This is the second year that I have participated at the Rock Solid Mud Run in Englishtown, NJ. It is a race that is literally in my back yard – how can I not attend? Raceway Park in Englishtown is completely flat -- but the obstacles, trail running and swimming will challenge you.
It’s rather hard to believe that BattleFrog’s first race ever was staged in Atlanta less than six months ago. This was only their sixth Event, yet they already have a level of professionalism that rivals other race series that have been doing this for years.
The course had your typical Sprint obstacles: monkey bars, Herculean hoist, rope climb, water jug carry, cargo net climb, sandbag carry, spear throw, a new version of the traverse wall, and the atlas stone carry. It also included some obstacles I think are unique to the stadium Sprints, such as a heavy rope jump rope, slam balls, pushups (in the visitors' locker room), box jumps, and a hanging punching bags obstacle.
Taking a page from the 80’s, former American Gladiators star; Dan “NITRO” Clark has created a race series! I can still remember as a kid watching these gladiators taking on the everyday Joe in a series of challenges. Looking back on it, I can now see the clear correlation between what those competitors encountered back then to what we were about to experience in Dan’s vision.
The course offered two options, a 3.5 mile course and a 1.5 mile course. I decided to run the 3.5 mile version. I was impressed to see how many of the families opted to take the 3.5 mile version with younger children and it was funny to watch the parents trying to keep up with the little kids that were running full speed and not slowing down.
Thank you Sir, may I have another? This statement referring to the downed trees crossing the course, and I mean LOTS of downed trees. Swampfoot 4 mile is an event held on a full-time farm, with most of the obstacles remaining on the grounds throughout the year.
The third annual “Panic in the Dark” run was held recently in Lowell, MA. The “zombie” obstacle course race is produced by SmithFest Events, a local company known for its creative and original events. Recently named as one of the eight best Halloween races in the country by Runners World, Panic in the Dark far exceeded expectations last year and we were excited to see what awaited us in the darkened woods!
The course started out with trail running for what seemed to be about a mile and I then came to the first obstacle of the course, Shriveled Richard. This was my second Savage Race and I recalled the Pennsylvania race also started with this same obstacle, but that was in June on a very nice sunny day and this time it was cold!
The course was both amazing and brutal and beat me up but I was glad I went. It’s not often that I have completed a course and felt like I did after Shale Hill, if you can dominate the Shale Hill course, then you can probably conquer almost any other OCR course in America! The course is the best I have run to date.
The hype and buzz within the World’s Toughest Community (WTM) has been crazy since the date and location was announced back in May. Tough Mudder decided with its fourth WTM to really change things up and step away from the home venue of Raceway Park in Englishtown New Jersey, and take the show out to Las Vegas. I can say I am glad I raced last year so that I did one at Raceway, but I am very happy for a change of venue. While no two events are the same, even if at the same location, the change will keep everyone guessing. Personally I think this change will have an impact on the final standings, while it will likely still be the same few ultra-elites in the top 10, I think we may see a new winner for both the male and female.
