ROC Race - Orange County

Saturday, I introduced another friend to the joys of obstacle racing.  And he loved it.

Uriel is also a co-worker, and he thought these races I do sounded like fun.  Good think he enjoyed this one since he’s already signed up for one in October as well.

We did the Ridiculous Obstacle Challenge (ROC) in Orange County.  Same place as the Gladiator Rock n Run last month.  Fortunately, we didn’t need to clean up afterward because they had the same stupid clean up system as last time which does not get you that clean in the 1 minute you have to clean.  Must be something about the location.

Anyway, the ROC race bills itself as the obstacle race for those who don’t want to get muddy.  And they lived up to their name.  There was no mud to be had.  Instead, as Uriel described it, it was more of a day at a water park with running between.

There was a rope swing over a pit of water.  There was a tub slide.  They had a giant inflatable moon walk we had to cross.  And we walls of a couple of different sizes to get over.

The best two obstacles were at the end.  There was a balance beam over a pit of water.  But they also had giant balls rotating around the pit, so you had to time your walking carefully to avoid getting knocked off into the water.  Of course, you also have to have good balance – I fell in.  Uriel got knocked in.

Finally, there was a giant inflatable water slide.  Think the giant slides you see at a fair, only bigger.  It was a little scary going up, at least for me, but it was a blast going down.

The only unfortunate thing was that they assigned you start times instead of letting you pick.  We wound up with an 8AM wave, and the race was an hour and a half away.  You can imagine just how early I had to get up.  But it was worth it.

Well, there was also the accident that tied up traffic unmercifully on the way back, but that’s nothing to do with the race at all.