Adventure Racing 2012

As some of you probably noticed, last year was the year of the "adventure race." This new trend has been around for some time, but it didn't take off until just recently. My first adventure race was only 2 summers ago when my roommates and I signed up for the Filthy 5K Mud Run featured in Dominion's Riverrock weekend here in RVA. Now there are hundreds of adventure races all over the country, and of course one of the most renowned races - Tough Mudder - one of the most challenging.

But this year isn't about conquering the toughest adventure race or surpassing some type of endurance goal. No, my resolution was to try new races and new workouts to keep up with my fitness standards. Which is why I want to share with you a few new adventure races that I will be participating in this year. Time to get down and dirty all over again...






One of the first new races of the year is called Hero Rush. It's a 5k+ firefighter-inspired obstacle course race full of ladders, poles and lots of fire. I'm a little nervous about this one, but I think I can do it. Plus, I get to pretend I'm a firefighter for the day. Event better, the event supports the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, a national charity that supports the families and fire departments of fallen firefighters. I always try to sign up for races that support a good cause and this one is one of my favorites.


Hero Rush is offering a DC-Maryland area race on April 28th this year. To sign up, go to www.herorush.com and register. Sign up before February 3rd to beat the price increase!!! I'll be there with my game face on!

The next adventure race I signed up for is the Mud Warrior. Thanks to Livingsocial, I was able to snag a pretty cheap race ticket to this 8k military-style obstacle course race. Supposedly this one is like a "mini Tough Mudder," plus it's in mid-April near Charlottesville, VA, so I imagine it will be quite chilly. Again, this is another race that supports a good cause - the HOPE Foundation, that helps to fight poverty and reduce homelessness by building stronger and better communities. It's also local - based out of Charlottesville, VA, my old college stomping grounds (wahoo-wah!!!). Check it out... and sign up for the race while you are at it.

I look forward to participating in these events. Any new adventure is worth it to me and I can't wait to conquer two new adventure races this year. I also plan to race the Merrell Down and Dirty 10K mud run since I signed up for it last year and then skipped it due to a back injury. So technically it's a "new" race for me. Fingers crossed I don't miss out again this year!

Down and Dirty

Just wanted to share two more photos from last weekend's adventure races. This weekend was HUGE - Brett's birthday, John's graduation, his whole family in town to celebrate... It was a great time and I'll share more later this week when I'm not about to pass out from exhaustion. I'll leave you with some pics from last weekend for now... Enjoy!

Muddy, Rugged, and Butt-Busting Weekend

This weekend kicked off the summer series of muddy military style runs that I've signed up for in an attempt to train for the tough mudder. Well, Friday's race was designed more for fun than anything. RVA hosted the 3rd annual Dominion Riverrock events this weekend on Brown's Island. Mud runs, dirt bikes, rock climbers and music lovers came out to enjoy Friday Cheer's concert and wet dogs leaping for toys into a pool of water. My roommates and I headed down after work on Friday, dressed in our matching camo t-shirts and ready to get muddy. The race this year was a lot smoother than last year. They took out a mud pit that had been placed along the trail last year, which had caused bottlenecking delays at the entrance of the trail. The mud pit at the finish line was significantly improved too by adding a cargo net on top that racers had to crawl under. Overall, the race was a lot of fun. We wrapped up the night with Blue Moon beer and Boka Truck takos, which definitely made the night a success.

But wait, there's more! I dragged myself home and washed my muddy clothes, only to do it all over again the next day. I managed to dry my shoes in the dryer for the Rugged Maniac, a 5k military style obstacle course race held at the VA Motorsports Park in Petersburg. We signed up for a 12pm wave so that we could sleep in a bit and head down there without rushing. My co-worker Daniel and his friend Winslow rode down with me. We got there an hour before our wave-time and the first thing I saw was a mountain covered with a tarp and streaming water, with racers flying down into a pit of mud. We headed to the start line and hit the trail. The first few obstacles were easy - jumping through tires, climbing over short 4-foot walls, maneuvering between twisted ropes, etc. It wasn't until we exited the trail where we witnessed a huge field of halfpipes and obstacles. We hit our first mud pit with the thickest mud you can imagine. Our feet were covered and weighed us down. We climbed up and down the halfpipes and approached a series of walls to scale over. At first I had no confidence that I would be able to climb on my own but somehow I managed to jump high enough to get one hand on the top of the wall and then pull the rest of me over the top.

Then came the river obstacles. We came upon a series of planks over muddy water that you had to walk across. I couldn't reach the next plank and decided to jump. This was such a mistake. I slipped and landed right on my tail-bone, bumped my head and fell into the water. Daniel and Winslow fished me out and made sure I was okay. I honestly thought that I broke something but the only thing broken was my dignity. The pain was awful but I didn't want a little pain ruin the fun I was having. We kept going, swimming over tubes in cold muddy water, crawled through a pit of mud covered by barbed wire, a few more halfpipes and finally the mountainous slide at the end. The 3 of us went down together. I was honestly scared out of my mind when I slid down. I picked up so much speed, I thought for sure I would run right into Winslow below me, but we skidded along the mud pit to the end and ran through the finish line.

What a weekend. After all of that I celebrated with a BBQ stock-the-bar party and the Lebanese Food festival the next day. My tail-bone is quite sore and I have no idea if I'll be able to go back to the gym today, but I'll give it a try. I'm definitely enjoying adventuring racing so far, even with humiliating injuries.