I’m a bit late writing this review, but I feel as if I just not got rid of all the soreness from the run (ha). I have always been terrified to do a real obstacle race such as this one because I didn’t think I could complete it. In addition to that I hurt myself when I fell at the Lozilu Mud Run, and messed up my shoulder. Well, I was beyond wrong. We pulled up paid our insane $10 for parking, checked our bags and got lined up on time to have a separate MC warm us up for the send off. Dan “Nitro” Clark, the man behind the race, explained the rules, including the “if you skip and obstacle you must do ten burpees” rule. Off we went.

The Race:
The beginning obstacles started off pretty basic, net climb, walk on beams, climbing over small walls… and then came the burpees…with cinderblocks. Meaning when it’s time for you to come up, if you’re a woman you pick one block up with you, men took two up. I’m 99% my form sucked, but I did my set of ten. After that things got interesting. I would soon approach my favorite obstacle, the “Trenches of Torment”. It involved a tunnel that was made underground and filled with water just below the knees (I’m 5’5) in the darkness, with a mud roof and walls. Best part of the race in my opinion, probably because it hurt my body the least. Run a bit through some grass, and go jump in a dumpster and pray to God you get out. This obstacle left me with bruises in ungodly places from attempting to climb out over the side, I’m thankful for the random person who totally grabbed my butt to help push me out. Run some more and bam there’s an inflatable Buddha, and hey there are some sand bags you need to carry down a path and bring back. Everyone looked absolutely miserable doing this task, but it was the best break from the dumpster dive. After that everything was pretty easy for a while, there were random hills of nothing but slick mud on a steep incline. Everyone had to work together, once we made it up, we stayed to help some people up as well. The four obstacles… my goodness, first off rope climb-with my shoulder I couldn’t do it, and I had a late wave so the ropes were covered in mud. The same was true of “The Beast” (a vertical wall with a slight incline with a rope) once again not a chance; I paid the burpee penalty instead. There was also the “Morning Wood” which required at least eight people before they would let you start, because you have to carry a freaking telephone pole in a circle. This screwed my shoulder up even more, left a bruise, and it was scrapped up from the pole-worth it. After that, my 10 burpees from not doing “The Beast” and I was on my way to do the one obstacle I waited for- jumping over fire and getting that awesome fire picture. Unfortunately it was really windy so there wasn’t really a fire, but I still jumped like there was a big fire because well… I still wanted an awesome picture.

Overall I had a great experience, it was an excellent challenge for me to take on. I’m not sure if I would be doing any more obstacle course style races, but this one definitely opened the door to potential new ones. I cannot praise this company enough for being super organized and hosting an amazing venue, and post race party. Dan “Nitro” Clark, is an amazing guy he gave his gladiators a personal send off before their wave started, interacted with everyone throughout the whole event, and was just super. It was just refreshing to see someone so involved, and I would recommend this race to anyone in any part of the country.