Race Report: Dragon OCR and Tougher Mudder Carolinas

I've done 2 obstacle races this fall, in addition to Tougher Mudder Virginia that I did back in June.  These were my first obstacle races after having to postpone 2 Tough Mudders that I had signed up for over the summer.  With my sciatica issues now under control, I finally felt good enough to at least attempt the courses.

Dragon OCR is a local event here in Raleigh.  The race director is pretty new to the game, but has a decent event.  He's still building out his portfolio of obstacles to include in the race.  This particular event was Halloween themed, so a lot of people were running in costume.  It also was not timed, although the next occurrence will be timed, according to the RD.  The venue where the event is held does not allow for mud/water obstacles, so the next occurrence may move to a different location.

The event went pretty well.  Most of the obstacles were pretty easy.  There were two obstacles, though, that were very challenging.  The first was a horizontal "salmon ladder" that was much harder than I thought it would be.  The second was similar to American Ninja Warrior's "Rolling Thunder" obstacle, but much shorter and easier.  "Easier" being a relative term because it was quite challenging to get through.

The course could have been marked better, so hopefully the RD fixes that for next time.  It was only billed as a 5k, and my gps watch logged about 2 miles.  So either I took an accidental shortcut, or he overestimated the distance.  Either way, it was over pretty quickly.  (As contrasted with Tough Mudder, that has a 10+ mile course.)

Tougher Mudder Carolinas was just a week ago.  Late fall in NC is hit-or-miss on the weather.  On that day, it was sunny but quite chilly.  (~48 degrees at the start).  And you're pretty much guaranteed to get wet on the course.  Like many TMs that I've done, it started out with about a mile of running - which is good to spread everyone out before you hit any obstacles.  I may be running a little slower now than I was earlier in the year, but I think there were also faster people here.  TM started giving out prize money for the first wave (that I was running) and the fastest guy (and gal) would take home $2500 each.

So I was getting passed A LOT in that first mile.  But I was there to run my own race.  I settled into a rhythm and eventually got to the first obstacle - Kiss of Mud, where you crawl under barbwire through mud.  In this case, it was also about 1-foot-deep water.  So now we're all soaked head-to-toe.

In Virginia, the "tougher" wave had to to Kiss of Mud twice, and Mud Mile twice.  Not so in NC.  Other obstacles (Everest, Pyramid Scheme) were modified for the "tougher" wave and were similar to what they were in Virginia.

I made my way through the course without too much trouble.  Arctic Enema was *super cold*.  I mean, ridiculously cold.  Everest was more difficult than it was in Virginia.  For the tougher wave, there is a rope to help to climb up.  But it must have been positioned differently in NC.  In Virginia, it was super easy.  In NC, it was hard enough that I had to get help from someone at the top.

Going in to the last couple miles, I was trying to maintain my placement within the runners around me.  Still, I'd get passed every now and then.  But I was able to pass a few people at Funky Monkey.  

All of the obstacles in the "tougher" wave must be completed or else you get a DNF.  Two obstacles, though, Funky Monkey and Kong can be skipped if you fail to complete them.  But, you have to run a "penalty loop" if you can't complete the obstacle.

So I was able to complete Funky Monkey without much trouble.  Several people fell while I was on it, and I imagine there were other people that I didn't see running their penalty laps while I was on the obstacle as well.  I was able to complete Kong (the final obstacle) without incident as well - but they apparently weren't enforcing the penalty laps by then anyway.

I finished with a time of 2:25:24 - much slower than my Virginia time of 2:01:42.  Now, every course is different so it's hard to make direct comparisons.  My placement in Virginia was 42nd overall, and 5th in my division (Men 45-49).  Now in NC I was 75th overall, and 8th in my division.  So not bad, but definitely not as good of a performance as I had back in June.

I'm already signed up for Toughest Mudder Midwest for 2018.  I'll probably run Tougher Mudder Carolinas again next year too.  But most of my focus will be on trail running over obstacle racing.  I do have one more obstacle race this year - the Green Beret Challenge.  That's two weeks away, and looks a little different than the Tough Mudder races I've been doing.

After that, it's all trail running events on the calendar to start getting ready for.  So time to start ramping up the distance on the trail!

Race Report: Athens to Atlanta 2017

I've skated Athens to Atlanta every year since 2001, except for the one year that I broke my shoulder 2 weeks before the race.  That includes the "outlaw" year when the event was officially canceled, but many people showed up over the course of a few weekends to skate the route unsupported.

