Autumn Equinox 2013 Pentathlon

Yes, a bit (2 months) late in the posting, but here's the results from quarterly testing from Sept.

We decided to change it up a bit and substituted burpees for the push-up portion this time and will continue that route for now. Burpees are measured in max reps in 2 minutes, just as the push-ups were and the sit-ups are.

Below are our numbers. As always, participant's age is next to their name, change from last quarter in black and overall from the beginning in red.

Wade (39):
Burpees (38) (NA) (NA)
Sit-up - 76 (+16) (+36)
Broad Jump - 81" (+1) (0")
Sit & Reach - .375" (-.625") (-.25")
Mile - 7:16 (+:26) (-1:14)

Kellan (14):
Burpees - 33 (NA) (NA)
Sit-up - 80 (+9) (+32)
Broad Jump - 65" (+5") (+10.75")
Sit & Reach - .75" (+.5") (-.75")
Mile - 7:03 (-:29) (-2:56)

Thoughts:

Burpees were rough. I'm always amazed at how hard they get after about 20 reps.
I was not feeling the mile this day at all. It was really hard on me for some reason, and I felt a little ill during it. I stayed home the next day was congestion and sneezing, so maybe that was a factor in it, although the other events didn't seem to suffer.
My broad jump and flexibility have been pretty static from the very beginning, not sure why.

Kellan is improving rapidly. Being a growing teenager hitting puberty probably doesn't hurt, but he is also a pretty focused and disciplined young man. Way more than I was at his age, that's for sure. His mile time his the fastest to date, beating the time he posted at the track and field regionals a week prior by 2 seconds.

Race Review - Commando eXtreme - Benghazi Tribute

Prologue.
This 3rd installment of the newly formed Commando eXtreme series just happened to fall on my 40th birthday. With such a rare opportunity to race on a milestone birthday, I decided I not only had to run this race, but I needed to make it epic.
And how else can one make an already hard race harder, but to add some weight? So keeping with the militaristic theme (CeX prides itself on being the only race produced entirely by US Navy SEALs), I decided to wear a small rucksack with 2 10lb. steel plates in it, thus adding a little over 20lb. to my normal 175lb. body mass.

Commando eXtreme - Benghazi Tribute
This race was held at the Spruce Mountain Guest Ranch, which is a beautiful piece of land tucked between the mountains of Larkspur, CO. The facility was top notch, clean and organized. From what I can tell, they host a lot of corporate events and weddings there, and now the occasional obstacle race. Probably the fanciest place I've seen an obstacle race at, me being used to motocross tracks, Army bases, parks and the like.

Course map.

The Benghazi Tribute mission is, of course, dedicated to the 4 Americans (2 of whom were SEALs) killed during the attack on the U.S. Consulate on September 11, 2012. Before our start we had a moment of silence for the fallen and the National Anthem played.
Then we were ordered to "bring it in" by the man with the mic and proceeded to do a few push-ups and squats to get a little warmed up for the race.

Drop and give me 20! Or at least 5...

The start line is a stack of hay bales, known as Jump Start. This is the first race I've run that literally starts with an obstacle. This was going to be fun and likely a pretty hard race.
I started out in the very back, so as not to slow down the hard chargers with my extra bulk. Within a quarter mile I was able to pass a couple slower runners and get into my pace and groove with the extra weight.

That's a tough way to start a race.

The obstacles came quick and often. 28 in all, strewn over the course which I'm guessing to be about 4 miles long (I've seen nothing official and will update if I can find it). There are a couple long stretches of running, mostly up slowly ascending hills, but the longer spots are also interlaced with natural and static obstacles like a half frozen stream and marsh, dry(ish) creek beds, half buried ranch equipment and cattle fences to crawl under or over.
Somewhere in the first mile or so I plunged into icy water and my toes would remain pretty much numb for the remainder of the race.

Hating life right about now.

