Rogue Runner Recap

So I ran the Rogue Runner Georgia race on November 3, 2012 in La Grange.  To be honest, I was a little nervous about this race for many reasons.

1.  Only 2 weeks prior Rogue Runner held their very first race ever and from the comments on Facebook I was a little worried about the organization of the race.  I read that there were wait times of a hour at some of the obstacles, no water or nutrition on a 6 mile course, poor course direction and few volunteers.

2.  I've been so focused on my training for the Atlanta Half Marathon, I've been slacking on my strength workouts.  I was super nervous about those dreaded monkey bars and my lack of upper body strength.

3.  This race only being my 2nd obstacle race and I was doing it alone.  Originally the hubs and kids were planning on coming too, but due to the girls playing softball they were not able to come with me.  I was all alone. 

So I was up at 6:30 am and was ready to roll by 7:00.  According to my directions, it should have taken me 1.5 hours and I need to be there 1 hour before my 9:30 start wave to get checked in. I thought my timing would be perfect.  Even with getting lost (thanks new Apple maps) I arrived at Pyne Road Park about 8:15.  I got checked in which proved to be more difficult than it should have been.  There were only 2 people working check-in and registration.  Everything was organized by bib #'s and the workers had to dig through 1 bag to find the actual bib and then another bag to find the timing chip that matched your #.  It only took about 5 minutes to get all my stuff since I had already printed out my don't sue us if you get hurt or die form waiver a head of time, but I was in the front of the line.  I could only imagine how the rest of the day went. 

So I got all my race accessories on and I was ready to roll.  I had my timing chip, the big bulky orange one.  I'm not really sure what the other 2 bracelets were for, but I put them on anyways.  I heard that one of them was for your free beer after the race, but who really knows.  I don't drink so it didn't really matter to me. 

So since I was standing around and was super early for my 9:30 wave, I thought why not go ahead and run in the elite 9:00 wave.  I honestly just wanted to get done running sooner so I could get back to watch my girls play ball.  The other thought that crossed my mind was, if I run early there's less of a chance of the obstacles getting backed up.  This was only my 2nd OCR, I wasn't real sure of myself and whether I could hang with "elite" runners.  But what the heck, I went for it.  So when they called for the 9:00 wave I headed to the start corral.  Once in the start corral they asked that runners that run 7:00/miles get lined up on the left side, then runners that run 8:00/miles line up in the middle and then everyone else on the right side.  So technically, on flat ground I run sub 8:00 so positioned myself in the middle, but towards the front so I wouldn't get too far behind in the start.  I looked around and noticed that there were not a lot of other women in that middle group and my mindset changed about running the elite wave.  I has here to race now, not just finish, but to compete and do well. 

So when the race started I took off.  I didn't really pay attention to the other runners at first, but just wanted to tackle one obstacle at a time and one mile at a time.   I successfully completed all by 2 obstacles, The first one I failed was "Walk the Line"

Basically looked like this, but floating in the lake. 

And the other one I failed was the Monkey bars, of course.  My goal is to be able to do the monkey bars by the Spartan Race in March. 

It's a toss up for the most difficult obstacle.  Either the Barbed Wire craw or the Mud March. 

At mile 4(ish) we were told to run in the creek and stay in the water until you get to the dock.  I'm really bad at judging distances, but it was longer than a football field and it felt like at least 1/4 mile.  At first it didn't seem too bad.  Just running really slow in some water.  But then came the mud, like swamp mud.  It was thick and smelly and at times came up to my thighs.  It just sucked you in.  A guy in front of me lost his shoes more than once.  The extra weight of the mud on your feet and in your shoes made it difficult to move fast.  And when the mud got deep the force of having to pull your feet out with every step was killer.  My thighs were on fire after that. 

The other obstacle that killed me was the Barbed Wire crawl.  You started by getting into the lake and then crawled up hill towards into the woods and then once you got to the top you made U-turn and had to come back down into the water.  I was the leading female up until that point, but got passed during the barbed wire crawl.  At 5'8" there's just no way to move fast under the barbed wire.  I tried just rolling, but I got very dizzy.  I got my hair and clothes caught a few times. 



Catapult into the tree and across the wire



Again, as this was only my 2nd OCR ever, I don't have a lot to compare it to.  I can say that the obstacles were fun and challenging.  I loved the jump off the high dive into the lake.  What a rush!!  I don't think I've jumped off something that high since I was a teenager. 

Running across "Lily Pads"

Up the wall, across the cargo nets and a few more steps to the finish line

The only negative things I have to say about the entire race is at one point on the course there was no direction whatsoever.  After crossing the creek and doing "Man on a Wire" obstacle I asked "where to now?" and was told by a volunteer to go about 150 feet, take a right and just keep going straight.  So I did just that, but when I made that right there were no orange or pink markers in sight.  I just kept going straight and made my own trail through grass and brush until I came to what was very obvious the course.  I have know idea if I was on the course or not.  There were several other runners with me so I wasn't the only one who was very confused by the directions.  The other negative was at the very end of the race they only had green bananas.  Nothing was ripe enough to eat, and I was starving by this point. 

I finished the race 1:19:04. 

27th overall finisher

3rd woman

1st in my age division

I claimed my finishers bling

Showing off my battle wounds...2 days later.

I had an absolute blast running Rogue Runner.  I think they learned from the experience in Virginia and things went very smoothly.  I loved the women's fitted shirts that we were given instead of the regular generic fitting T's.  I might actually were this one some where other than for a workout.  I hear that they are coming back in June and I'm seriously considering running it again.  What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment.  I just can't get enough.