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| - I was hesitant about signing up for this 8+ mile/20+ obstacle race--mainly because I wasn't sure that the obstacle race itself wouldn't justify the price tag (anywhere from $95-$145 for registration alone)--but with the LivingSocial/Amazon deal of $40 for entry, I was definitely interested and thought it was worth the money. And I also liked the fact that they have other options, such as the Sprint (3+ miles) and Kiddie version (0.5 or 1 mile) too.
I had originally signed up to run with a group, but due to work obligations, had to change my start time after emailing the organizers and checking in with the head person on site. It was pretty easy to do so and they were quite accommodating.
I understand that they are raising funds for such charities as Homes for Our Troops and Canadian Forces Soldier On by charging for almost everything ($20/25 spectator fee, $10 parking, $5 bag check, etc) but I still feel like I saw a bunch of price tags and not as much swag or other free samples for participants...then again, I had to cut out early for work and didn't even have a chance to give away my one free beer ticket to anyone desiring a beer.
Regardless, this was quite an experience, and I feel like there were a nice mix of local and non-local competitors at this event, held at Lake Las Vegas in Henderson. There were definitely the competitive athletes that I came across at this time (elites had a start time as early as 8am, with others starting in waves every 15 minutes), as well as people competing to finish, or even those just wanting to have fun and claim their one free beer after finishing the race. I do know, though, that the afterparty was scheduled at LAX, and it seemed like quite a few participants were definitely going to take advantage of the nightlife scene after competing and recuperating for a bit.
I did like the fact that they had marking stations, rows and rows of port-a-potties (the ones with the handwashing station outside), areas for photo opps, sample obstacles, and a large area where we could hang out prior to our start time, too. And it seems like this organization also got a lot of local help, since many different groups had their tents set up to gather and hang out, too.
I must say, though, that I was pretty nervous, as I wasn't training as hard as I was supposed to--given lack of time and lack of availability to train--but it was still a fun and somewhat challenging course, regardless.
From what I recall, the obstacles included the following: a bunch of running on uphill and downhill terrain, some tire flips and tire pulls, sand bucket walk, sand bag walk, hay bale jumps, a short swim (life best provided), monkey bars, burpees, weights, crawls, walls, rope climb, spear throw, a cargo net crawl, multiple scaling walls, mud pits, barbed wire crawls, weighted pulls, a fire pit that we had to scale, and some spartans at the end (a la Gladiator style). For any unfinished or unattempted obstacle, penalty of 30 burpees. Let's just say that I did a fair share of them, as did quite a few others.
My gripes were that there were definitely enough water stations at the beginning, but the last two water stations were definitely too few and far between--as a lot of my fellow competitors were cramping up pretty badly.
I did think they were pretty efficient at getting the medics out as efficiently as possible, since I saw a girl bust her knee on one of the wall climbs, quite a few guys get medical assistance for their cramps, and others that needed to be taped up due to some injuries that resulted from some of the other obstacles.
I also think that they had quite a bit of support staff on hand to make sure that nobody was cheating/people were doing their burpees when necessary, they made sure that the flow of participants moved fluidly, and were definitely on hand to help us figure out where to go next, give us encouragement, and definitely provide us with water and post-race nourishment. I've said it before and I'll say it again: THANK YOU TO THE VOLUNTEERS!! I definitely couldn't have done this without you guys.
That being said, I may opt to volunteer next year, since they do offer the incentive of volunteering one day and getting free entry to the race. Definitely worth it and helps out many in the process.
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