I really liked the main obstacles. They were well thought out, sturdy and quite challenging. The designers made good use of angles, turning a simple cargo net climb into a tough rope up and over scramble. They also integrated several obstacles into the cattle pens scattered about the property, the Slide for Life single rope traverse being a memorable one. I was nervous about the monkey bars. I don't have the best grip strength to begin with, was carrying extra weight and they came near the end of the course after several arm smoking obstacles, but I was able to negotiate them relatively easily.

Simple and effective.

The hardest and quite possibly the most creative obstacle, in my opinion, was the Dancing Donuts. This piece of work is a string of inner tubes and pontoon type floats loosely hooked together along the shallows of a freezing pond. This thing tried it's damnedest to pitch you into the icy water and took what little strength I had left to negotiate it. Menacingly it's the last obstacle before the finish (which was another hay bale obstacle), when you are all but completely fried.
It's obvious these guys know what they're doing.

There were a few, what I call, fitness obstacles throughout the race. Ranging from lunges and bear crawls to tire flips and dips. These were manned with staff to keep you on track and explain the movements if you weren't familiar with them. The entire course had adequate staffing and one water station right around the halfway mark.
Also, this course was relatively dry (if you managed to not fall in the lake). I'm guessing events earlier in the season had more mud, but being colder I think they may have spared us the additional burden and hypothermia risk.

Can Do, the ammo can farmer's walk.

As far as difficulty, I'd rank the Commando eXtreme a bit below the Spartan Military Sprint at Ft. Carson this past Spring. With the extra 20lb. it was probably harder overall, as you might imagine. I completed the CeX in 1:07, towards the rear end of my heat.

If anyone from Commando eXtreme is reading this, might I suggest a finishers medal for people who complete all missions in a given year? I think that would make a solid goal for our local racers.

One hour and seven minutes later.

Epilogue.
Commando eXtreme is a challenging event with stout obstacles and top notch organization. Being a local event with smaller heats allows for some creative and taxing obstacles that would likely get backed up at some of the larger events. This race is worth your time and money for sure. I'm eager to see what they have in store for 2014.

Running a race with a 20lb. ruck is incredibly hard. I managed to get halfway through the race without stopping, but was exhausted shortly thereafter and spent more time trudging than I would've liked during the 2nd half. Not sure I'd do it again... but I probably will.

So tired.

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4 races in one day

Race Review - Panerathon 10k

The Panerathon is a 5k/10k charity event hosted by Panera Bread with all proceeds going to Food Bank of the Rockies. Both the 5k and 10k routes are USATF certified as well.

It's held at the Penera Bread in Westminster and the path shared some of the same route as the Holy COW 5k we ran back in August during our 4inOne race record. The 10k is runners only, but walkers are welcome on the 5k route. We chose the 10k, which would be the first straight certified 10k for both my son and I.

We showed up cutting it close to our start time. This is a pretty good sized event and we had to park a good distance away from the start. We breezed through the packet pick-up and we were lined up to start when the race master asked everyone to check that their timing chip was secured to their shoes. We didn't get chips with our bibs, and I had assumed they were micro chipped bibs and didn't even look.
We scrambled back towards the pick up tent when I noticed a separate tent marked timing chip pick up. We were able to get our chips laced into our shoes literal within a minute of the start time!

Both 5 and 10k start at the same time and use the same route for just over a mile, then the 10k splits off for a 3 mile out and back where it then merges back in with the 5k route. The route was nice, using mostly paved park paths the wound along a creek, over some bridges and under some overpasses.

We started off pretty strong, but slowed down through miles 3-5 when Kellan started having some trouble breathing. He refused to stop however, and pushed through the pain and got his wind back on the last mile to the point that I couldn't catch him on the last incline and he bested me by a few seconds.
He came in at 57:56 and I at 58:01, making my under 1 hour goal.

The overall 5k winner, Jason Graham, came in at 19:04 and Mark Mulholland won the 10k with a time of 36:26.

Our results.

After the race, they had games and several booths in the fairground area. Panera provided a ton of food for all participants with bread and sandwiches coming hot out of the front door.

The even was well organized, inexpensive and the course had pleasing, rolling ups and downs without being too difficult. The 10k course dips down to just under a 100' at the low point before rising back up to the finish.

