Wow, we made it through our third obstacle course 5k in three weeks. Every weekend we have spent a portion of one of our two precious days off driving for a couple hours, getting wet, muddy and scratched, and running a 5k. Crazy!
Today, on our drive back from our latest run, Blake and I were talking about which we liked best (and included our May race as well), pros and cons of each, and which we want to do again, and which we want to skip.
I decided that it might be helpful for someone else to hear these reviews as well, in case you live in an area where one or more are offered, and it can help you decide which to go to.
So, in order of best to worst.
1. Rugged Maniacs
http://www.ruggedmaniac.com/
Pros
- Great obstacles that were challenging, but not impossible, so you felt great defeating them
-Super fun slide
- Well organized
- (minor detail, but I appreciated) Best t-shirt, where I actually wear it as just a Saturday shirt instead of a running only shirt
-Obstacles were evenly dispersed so that you didn't go too long without one
- Great mud (as opposed to watery, gravelly mud that hurt your hands) which was slippery, but not painful
- SoCal location had you rinse off in the lake afterwards
Cons
- The SoCal one has a very large hill, way harder than any obstacle
- The wall that you have to climb up and over was used more than necessary.
- Long check in lines, would have appreciated a mailing option for the bib/ chip
2. Ridiculous Obstacle Course
http://www.rocrace.com/
Pros
- Lots of fun, random obstacles, including a tarzan swing, fireman's pole, water slide, etc.
- Well organized
- Evenly dispersed obstacles
- No mud, just water
- Nice shirt
- Had mailing option for bib/chip
-Fun costumes
Cons
- We didn't have anyone join us, so we missed the company of others
- While the obstacles were fun, they weren't challenging, so there wasn't a big sense of accomplishment at the finish.
3. Run for your lives
http://www.runforyourlives.com/
(This was today's race, and we really expected to enjoy it more than we did)
Pros
- Lots of zombie fans in attendance, so it was easy to talk to people
- You get to run from zombies
- Most challenging race yet, physically and in terms of fear (real electric fence and wires that shock you!)
- Good mud
- Good rinse off place in the lake again (in So Cal)
- Huge sense of supporting others on the course, especially since the best way to avoid the zombies was to run in a pack.
Cons
- Not well organized (to be fair, I believe it was the first year). There was even one water station that you had to pour your own water, and there were lines at some obstacles.
- Most challenging race yet (yes, this goes in both, it has the same hill as the rugged maniacs one in SoCal, but when you are having to sprint past zombies, it takes a lot out of you, and starts to detract from fun).
- The fun factor goes down significantly when you run out of flags (which happened to me early), and you feel less a sense of accomplishment when you end the race without any. I would suggest more health packs (where you can pick up an extra flag later) which I didn't see any on the course, and would have brought back excitement for me.
- Long line to get bib/chip
- Even the small sized shirt is really big on me, so I probably won't wear it much.
-Big portions of just running
4. Del Mar Mud Run
http://delmarmudrun.com/
(Sad thing is that we were the ones that convinced others to do this course).
Pros
- Had many of the same obstacles that we liked in the ROC race
- Had the mailing option for the bib/chip
- Well organized
- Fun costumes
- Decent shirt
Cons
- Mud was very gravelly and hurt your hands and your knees as you crawled through it
- Almost every obstacle was centered around mud or was just mud, and nothing else to do
- Nothing was very challenging, just muddy
- There was a long line to rinse off, and it wasn't a very effective way to clean off
- When you finished, there was no rush of accomplishment, you just felt muddy!
Bottom line on the four we did-
We want to do rugged maniacs again next year.
If we can find friends who are interested, we may do the Roc race and the zombie race again.
It would take a lot for us to be willing to do the del mar mud run again or any run that centered so much around just the getting dirty part without more interesting obstacles as well.
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