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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| So tired. |
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