So when The Rugged Ridge race was announced, and wanted to give it a try. It would be my first obstacle style race. Advertised as only a 1.5 mile run with a few extras thrown it, I thought I could totally handle it.
The race was this past Sunday. Athletes ran in heats starting 10 minutes apart. My assigned time was 9am, but I needed to get there a bit early to pick up my bib, and see just what I was in for.
At 9am, I got to my pit station with my coach Hayley to start my pit portion of the race. The pit is an area where one does exercises in a timed environment. This can changed based on the race. For this race, each participant would do 4 different exercises; box jumps, chest to overhead press, goblet squats, and burpees. Each athlete would have 90 seconds to do as many reps as possible (AMRAP), rest for 20 seconds, and then move to the next exercise. Athletes also had prescribed weight to be used. I registered as a Bravo Female. Think Pro/Alpha and Amateur/Bravo. My pit results looked like this:
42 - Box Jumps
33 - Chest to Overhead Press using 45 pounds
30 - Goblet Squats using a 25 pound kettle bell
12 - Burpees (those are hard!)
After The Pit, athletes had to make their way to the start of the race. The time started and it was game on. And it went something like this -
20 tire flips
Run to the six vault and complete
Run to the pull up station and do 20 ring rows
Pick up a 25 pound sand cake and run about 1/4 mile up a hill
Do 20 pick ups using the sand cake
Run back to pull up station carrying the sand cake
Run about a half mile on a trail
50 yard bear crawl - up hill
50 yard lunge
Run down a grassy hill and onto the trail
Pick up a 40 pound sand cake and run about a half mile
Drop said heavy sand cake and run to the finish line
Jump the finish line like the professional race jumping boss you are!
I finished the race under 30 minutes, and for being my first non-traditional race, I'm really excited with that time.
My watch time
The race was a little longer than advertised, but no big deal. The course was well marked. Judges and volunteers were well placed, knew their jobs, and were encouraging. The water station was well placed for athletes to hit it twice if needed. The weather was perfect! Overall, this was a really fun experience. It kind of makes me want to sign up for another race like this, and I'm looking forward to next year's Rugged Ridge. I know that prior to June I would have never even thought about a race like this, and after doing one, I think I have the confidence to do another.
This morning results of the pit + race were emailed out. The total score was formulated using some kind of calculations that are beyond me. Athletes could score a total of 100 points in The Pit and 100 points in the race for a total of 200. My pit total was 117 from adding up all the reps for each exercise I did. My official race time was 29:17. These translated into a score of Pit 65 + Race 57 = Total 122. This put in 12/34 athletes, and 1st in Bravo Females! Yahoo!!!