It was a great race to cut my 10k teeth on and I'd definitely recommend it to new to 5 or 10k runners and welcome the chance to run it again.

Trip Report - The Castle

My son asked me to take him camping, and I've been wanting to climb The Castle for a while now, so I decided to do a little car camping with The Boy and we'd summit the majestic rock together. We decided to hit the road on Friday night, so we could get an early start on Saturday.

The Castle.

We hit the campground just a bit after sunset. This was actually the first time I've ever stayed in an established pay-per-night campground, so I can't comment on how it compares to others. The people running the place were very nice, however, and when we told them our plans to climb the castle, they assigned us a spot near the trail that would also be away from all the partiers. We made camp at site #62 under the glare of my Subaru's headlights and bedded down to the hoots and hollers of the serious partying going on down by the lake.

Saturday morning we woke to see The Castle looking down at us in the early light of day. Although it was only about half a mile away as the crow flies, I knew the approach swung way around towards the far side and that we'd have a little bit of a hike ahead of us. We ate and were on the trail, with our day packs, shortly after 8:00am. To hit the trail from Camp 62, you just hike straight up the hill and it's only about 20-30 yards from the campsite.

The Castle in the morning sun from Camp 62.

The trail is pretty well traveled and marked up to the waterfall. There is a somewhat confusing junction with The Scouts trail, but if you just stay heading straight you'll see another sign pointing you towards the waterfall and The Castle. The waterfall is very small, but cool in the way that it is slowly rubbing away at the large rock it flows over. Heading upstream from the falls will get you to the last sign you'll see marking the trail to The Castle.

Bridge at the waterfall.

The trail is fairly easy to follow, with logs and sticks lining the sides, but there are a couple spots you might wander off of it. The Castle looms to your right hand side and the tendency to want to drift over towards it is strong. But, the trail meanders off to the left and up and over another ridge, to skirt around some steep rocks. Just remember that the correct approach, while longer, is better than bushwhacking up a boulder field. Plus you get some great views of the mountains and rocks on the other side. Towards the top of the mountain, at the base of the jutting rocks that make up the summit, the trail sort of peters out. If you keep circling around towards the back (west) side, you will see a couple cairns to help you along.

Looking out SW where the trail starts to dissolve.

At this point you're looking at some pretty exposed class 4 scrambling, maybe even some low class 5 stuff. There's a cairn at the bottom of a promising crack to get up the first bit of scramble. It's definitely doable, and we played with it a bit, but ultimately deemed it a bit too reachy and bone crunchy for coming back down... At least for us. Pushing further around the side, we found another crack, that was still a bit of a stretch, but had a nice shrub to help us along and was a little less steep.

This is the marked access we decided not to use.

Once up the first bit, there's a little traverse on a large slanting rock. It's not too steep, but it's a good drop off the edge if you tangle up your feet and tumble off it. Once around this it's a pretty straight forward scramble up some cracks, dodging some downed trees and around some dead ones that are still standing, to the base of the main rocks that make up the various summits. A sort of spire was on our right (the far southern edge of The Castle) with the main rock and true summit on our left.

Scramble up between the summit and the spire.

There's a large crack leading up to the "spire" that's a pretty decent scramble. As I was debating it, Kellan was just going for it. I'd been trying to teach him the critical mountaineering principle about getting back down (especially since we had no rope), but he shimmied right up it, much to my horror. Of course I had to follow, and going up I knew descending would be sketchy. It's a nice flake, but it's also a death drop, exposed and some real reaches to get up. Once at the the top, I had butterflies in my stomach the whole time thinking about getting down and wishing I had brought my rope. We looked up at the top of the spire, but there was no way we were doing that without gear. The view from here was awesome. Coming down was as sketchy as I predicted, but we made it. Kellan scraped up his legs a bit as he straddled the flake coming down and I helped him on the stretchier spots.

From here, we followed the crack up and to the right to the spire.

Spire exposure. A bit of a drop.

