We were still rubbing the sleep from our eyes as we wandered through the early morning dew covered grass towards packet pickup at Arnold Farms in Clermont this past Saturday for the Monster Challenge, Race #2 in RockOnAdventures Triple Threat Challenge. Slowly passing the finish line, pictured above, Ashley and I agreed this might be the muddiest of the mud runs to date.
The day got off to a rough start - although we were there over an hour before our heat - the first wave after the competitive one at 8AM - the line was very long, and getting longer. After 40 minutes we got our race shirts and bags, nice swag, put on our #s and headed to the start corral. The race director told us that we would be delayed 20 minutes - so we danced and chatted with our new friends in the corral. 20 minutes and 5 burpies later.... we were off.
I will note that an email was sent to me (today I believe) along with another comment here from the Event Coordinator, apologizing for the hiccup at the start, and promising that the April event will have a smoother beginning. Communication goes a long way with us runners... we don't expect perfection, and we do appreciate it when the directors acknowledge the bumps and articulate their desire to fix them!
I will note that an email was sent to me (today I believe) along with another comment here from the Event Coordinator, apologizing for the hiccup at the start, and promising that the April event will have a smoother beginning. Communication goes a long way with us runners... we don't expect perfection, and we do appreciate it when the directors acknowledge the bumps and articulate their desire to fix them!
The obstacles at this race were my favorites of all I have done thus far. This is a permanent course set up by Monster Challenges with Golds Gym as the primary sponsor for this race... it was in no way the "run of the mill" pop up course - there was a lot of variety. The usual cold water dip was replaced by snow, pictured below. This was the coldest thing I have crawled through since my days growing up in Wisconsin!
They had AMPLE water - full bottles of fresh spring water, and the obstacles were spread out nicely. I often joke that I enjoy the slides, which are usually at the end - but this one was right in the middle, and as you can see, a lot of fun!
The zip line was the last element before the mud pits at the end - which left us looking like we were covered in tar.... the medals were HUGE and heavy - very impressive and a must have for bling collectors!
This one is on our list for a definite repeat. They have early registration rates for an event in the spring - and I love that they give a $10 discount for service people - police, fire, military, and TEACHERS!!!!! Two down, one to go... resting up for Highlander 5 next week!