Anyway, in all the years I've done the event, this was the worst weather by far.  With the remnants of Tropical Storm Nate rolling through the state, many people either changed their registration from the full distance to the half distance - or just opted not to skate at all.   

It would take more than a little (actually a lot) of rain to stop me, though.  So Sunday morning I lined up at the start line with everyone else ready to brave the storm.

As luck would have it, the start was actually dry.  Or, rather, it wasn't raining.  The street was a little wet from overnight rain, so we would have to be careful from the beginning.  The race started and I kept up with the leaders for a much shorter time than in recent years.  I backed off almost immediately and watched the speedy guys drift away.  But before too long, someone caught me from behind - Jack from Canada.  So Jack and I skated together for a while.  He was skating pretty strong - maybe too strong.  It turns out this was his first time attempting A2A, so I gave him some advice about the course - the most important being not to push the pace too hard, since there was a lot of road to cover.

Maybe 20 minutes later, a group of 3 skaters caught us.  I immediately recognized Luke, who I've skated with in the past.  It turns out they were all skating the half distance (Luke switched the day before based on the weather forecast.)  But we would make good time with 5 skaters in the pack.  After another hour or so, we caught Sam - who was also skating a shorter distance than usual.  "Only" the full distance.  In recent years, Sam had skated from Atlanta to Athens overnight, rested maybe an hour, then turned around and skated from Athens to Atlanta with everyone else.  A2A2A...  The rain started maybe an hour into the race and wasn't too bad.  But it did reduce our grip on the road, so we had to be careful.  It also took more effort to climb the hills.

As we started the climb into Dacula (the half/38-mile finish), Jack started to struggle on the hills and eventually dropped.  So, when we finally reached Dacula, we bid farewell to 3 of our group and it was just Sam & I skating.  There were times the rain was practically horizontal, the wind was so bad.  It would sting my eyes, and felt like hail/sleet.  It was pretty miserable.  The temperature wasn't too bad, at least - so no worries about hypothermia or anything like that.

Around mile 50, I could definitely tell my legs were not going to be able to sustain the pace for the remainder of the race.  But it's definitely more efficient (and safer) to skate with another person, so I pushed myself a little harder than I probably should have.  Another 10 miles and we catch up to Herb (another Canuck) who had been skating by himself for hours.  About mile 65 is when we start getting into some more serious climbing again, and Herb and I are both struggling.  I tell Sam to just go on without me, since I plan to sit down at the next aid station anyway.

At this point, Herb and I were within sight of each other, but not skating together.  With the way were struggling, it wouldn't have made much distance.  I got to Silver Hill (~ 70 miles) and I notice by left skate is pronating to an extreme I've never seen before.  I thought maybe my frame had shifted, but I could still keep my wheels vertical with a lot of effort and concentration.  Still, I didn't feel very stable, so I ended up using my brake almost the whole way down Silver Hill.  I'm surprised I didn't burn through my whole brake pad.  After the long downhill, there is a long climb up to the aid station.  Once I got there, I did sit down as I planned on.

I checked my frame and it seemed to be in the right spot.  So that was good, but also meant that my ankle and the stabilizing muscles around it were completely fatigued.  I ate a PB&J and bag of chips.  I also drank half a beer while sitting down.  I poured the other half into one of my (empty) water bottles, and got back on the road.  I only sat down for maybe 5 minutes.  While I was sitting, Herb made a quick stop and got back on the road, encouraging me to catch him.

So, I set off the catch up with Herb, which probably took a good 30 minutes or more.  From there, we skated the rest of the way together, and scored it a tie as we crossed the finish line.

Herb and I finished in 7:11:17 - almost an hour slower than my time from last year.  I definitely did not think that the wet roads would impact my time that much, but it really does take a lot more energy to climb the hills.  I had special "rain wheels" on (MPC Storm Surge) but I honestly don't think they made any difference.

I placed 16th overall (tied with Herb) out of 26 finishers.  7 people DNF'd (including Jack) and another 7 people opted not to start at all.  In my division (Men 40-49), I finished 4th out of only 5 people.

Looking at the historical results, you have to go all the way back to 1990 to find a year with fewer people registered and fewer people that finished the 87 mile course.

I have already signed up for A2A 2018 - so I'll be back again next year, hopefully with a sub-6hr finishing time.  :-)