Now we looked up to the left, seeing if we could find a less scary way to get to the summit. There's a couple good sized cracks, with relatively minor exposure and we hiked up them without difficulty. From there we traversed a little slab to another outcrop. This put us about 10-12' above where we were on the spire. We looked around and saw a way to maybe get a little higher, but we figured it wasn't worth it. We didn't think we could get to the summit that way and felt like we were already pressing our luck with our descent.

The summit, as seen from the spire.

The spire, as seen from as high as we got on the summit side.
We were right where the 2 flat rocks on the bottom
left of the frame are, in our spire summit bid

On the scramble back down, we had a little trouble following our ascent line, but picked it out after a few minutes. Had a bit of a stretch to reach the base, but no major issues. Following the trail down was pretty straight forward, but there is one part where a water runoff meets the trail and follows it for a bit. The trail turns and if you're not paying attention it's easy to keep following the runoff path down. We missed it and had to back track a bit. We put up a cairn that will hopefully help others avoid our mistake, but who knows if it will last the crazy weather we've had since.

Large piece of quartz on the trail.

There and back was just about 3.5 miles and took us about 4 hours, with stops and wanderings here and there. Being after Labor Day, we didn't see anyone else on the trail the whole day. We were back in plenty of time to go for a swim in the lake and do a little bouldering around the camp. You could easily head up on a Saturday morning, knock out this trip and be back in town before dark if you wanted to. My only regret is that I didn't bring a rope. With just a 20-30 meter rope and some basic gear, we could've pushed for the true summit and not had to worry so much about getting down safely.

Future project.

Race Review - Warrior Dash

The Warrior Dash prides itself on many things. Beer and beards, not least of all. They also tout themselves as "The world's largest obstacle race series", and from what I saw, that seems to be the case.  They typically have races in multiple locations every weekend all around the world, and this event was packed with people. We began our Warrior journey early on Saturday morning with an hour and a half long trek to the Copper Mountain ski resort, where the event was being held.

The $10 parking went smoothly, and they had just the right amount of people directing traffic. All too often I see too few (sometimes none) or too many people making event parking a real drag. From the lot it was about a quarter mile walk up to the start area, so no buses or shuttles to wait around for. Here there was a little bit of a choke point as you had to squeeze past the mob getting ready to run, so you could get to the festival area and registration building beyond.

Registration was well organized and went smoothly. At this point, looking at box upon box of racer's packets, is when I realized how large of an event this would be. We hiked back to the truck just in time to see a heat go off, and got bibbed up for our run.

Goofy headgear: Mandatory.

We filed in for our 0900 heat and made our way towards an empty spot near the front. The organizers announced that they would be splitting our heat and holding about half the people back for a 0930 start time to alleviate some pile ups. This is always a good idea, in my humble opinion, and newer race organizers could learn a lot from the "been there, done that" wisdom of the more established races. Two of us made the 0900 cut and our pals behind us said it looked like they just let as many people as could get through in the first 15 minutes, or so, then cut it off and let the rest go at 0930.

Wise to break up a heat this large.

Giant booming fireballs signaled our start and we began running downhill right away. Then we rounded a hairpin turn and started back up the same hill. This all worked out well to thin out the pack and soon we were off the road, through some brush, and onto the dirt trails would make up the majority of the race course.

Go time!

Now the important stuff: The obstacles. Warrior Dash had some really creative balance obstacles, a lot of walls and ropes, a cool cargo net traverse and the obligatory mud pit crawl. They also made good use of the hilly terrain. My partner, who had run at the same venue a few years prior, said this year's course wasn't nearly as steep, and made use of a wider path. This was all very good, as there were really no backed up sections where I couldn't get past slower people. Speaking of slower people, not a lot of walkers at Warrior Dash compared to some other races I've run. Most people seemed to "Warrior up" and push pretty hard.

Also of note, is Warrior Dash's superb timing system. They not only have the start and finish mats, but checkpoint maps scattered throughout the course to catch any cheaters along the way. An important consideration, especially for a race that gives out awards and free entries to top finishers. This system is not foolproof, however, as I will explain in a moment.

