Mud, Guts, and Glory - Part Deux

Could this race possibly get any better? Yes it could, and it did. I was blown away by this course and staff after the inaugural race Labor Day weekend. Then, they stepped it up even more for the November race. So, how did they manage it?

1. Penalties: In August, there were time penalties for skipping obstacles that were hard to manage. This time they had physical penalties. I'm not talking about lashings or getting locked up in stocks. Rather they had physical challenges for failed obstacles. Even better, they varied by obstacle. At the Sternum Checker, there was a 30 burpee penalty. If you failed to hit the Spartan with a paintball, you had 10 squats with a slosh pipe. If you couldn't get over the new, gigantic walls, you had to 20 step ups onto a box with a log over your head. The penalties were just as challenging if not tougher than the obstacles. I remember dangling at  Monkey Business while guys were walking with Slosh Pipes telling us we did not want to fall off.
2. Mother Nature: Not sure how they did it, but the guys at MGG called upon Mother Nature to let loose a nasty storm earlier in the week leaving the course nice and slick. The creeks were flowing. The hills sans ropes proved much more of a bear.
3. The After Party: Hours were spent after the race, chit chatting, warming our buns next to the bonfire, chit chatting, dance partying, chit chatting, and playing tug of war. The post race ambiance was like giddy little girls on the first day of school. Or maybe that was just me. Who knows? Either way, I had so much fun hanging out with my teammates and meeting new people after the race. OCR folks are the nicest, friendliest people you'll meet. We're all united by a common passion for OCR and challenging ourselves, body and mind, to races that demand every ounce of energy and strength and then some. Not too mention, after an epic race such as MGG, we're all adrenaline driven, crazed adults. 

   

   Me and Ulrike winning the Tug of War Championship against some seriously fierce competition

4. New Obstacles: They added 2 new obstacles to the course. A trifecta of walls and a Polish Traverse. The walls are easy enough to explain, two little ones straddling a gigantic one nearly impossible to get over. The Polish traverse on the other hand, any explanation I would give it would not do it justice. Basically, its a pole that gets bigger to smaller or reverse, depending on which you decide, that you have to shimmy across. Easy? Nope.

And now the selfish part of my post: My personal highlights/lowlights.

• Stripping down going into the festival area: I got hot pretty early in the race. As we were heading into the festival area where the gauntlet is, I saw my dad, or so I thought. My Dad will occasionally show up places unannounced. He just rolls with the punches. He knew I was racing and asked about its location, so logically it made sense. Plus this guy looked dead on my Dad. Same height, build, stance. So, here I am so excited to see my Dad there to cheer me on. Plus, he could hold onto my extra layers. I came running across the bridge stripping of my shirt and hat, yelling "Dad" and waving. I chuck my clothes at the guy, and he just looks at me like I'm am a straight up nut ball. "Oh, you're not my dad." So there my clothes sat until I picked them up after the race. Oh, and my parents, they were well on their way to Vegas yesterday morning. Dad at race: Impossible.
• Getting across monkey business while getting a fantastic view of Ulrike's butt: Love this girl. We stuck together for the first part of the race yelling and cussing at each other between breaths (our form of encouragement). Ulrike hit the monkey bars before me. I yelled for her to go down the middle one, and just go. Going down is easy and fun. Gravity does all of the work. Once she got a good start going up by turning around and crawling up invertly, I made my way down. And then I caught up with her. So I hung on, creeping up, rung by rung, the whole time "encouraging" Ulrike to keep going. It may have been partly out of self-perseverance. I remember tilting my head back and seeing Ulrike's butt pretty much on my head. We had to of been quite the spectacle. Hopefully, someone got a photo of the 2 of us BAMF Spider Monkeys.
• The stupid Sternum Checker: Failed. 3 times. On my first attempt, I flipped off the thing landing on my back in a pile of hay (Thank you for putting that there!). The next two attempts I got progressively closer, but couldn't get over that stupid log. On the 3rd try, a fellow racer offered to help me over, but I had to decline. If I was getting over, I was doing it on my own. I also received the best advice from fellow teammate, Juffrey, "You just have to jump higher." Got it. Thanks for being an awesome volunteer and teammate encouraging me each time! Next time, I'm owning it. This time, I did 30 burpees.
• More Cowbell: Rang that bell loud and proud. First attempt, I was up that rope. "Loop, push, grab." Finally, I made it up a rope in a race. Then I flailed coming down, basically falling and sliding down it catching the rope at the bottom so I wouldn't end up on mine. Not very graceful, but the obstacle is to go up and not down. Boom.
• Pulling out my Cliff Shot only to find it had exploded. Note: do not store Gu's in sports bra and

  

  Gu Stain

  then proceed to attempt the Sternum Checker. There was no need to rip it opened. I just ate whatever was left from the bottom of the pack.
• Nailed the Weaver: I am so glad we practiced this in training. There was also an awesome volunteer who told me I was her hero. I love the MGG volunteers!!!
• Gigantic Check: Seriously. I've always wanted a gigantic check. There are no words to explain the feeling. But you can certainly tell how excited I was by the size of the grin on my face.

Overall, I came in 18 minutes slower than last time. And that's fine. I wasn't expecting to be any faster having sprained my ankle 3 weeks ago training at MGG. I was only able to run/walk this past week and I couldn't squat. I am very proud of my performance on the obstacles. Even though I didn't get over the Sternum Checker, when I was laying in the hay I got back up and tried again. I got up the rope, across the Monkey bars, through the Weaver, and across the Polish Traverse. I'll take it.

Rumor has it, the next race will be in April. I truly look forward to whatever they have in store for us next time. I can guarantee it will be EPIC. The folks at MGG are committed to building and having races that are for Obstacle Course Racers. So much so, they seek the input from the racers and more importantly, use it. The directors seek input from your Average Joe's as well as Champions, Pak and Boone, plus the OCR "celebrities." I have no doubt that this race will only continue to grow with more folks traveling farther to show up. I said it before, and I'll say it again. This is not your run of the mill sloppily thrown together course that wants a quick profit. This is a permanent, raw, challenging course that will suck out every ounce of energy that you can muster. A course like this is the reason why I love OCR.

Dream. Come. True.

 

 

Biggest and Fastest Team with 3 members taking podium and winning both Men's and Women's Tug of War: The amazing Crazy Mudder Muckers