you're not escaping. and it's uphill. I elected to roll which one guy kept saying was the worst idea, but I'm not sure why. I counted 10 shocks as I went through. Only one of them was bad, I think because it hit my head whereas the others just hit my arm.
-But from there, took a minute to figure out where straight was again, then on up the hill, over a couple of maybe 5' walls and to the finish!
A good time overall.
Sunday:Dam Good Trail Race
I'll say that compared to last year it was MUCH nicer. It was about 10 degrees cooler, 50% less humid and the ground was almost entirely dry.
Me? I dunno, I think I must have used up my coordination at Hardcore(or maybe the shocks did me in?) (:
I thought I felt ok as we started out at a quick but not too bad 10 or so minute pace.
But I've never tripped more than a couple times on ANY run. I tripped like in the first mile, then maybe around mile 2 full on crashed and let a group of people on by which was nicer to just run by myself(I guess that kinda depends on who is around, pace, etc as to whether I prefer to run with others in this sense). But I tripped maybe 8 more times and my left ankle/shin something was not feeling too great.
But by around mile 4 or 5 I think my body started to get broken in and not feeling too bad. I was still closer to 13 minute miles than 10's, but I didn't feel like I was hurting and going to crash repeatedly. (Maybe it was just the caffienated shot blocks kicking in).
Kept on trucking and surprisingly around maybe mile 10 I think I felt even better and felt I finished quite strong for the last few miles and not really hurting!
Another good one!
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