Cool balance obstacle.

The last mile of the course began to head back downhill and eventually wound back onto pavement and concrete through some of the resort's lodging, where people on the balconies were cheering us on. Coming around a sweeping corner, the fire jump came into view. I figured I was near the end, so I kicked it up a notch and went into my "finish strong" sprint. In a clear case of cunning, viking trickery, the final push began to seem rather long, and after a sharp turn I could see the end... at the top of a (relatively) steep hill. It took every once of willpower I had left to run up that hill to the finish line. I really wanted to slow to a walk. Well played, Warrior Dash, well played indeed.

This hill was a killer.

I had resolved to run the whole thing and my goal was to finish under 30 minutes. But, alas, there was one really steep hill (see above) that forced me into a walk and I came in at 32:25. Dave was just a few minutes behind me and we grabbed our free beer while we waited for the other half of our party to finish. They came across the line together, about a half hour later, suspiciously clean.

90 out of 7500. Not too shabby for an old dude.

Now the Warrior Dash isn't a particularly muddy race, but there is mud. And it's in a rather long and large pit you need to crawl through. Come to find out these acquaintances of ours (I cannot call such people friends at this point) made an "executive decision" to skip the mud pit. The lamest, lameness, since lame came to Lametown. Since there's no timing pad at the mud pit, so there was no penalty against their times. Now, they weren't in any danger of winning this event, but still: totally lame. Did I mention how lame this is? So Warrior Dash organizers, if you're reading this, take note!

You're not coming away from this clean.

This was the only obstacle that got a little backed up.

Anyway, off to the really important stuff: The festival grounds. Now Warrior Dash is certainly an above average race. Their festival area is top of the line. Multiple beer stands, food vendors everywhere (turkey legs FTW), some beer, games, beer, sponsor tents, more beer and I even spied a wet bar. All nestled in the beautiful clean air and views of the Rocky Mountains. This event pulled in over 7,500 people and we quickly became saddened that we had to leave early due to prior commitments. We immediately vowed to return next year and stay at a lodge to fully absorb the awesome after party.

Party time, fo sho.

The people we talked to throughout the day were almost all repeat racers and I can see why. Warrior Dash is a must do race, in my book, with fantastic organization, a well thought out course and a ripping festival area. We've already signed up for next year's race and we will make a full weekend out of it. Warrior Dash is quickly becoming my favorite race and I foresee many happy returns.

Success!

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Race Review - Neon Splash Dash

You may have heard of the Neon Splash Dash, as it's an extremely popular race. "The Most Magical 5k on Earth" as they like to call it, is a pretty straightforward 3.1 mile run with a glow-in-the-dark twist.

We arrived at the venue just as a thunderstorm was breaking, forcing them to shut down registration and herd us all into the stadium while the storm passed. Which was unfortunate, because there was a ton of people, including ourselves, checking in. In fact, probably the longest check in line I've ever seen and it became clear why they implored people to do early packet pick-up and why they had the early pick-up on 2 consecutive days.

The storm went away in about 20 minutes or so and when they reopened registration, it dawned on me how big this event was as the crowd poured over the hill. We had anticipated the mad rush and had wandered back over towards the registration tent when the storm lightened up, so we missed the long line and had time to head back to the car before the 8:00pm start time.

People piling out of the stadium after the storm.

This event is more of a fun run type thing, rather than a race, so there were no timing chips or the like in the participant bag. Amongst the swag was a blow up, lighted bam-bam, a sort of inflatable billy club with a blinking light inside that you were encouraged to carry. But we opted to wear a little colored blinking light, that we just happened to get at the Holy COW Trail Stampede earlier that day, instead.

Bibbed and lit up, we started back to the festival area and the starting gate. The festival area had a band playing, with some dancers getting down on a raised stage. Also, a very popular booth full of shirtless, super buff, firefighters were there, taking pictures with people and they were all smiles. We slipped in about 15 yards from the start gate a little before 8:00pm. A couple things I noticed right off the bat: There was a sea of people behind us. There was a lady with a baby stroller just to our right... with a sea of people behind her. Seriously lady, WTF?

