3.1 Miles
July 1st, 2012
Grand Ledge, MI
Event Information
This is a new 5K mud/adventure style run that debuted in the Lansing area. The event had approximately 12 obstacles, with a combination of mud, water, and climbing.
The theme combines your run with obstacles that draw inspiration from some of the great sights of the world, such as the Eiffel Tower, Victoria Falls, and the Great Wall. Other than the theme, the organization hasn't figured out a tag line. I wouldn't consider this a very challenging run if you're in decent shape, but 5K mud runs can be a great entry point.
Location & Parking
The event was held at Fitzgerald Park in Grand Ledge, Michigan. Fitzgerald Park is well known in the area for the "Ledges," a natural rock outcropping that's beautiful. Since this is a county park, the event did not allow any onsite parking to allow for non-racers to access the park. All parking was about a mile away at the Grand Ledge High School, with a bus shuttling participants back and forth. Getting to and from the race was a bit more difficult, since one of the main routes to the school was closed due to bridge work. I'm not a fan of parking off-site with shuttles, but at least the parking was free. I had the family drop me off at the park and I walked in, bypassing the parking and shuttle.
Rating: 3/5
Check-in & Bag Check
The location was close to the shuttle drop off and easily recognizable with a nice big sign for Registration. I arrived close to the end of the event, so I didn't have a huge line--in fact, it was just me checking in and one girl running it. I didn't see any separation of check-ins by alphabetical order and in my case, it didn't really matter. I got through everything here, including getting timing chip, wrist band, numbers, etc, within 5 minutes.
Bag check was about a 300 foot walk away from check-in and again, processing was quick because there wasn't anyone there. Overall, I was comfortable with leaving some valuables in my pack, no worries here.
Rating: 4.5/5
Schwag
I would consider the schwag fairly consistent with what you'd receive at many of the other races. This one consisted of a Rock the World dog tag medal, orange wrist band, and technical shirt. I did not receive a shirt at check-in, as they had ran completely out of all men's shirts by the time I made it to the event. They did offer two options: receive a yellow volunteer shirt or they would mail a shirt to your home address.
I went with option #2, knowing full well I may never receive a shirt, so the jury is still out on this one. Racers for the previous day and earlier heats on Sunday received a free beer and bananas and water. By the time I got onsite at 6 PM Sunday, the beer had left the building along with the bananas.
I would normally dock a few points for the lack of shirts, but I will let this one slide since I was a late entry. We were supposed to receive some sort of bag with other items, which I did not receive.
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Rating: 3.0/5
Race Time!
The start line was positioned next to the baseball diamond and since we were at the end of the day, they combined the 6:15 heat with the 7:00 heat, leaving us with 12 runners. Everyone was chipped and we were given directions, including an explanation about an area of the course that was not marked so well. (The lack of markings proved to be a problem for some runners, as they missed part of the loop & had 4 hours added to their official time.) We also learned that two of the twelve obstacles were either broken or never completed. From what I heard from a few other racers with friends that ran the day before.
As we were lined up, there was some chatter in the group, but not much was said about the temperature, which was holding steady at 91°. We were held until we could hit a 5 minute increment and they did have a countdown for us. With little fanfare and exactly zero onlookers, we were off!
The first stretch took us across the park, running on a flat field until we hit another path, then slowly descending towards the Grand River. The pack stayed fairly close, with some spreading towards the end of the group. We made it down towards the bank of the river, then curved up to the left and hit our first hill climb, an elevation of about 50 ft, which brought us to the first obstacle, the Great Wall.
This was our first slowdown, as the wall was only wide enough for one person to scale at a time. The Great Wall was probably closer to 7 ft instead of 8ft as originally billed, with wooden boards to use for climbing/gripping. Once on the opposite side of the wall, there was a platform about 4-5 ft above a trough of water and mud, which was connected to a mirror image of the wall we scaled in reverse. Not really a tough obstacle and a bit of a downer, but this brings me to one of my points I'll cover later regarding venues. County parks are probably a bad venue, since I doubt they would let the organizers dig up any parts of the park--more later.
After climbing the reverse and jumping down, it was a curve to the right, then another run down a hill towards the river and The Eiffel Tower, which broke Saturday, then back up the same hill, with a break to the right at the top, to the next challenge, Victoria Falls.
