Before the race even started…already cold!
(It took me awhile to write my recap for this race because, well, I wanted it to be so AWESOME and funny. Also, I was trying to remember the exact order of the obstacles by checking out youtube videos of Denver’s Race. So here’s my attempt to be funny and hopefully I got the obstacles in the correct order.)
This is the email we all got after completing the Rugged Maniac two Saturdays ago: “Congratulations Denver! You created a new standard for for what it means to be a rugged maniac by dominating the coldest Rugged Maniac in history. We were inspired by your grit and determination.”
So with that said, lets start things of with….BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! I have never been so cold ever in my life! And I didn’t even realize it until Post-Race. Full body shivering convulsions are not fun! But needless to say… IT WAS A BLAST! Even the Tough Mudder wasn’t this muddy! Here’s the conversation I had with one of my friends:
Post Race! Full body convulsions beginning
T: “Did you have fun?” Me: “Umm…fun is a relative term. But yes….but why I find this stuff fun, I have no idea!” T: “Because its awesome!!!!!”
Why yes! It is awesome! I can now call myself a Rugged Maniac! As you gathered from the start, it was so cold! (How cold was it?!) It was so cold that the water obstacles felt warm!
After getting only 3 hours of sleep from getting off work late in the night, I made my way over to Shay’s house (from SkinPoetryPhotography). As we drove in the pouring raining, we hoped it would clear up by race time. No such luck…we started our wave at 9:00am in the pouring rain! Well, it slowed to a sprinkle but by just the first few obstacles it was down pouring again and we were soaked to the bone. Silly Colorado weather; you can’t predict anything here. By the end of the race I don’t think we realized how cold we were until we got to the car and couldn’t stop shaking. It was 3.2 miles of muddy, slippery, cold, wet, hilly, challenging obstacles. We didn’t actually run that much…for fear of falling! There were multiple times where we had to stop and kick/scrape the mud off our shoes. Here’s my race break down:
Do you see those cheaters going AROUND the sign!?!
START: Here we go! So cold, but we’ll warm up fast…right?!
Big, muddy hill right from the start: Oh yeah!? You ride dirt bikes on this?? WE RUN IT!
Obstacle one – wooden ladders: This isn’t hard!
Obstacle two – tires on the ground and hanging down: You call this a challenge?!
More wooden ladders: Because one set wasn’t enough…
Obstacle three – Big Tires to climb over: You thought big tires would scare us off!?! Think again!
(At this point we were completely drenched)
Obstacle four – Underground, completely dark tunnel: At least we’re out of the rain, right?
half walls
Obstacle five – half walls: I’m pretty sure I used my hands to climb over them, but I can’t really feel my fingers
Muddy trail: Shay: “How ya feeling?” Me: “Um, cold?” Shay: “me too, me too.”
boa constrictor
Obstacle six – Boa Constrictor: Well, we can’t get MORE wet.
Obstacle seven – SLIDE: WEEEEEEEEEEEEE! You call that an obstacle!? It’s only an obstacle trying to dodge the guy who nearly took me off my feet coming down right after us!
Obstacle eight – Barbed wire mud/sand pit: I think I’m bleeding…
Obstacle nine – rope ladders: Can’t. Feel. Fingers. Must. Hold. On.
Half way – water stop: “I think I have enough water already”
Obstacle ten – 7 ft Walls (at least I think they were about 7 or 8 feet): Can’t pull myself up – too cold! (this was actually the hardest obstacle for me. But a girl leant me her knee and that’s all the boost I needed to get up and over!)
Obstacle eleven – mud sink hole: (The guy in front of us fell/sunk in) Thanks dude! we’re going to go to this side…
the slide
Obstacle twelve – More barbed wire mud crawls!: Oh good, because I had one spot that didn’t have mud!
Obstacle thirteen – Mud hills with rope: “Why did we want to do this??”
Obstacle fourteen – taller wooden ladders on big storage units: Trying to play at our fear of heights?? You must not know us, Rugged Maniac, we climb cliffs! (Shay is actually a rock climber…I’m just learning)
Obstacle fifteen – EVEN more barbed wire mud crawls: You want more blood, huh!?
Obstacle sixteen – MORE MUD HILLS!: Is there really this many different types of mud?
Obstacle seventeen – last one, pool of water/mud with floating barriers to get over: Race worker: “I think you two look the most cold out of everyone” Us: “uh, thanks?” Race Worker: “The idea is to jump into the water!” Crowd chanting: “GO, GO, GO!” Shay jumps, I jump! Crowd Cheers! YAY!
FINISH! HECK YES! We did it! And The crowd cheered (just for us, I’m sure!)! Officially Rugged Maniacs!
During the race itself, I’m not gonna lie, there were times where I really did feel like quitting. I can’t express enough how cold we were! Obviously we didn’t quit because were so dedicated Bad Assed. After finishing, the feeling of accomplishment is so overwhelming! Great, GREAT event. We finished the event in just under an hour (official time: 57:52) and immediately headed to the car to warm up since it was still raining when we finished. Since the beer stand wasn’t open yet, we went home to shower/warm up/stop convulsing and returned to 1) claim our free beer and 2) watch the rest of the waves suffer while taking pictures of the poor hopeless souls’ faces. (Shay took some really cool photos…I think she should be an event photographer – if she posts them to her blog, i’ll have to re-blog for you all to see). After showering the mud from my body (you don’t want to know where I found mud! – Yep you guessed it…between my toes….) I try to assess the damages: Scratched knees, palms and a nice big one on my butt! Minor bruises; major soreness AWESOMENESS!
enjoying our victory beers!
The following days, official results and professional photos were published. We actually were placed 30 and 31* of all the females 18+ which I think its pretty awesome! There are some pretty awesome professional photos too! If we decide to get them (which I probably will) I will have to show you guys!
And of course, like true Colorado fashion, its bright and sunny and WARMER at 6:00 PM than it was when we did our race!
*Correction: After posting this, I was re-looking at the results from the race. We placed 30 and 31 out of 126 females of OUR wave ONLY. It doesn’t give a listing of all females in every wave together. Still pretty awesome, but I didn’t want to make myself falsely more awesome.
Racing & Wandering 