Rugged Maniac - Race Recap

Running, music, friends and mud - another awesome Saturday!

The Rugged Maniac was my second obstacle course in two weeks and I loved it!  It may not have been as hard as the Bulldog Challenge, but it was crazy fun (and dirty).

The 5K course wound through Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, SC (my home town).  Its one of many new adventure races that are now traveling all over the country.  It was a lot like the Warrior Dash I ran last year in Mountain City, GA, but much less crowded.  The obstacles were very similar and the after party was about the same (bands, t-shirts, food vendors, and beer).  The parking and check in were way more organized, but I had to pay $10 for my father in law to be a spectator (my seven year old son did get in for free)!

The Billboard - my free pass

First off, I got in the race for free!  This is not a cheap race and I was not sure I could fit it in with all the other races I am doing.  I was following Rugged Maniac on Facebook and saw that whoever was the first person to post a picture of their billboard would get a free entry.  I found out where the billboard was (right at Boon Hall Plantation) and was first.  Sweet!

I showed up for the race about an hour and a half before my start time (which was 9:00am).  The parking was very easy and I was able to get to registration without any problem.  I was even able to walk out to see some of the course before the start.

Rugged Nerds!

Even though this was a solo event, you can join teams for the race (I was part of the TrySports Believe Achieve team).  There were a lot of people dressed up and you could pick out the crazy teams right away.  There were the pink girls, the army guys, and the Nerds (these guys were funny).  I noticed that the groups and costumes came out more during the later start times (maybe they were traveling to get to the race).

Something really cool happened while I was waiting to start.  I met someone who actually reads my blog!  No really!  Jeanette is local and had posted on my MooreOnRunning Facebook page that she was running the race.  How cool that she picked me out of the crowd and introduced herself!

There's my team (in red) up front - I'm in yellow (not in front)!

Anyway, I walked up to the starting area with the first wave and waited for the 9:00am start.  It was actually comical standing there with about two hundred people waiting to see who would move to the front!  It was also funny to see everyone slapping themselves as the bugs attacked us as we waited for the start (I considered this obstacle number one).  The race started right on time with a count down and a loud horn.

The course was all trails and the obstacles were spread out throughout the race.  After the bug attack, we ran over a bridge with three metal poles sticking up (not an intentional obstacle).  The course moved to an open field where we had to jump over ditches and then we went out to the tree covered trails.

Civil War Battle - this needs to be added next year!

The first real obstacle was the bamboo.  We all slowed down and jumped over and crawled under bamboo.  This seems easy enough, but I saw this guy catch his foot jumping over and go face first into the dirt!

The course moved through the woods and really felt like a trail run.  Just as we started to go down a hill, we came around a corner and I could tell we were near the fields that are used for the Civil War battle reenactments (wouldn't that be sick to have the battle going on during the race?).

The next obstacle came up and we had to jump over and roll under about four barricades.  I had been running at a pretty good pace, so I was breathing hard after this section.

We had to run down a rough area of trail and I saw a few people almost bite it as they hit holes.  There were a few ditches to jump and then I could see the rope climb coming up.  The climb was pretty easy, but I was expecting to climb down.  It was awesome to see that we had to jump from the top on to a padded landing!

We ran over to the next obstacle and had to run over tires, through tires and then over tires again (nice).

Right after the tires were the seven foot walls.  I had read about these on the web site and was trying to figure out how I was going to make it up and over.  It turns out that there is a plank about four feet high that you could use to get over the wall (good thing for us short guys).  The cool thing was another drop to the padded landing.

TrySports Team Believe Achieve

The course went through an area that is used in the Fall for the Halloween hayride and looked like the "Haunted Forest".  We even ran through the Slaughter House!  After running through these trails we crawled through tunnels and were back in the main field.

We ran over a small mound obstacle and then we "bounded" over some steps in a water filled ditch.  After that we ran up a huge dirt hill.  The other side was covered with back plastic and water was being sprayed down it so it was like an awesome water slide!  I slid down on my butt right into a neck high pool of water.

The pool of water was freezing!  After running about three miles, my breath was sucked out of me when I hit the water.  We had to swim under pipes and I had to stop after each one to catch my breath.  I heard that some of the front runners actually jumped over these pipes!

My coworker, CK, joined me for the race!

We climbed out of the water and ran over to a large ditch where we had to run over a balancing board.  The finish line was in site, but I could see the mud coming up.

There was a long, mud filled, ditch covered with real barbwire!  We had to low crawl under the wire, through the mud and then sprint to the finish.

Sweet race and finish!

Oh, it did not take the toenail off...

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