I have to give the race organizers props for Victoria Falls, which was a 190 ft slip and slide down a huge hill, with hay bales keeping you inside. I can running up to it, was directed towards the left side, then proceeded to dive down the hill. This
From here on, we left the comfort of roads and were strictly on the trails. Many of which were closer to single tracks and probably full of frustration in heavily packed heats. I moved on to Kilauea, which was a long, steep hill. What comes down must go up, right? This one wasn't too bad, but I could feel my tendinitis starting to kick in on this hill (time for new shoes and more PT). Overall, not a bad hill, but I'm sure this killed may of the racers that haven't trained hills at all. This is where I started to put some serious ground between myself and the people behind me, since I've added in some hill training as of late and I had learned my lessons at the Spartan Founder's Race in Indiana. Those that don't run or train hills, often die a tragic race death by the 3-4 hill.
Next up was a descent, yet again, towards the river bank and on to the Grand Canyon. From the description, we were supposed to grab a "torch", but I don't recall there being a single torch available or anyone at that particular point, but I recall being handed a carabiner, which we needed for the Mighty Mac. However, the Might Mac was broken, so it was more running!
The next part of the run was probably close to a mile, consisting of ups and downs. I felt decent through this stretch and not too winded. I did find myself taking two 30 second walk breaks due to my ankle acting up and fortunately, my calves weren't tight as I'd expect from the hills.
Next up? Swiss Alps. So, this was supposed to be a cargo net connecting some trees, creating some peaks and valleys you'd have to crawl over. However, they did not use cargo nets and instead, used climbing line and tried to weave it into a net of sorts. Yeah, that was an epic fail and the volunteer stationed here said it was best to crawl under it--so under the mountain I went.
After this, it was time for the Statue of Liberty, or at least that's what I think they called it. Basically, a balance beam that required us to hook our "Torch" to and walk across. I made it about 3/4 of the way before I lost my balance and did a walk of shame. This was the first time I've managed to fall off a beam at a race, very disappointed in myself, however, since there was no mud or water, it wasn't a major penalty.
Plowing onward, I'm feeling fairly good and I've certainly caught my wind again and I'm making decent time. I manage to run past the remains of what may be the Great Pyramids. I don't know that they were ever completed and much like their counterparts in Egypt, it was a grand plan, but I'm guessing the team ran out of time to complete them in time for the race.
As I'm really feeling like I'm hitting a solid stride, I get to the Oregon Trail, which consists of climbing line strung through a course with a carabiner you must attach. This obstacle was a bit underwhelming and annoying, since it involved going through a picnic table, then over and under some log stands, which weren't very sturdy. I was concerned I might tip or break a few of these, so I mostly went under them after the first one almost flipped right over. Yeah, this is where the course certainly shows some amateur design flaws and this part really felt like an add-on. In hindsight, I'd suggest they drop this one and come up with something better. After weaving around a bunch of trees and getting thoroughly annoyed, I drop my clip and end up doubling back on a part of the trail I was on earlier to get to #11, the Amazon Jungle.
The last leg brought us back into the main parking area, around a bend and finally, the finish line. I was fortunate enough to have a small group volunteers and crew to cheer me home. After I crossed the line, a small boy put my tags on and the race was complete!
I never even bothered to check my time until I got home. I can tell you, I had only hoped to get in somewhere sub 40:00, but I came in just above. I really need to invest in a GPS watch so I can do a better job of tracking my time. However, the heat and acute achilles tendinitis slowed me down a bit.
I don't have the elevation change information, although I will take the my iPhone over there soon and try to run the course. I would say for many, the hills were the 13th obstacle.
Rating: 3/5
Final Thoughts
I had the chance to talk with some of the people in my heat as well as some of the volunteers. All of them took advantage of the discounted entry fee for volunteering and for many, this was their first obstacle race.
With the exception of Victoria Falls, there weren't any crazy challenges that stood out or were especially tough and I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed by some of the missing obstacles.
This race cost more than a Warrior Dash and obstacle quality just didn't feel like it was inline with the fees. However, this is the first race and I believe a learning experience for those involved. I believe a slightly lower price point would have brought in more racers and probably resulted in less scrutiny from racers that may feel they didn't get their money's worth. Red Frog and the other groups are more than a few years ahead and to make it in this game, a company has to either bring a new perspective to the genre or bring what the racers want, which is usually a ton of mud and some challenges.
Not to mention there was a bit of a snafu with the initially promised live bands playing and the free beer, both of which were initially cancelled, then brought back after a few companies stepped up and added some donations to the pot. With these two
There's another Rock the World Race scheduled for later in September in Detroit. I can only hope the company made some sort of a profit and they can deliver on the promise of a great race. It's going to be tough since some of us have ran other races and $67 to $80 for a 5K is pricey.
Overall, I'll cut the race a bit of slack for the first event. I've also posted a video I found from someone that ran the event.
Rating: 3.5/5
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