About 20 minutes before the start. 

The race started about a half hour late, but we figured that was either due to the rain delay, or they were just waiting for dusk. We got through the gate right at sunset and very quickly had to push and dodge our way through the crowd to try and break out.  There were already people walking in the first 100 yards as we entered a choke point going into the stadium. As we rounded the upper deck of the field, it began to thin out and the narrow exit from the stadium was no problem. When we passed back by the start line, about a quarter mile or so in, people were still piling through the starting gates with no end in sight.

Go time.

The course was flat, fast and well marked. The thing that makes the Neon Splash Dash neon and splashy is their signature "glow zones", 4 of them scattered at regular intervals throughout the run. These zones consist of walled, wooden platforms with barrels on the side, and people who use, what looks like, giant syringes to hose you down with ultraviolet glow goop. Now I'm not sure what this "Super Intense UV Glow Water", as they call it, is made of, but it's thick, sticky, salty and they assure me it's non-toxic. If you're unfortunate enough to go through with just your friend, or by yourself, you will get a face full of it. Insert your own joke here.

At the finish, there are some sections set up with a bunch of black lights so you can revel in your glowtastic spatter. The glow water comes in a variety of colors and the red/pink is a real clothing stainer, so be sure to wear something you don't care about, or wear the provided event shirt. We were super tired afterwards, with this being our fourth race of the day, so unfortunately we didn't stick around for the after party, which looked to be hopping. In fact, when we were walking back to the parking lot, after snapping a few pictures, we crossed the course at about the halfway point and there were still a ton of people out there running.

Glowiest glowers that ever went to Glowtown.

The folks running the Neon Splash Dash were super generous, friendly and helpful. The event was well organized and attracted a huge crowd. I would like to try it again, when I'm fresh, as the cool night August air made for great running weather, and also when I can spend a little time afterward to party down. This is a great event for any level of competitor, whether you want to clock fast times, or stroll your way through a nice night jaunt, you'll find plenty of peers at the Neon Splash Dash.

Race Review - CitySolve Urban Race

The CitySolve is not normally the type of race I would do. It's more of a scavenger hunt, with clue solving and some simple challenges thrown in. For us, it filled a niche in our 4 races in one day attempt, so this review needs to be taken in that context. For if we had set out to kill just this race, the outcome would have likely been different.

CitySolve Denver started late in the day at 11:30am. This was also August 10th, which meant we would be running around the arguably hottest (Downtown Denver) part of Colorado during the hottest time of day in the hottest month of summer. Not that I noticed, or anything.

We arrived a few minutes late, catching traffic coming down from Boulder. I picked up the race packets the day before, knowing we might be cutting it close. Annoyingly, even though we had 4 people on our team, we only got 2 race bibs. The race began at a Stoney's Bar and Grill in Capitol Hill with a clue on a big sheet of paper they presumably held up for everyone. Being late, most people were already out and about while I snapped a picture of the first clue. The multiple choice answers each had a corresponding intersection in the immediate area.

4 Colorado natives, none of us had a clue.

The question involved local spectator sports, which none of us follow, so we wasted time trying to call in help and finally just began heading off towards 2 of the intersections that were relatively close to each other. We didn't get far when a guy on a bike road up with a brown paper bag and handed us our clue packet. He said "You guys must of picked the wrong location.", indicating that he had been waiting at a corner up the street for people and now apparently rounding up the stragglers, like ourselves, to get us on the right path.

With the packet in hand, we solved the first clue and headed to the location after Googling the address on our smartphones. Which leads me to the rules of this game. You can use phones, computers, people on the street, whatever to solve the clues. You can use public transportation, like the bus, but you cannot use bikes, cars, cabs, roller-skates, etc. Being runners, we of course, chose to run everywhere (just about).


At the first checkpoint, there was an M&M straw pass game, that Dave and Billy handled quickly. We then decided that solving one clue at a time was a bad idea, as we had no idea the area this chase would cover. So, we sat in the shade for about a half hour or so, figured out the clues to get all the checkpoints and mapped our route. It became clear, at this point, that we would be covering some serious ground. Our path would take us from Capitol Hill, Uptown and then all the way to LoDo and back again.

