OC Gladiator Rock N Run

I was lazy last week about updating my blog.  Or maybe I was just too busy.  Either way, I have a lot to catch up on, starting with my second mud run and fourth run for the year.

I headed down to Irvine for my fourth Gladiator Rock N Run.  Sanjay did it with me again.  The course went from being a 5K to a 7K, which meant it was about 4.35 miles.  They've moved the location to The Great Park, which was an old military base.  It was fun since part of the run was on a runway.

The big accomplishment for me this time was I made it over the wall.  It was the same hard wall I gave one attempt to in October, but this time I was determined to make it over.  I need the guy at the top to pull my leg up, but I did it.

Of course, to do that, I skipped the dumpsters we were supposed to jump into and out of.  There was really nothing to use to climb over them, and I just couldn't see how I was going to get over.  That makes me worry about the walls in Tough Mudder in July.  Past time to start working on upper body strength.

They also had a crawl area inside a hanger.  It was all curtained off, and let me tell you it was dark in there.  I was using the side to guide me forward.  It was so nice when the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't the glow from the bright lights burned into my eyes.

The down side was the clean up afterward.  The truck to hose us down had run out of water, so we were trying to use a small muddy pond.  The truck came back, but there were so many of us it was hard to get clean.  I used my towel to wipe up lots more mud than normal.  First time I've seen that happen with this race, so hopefully it's a fluke that will be addressed in the future.

The best part of the day?  The weather was warm, in fact it was approaching hot.  After freezing at my last three mud runs, it was so nice to be hot as I ran.  I was especially glad for this when we hit the ice water which was cold enough to take away your breath every time you ducked under an obstacle.

Still, it was a fun day, and I'm planning to hit them up again in October when they're back in Pasadena.