Checkpoints varied from getting a group picture outside of a landmark, to going inside of certain establishments (bars mostly) and playing and doing a quick challenge. You have to have all your checkpoints verified at the end, so a camera is mandatory. The winners receive $300, 2nd place $100 and I think 3rd gets a $50 gift card or something like that.

Apparently this guy won The Great American Race, or something like that.

While we were running around we bumped into several other teams. A couple were running, but most were walking and more than a few were sitting down to eat at the various checkpoints and/or having a beer. It seemed for most people that this was more of a good excuse to hang out around town, maybe discover a few new spots and make some friends. But some people were out for the prize money and were wasting no time.

We were moving along pretty well and on schedule to complete our journey within about 3 hours, we figured. That's when things fell apart. We were heading back to hit the last couple photo checkpoints near our finish line, when Dave said "Hey, what about the nose?" The Nose. I hate The Nose. The Nose is a goofy 3 diminutional billboard sign, whose location was unknown to us. A web search gave us some cross streets, not far from another checkpoint, but in our haste to get to the finish, we had accidentally skipped it and it was over a mile in the opposite direction.

We were happy, early in the race.

We had some serious soul searching at this point. We were close to the end, but hadn't completed all the checkpoints. He had already run 2 races that day and we were 6 miles into this one. We had no water with us and hadn't eaten for hours. We wanted to give up. In fact, had all but agreed to throw in the towel, but our youngest member, my son Kellan, wouldn't let us. Even though at this point he was barefoot because his shoes were too tight. So we pushed on.

We hit the nearby checkpoints and stopped by the truck to hydrate and get Kellan's shoes changed to his trail runners, which were still wet from the Muddy Buddy, but fit better. We headed back downtown to find the nose. We figured we'd hop on the free mall shuttle, scoot down the 16th Street Mall, run over a couple blocks to The Nose, run back and ride the shuttle back to Capitol Hill. Still unsure of The Nose's location, we showed a picture of it to a guy on the shuttle who immediately said, "Oh yeah, I know that, it's right by the art museum." Dumbfounded, as this was not the way were heading we hopped off the bus and headed to the museum. The Nose was not there.

The Nose is way back there somewhere. We couldn't bear to get closer.

Again, defeated we checked and asked around, but no one knew The Nose. After regrouping, we double checked the web search and confirmed our original destination to be correct (it's surprisingly difficult to get a solid hit on The Nose online). We ambled back towards downtown, again, severely tired and now wondering if we'd even make the event cutoff time. Kellan, once again, nudged us forward and we finally came across The Nose and headed back to Stoney's for the finish.

Our completely ridiculous route.

Dejected, dehydrated, but not defeated, we got our photos checked, signed the book and sat down to eat. We came in a miserable 53rd place, just 5 spots above the NPCs (no picture check) and the DNFs. The ordeal took over 4 hours and we covered over 9 miles in our backtracking, wild goose chase of a race. The winners clocked in just over 1 hour and 5 minutes, which boggles my mind. Because, even if you figured out all the clues, in say, 15 minutes, you'd still would have to cover about 5 miles (with a near perfect route), snapping pictures and playing games along the way, in about 45 minutes. Craziness.

Worst. Results. Ever.

Anyways, aside from the horrendous time we had during this race, I'd imagine most people would enjoy it. Especially those who just sort of tooled around and drank lots of beer. As for me, I don't think I'll be doing any more scavenger hunts anytime soon.

Race Review - REI Muddy Buddy

On Saturday, August 10th, 2013 I attended my 2nd Muddy Buddy run, this time with a new partner, my 13 year old son and our 4inOne team buddies, Billy and Dave, as well.

Team 4inOne before the race.

The event was at the Boulder Reservoir, in Boulder, CO, the same location as last year. Ample people were helping with the free (awesome) parking. We showed up just about 30 minutes before our start time, as we had picked up our race packets the day before. The atmosphere was relaxed and the facilities more than adequate.

When we lined up to start, we were informed that they would be staggering the heats slightly, by 45 seconds per about 60 people or so, to alleviate some pile ups they had with the first heats. We were the 2nd group in the 9:30 heat and no trouble with back ups at any obstacles, save for one girl who was real nervous getting over the top of a cargo net climb that slowed us up a bit.

The course layout was nearly identical to last year, with only a slight variation of the route towards the very end. Muddy Buddy is heavy on running (4.65 miles) and light on the obstacles. The longest stretches of running are along the bottom of the dam and then back along the top during the 2nd half. The bottom is a dirt access road with some ankle twisting grapefruit sized rocks and a few couple short, steep hills to negotiate. The return on the top is long and flat. It's about a 1.5 mile stretch with an obstacle to break it up about midway through.

4inOne at the first major obstacle.

For the obstacles, there are a couple cargo climbs and slides, some ropes, a couple signature buddy obstacles and the obligatory mud pit crawl at the end. They do make use of the reservoir and you will spend some time slogging through the water, which isn't too cold in August, fortunately. The buddy obstacles consist of some balance beams and a traverse wall where you brace and balance with the help of your partner. For Muddy Buddy, you must run with a buddy, you share a bib number and timing chip and are required to finish together.

Buddy obstacle.

The fairground is decent sized and the beer garden is very nice with offerings from O'dells. The Muddy Buddy also has some great sponsors, including our own sponsor, GoalZero and probably the best swag bag I've seen. This year they bumped up their shirts to tech tees and the medals included the year of the event which is always nice. They also give out a lot of trophies, honoring 1st-3rd for not only every class, but for each heat as well.

Team Lean and Mean at the finish.

We ran well, even though I was slowing my buddy down when I got a stitch in my side on the back half. We managed to pull off a 3rd place finish, same as last year, with a total time of 55:08 in the male open class, which was a few minutes slower than the previous year.

Lean and Mean and Team Live Badass standings.

Overall, Muddy Buddy is a fantastic event with top notch staff, great organization and a nice course layout. It's very family friendly, with a minimum age of just 12 and a Mini-Buddy race for kids down to 4 years of age. Muddy Buddy offers a run only, bike and run, and a partnership with Rock and Roll Marathon, giving you the opportunity to get a 3rd medal for completing both events in what they call the Rock and Mud Challenge. It is a tad on the expensive side, but you definitely get what you pay for with this event. We will be back.

Team 4inOne post race.

Race Review - Holy COW Trail Stampede

It may come as a surprise to some, but this was actually my first straight up foot race. Every other race I've done has had some sort of element thrown in. Vampires chasing me, mud, pumpkins and various other obstacles. This was also the first time I've been passed in a race by a guy pushing a baby stroller.

It's apparent that COW (which stands for City Of Westminster) has been doing this awhile now. The Holy COW Trail Stampede race is a small (just under 300 racers) event. One guy we talked with before the race was surprised 4 non-locals had even discovered it. But this race is well organized. Registration was painless and start start times were right on the nose.

The Holy COW has two options, 5k and 10k, with the 10k heat leaving five minutes before the 5k. It's a pretty simple course consisting of a down and back style run, where you turn around at the halfway point and run back to the start/finish. The trail is a concrete path that winds through the city park, over and under a couple bridges with very little elevation change.

Passing by Dave after the turn around.

I ran the 5k and made it down in back in 26:40 which earned me 2nd in my group (M 30-39) and 38th out of 194 overall. Not spectacular, by any means, but better than I expected. The timing was spot on as well, with the race clock matching my buddy's stopwatch down to the second. The quickest time posted for the 5k was 17:13 and 35:33 for the 10k, proving that there are some serious runners in Westminster.

This race is also very inexpensive, with entries being only $25 and that includes a shirt. Or you can pass on the shirt and register for a measly $20. This event also kicks of the start of the Westminster City Faire and is a family friendly event with no age limits. All in all a great experience and fantastic organization.