Mudcraft 2016 Recap

After last years OCR focus, Mudcraft is the only obstacle run I planned on doing this year.  This race is home grown, about 45 minutes from my home town.  It's run on a family farm and all the obstacles are home built...nice and sturdy. The race is known for this beast of a finish!

15ft for the first jump, and 26ft from the top

The question on my mind the whole time is, would I jump?  I have a H-U-G-E fear of heights!!

Yesterday I realized I didn't have an extra pair of contacts...eeek...stupid me.  I tried going to Walmart and buying some...but they wouldn't sell me any unless I had an appt at the store and a fitting, etc.  I was like "I just ordered the same ones online and needed none of that."  Grrrrrr.  Oh well...guess I was going without my glasses.

I picked Tracey up nice and early and we made our way to Gore.  It was a beautiful day...really couldn't have asked for a better day .  Our heat was to start at 11am. 

This was the first obstacle.  Those logs started
to bounce once more people started walking.

At the last minute, Tracey and I switched with a friend and chose to do the Gladiator run (10km). With my 1/2 marathon and mini-triathlon next weekend, I wasn't sure how the 10km would go.  Once we got past the first couple obstacles....


Obstacle #2 - those ponds all had frogs in them...yup
bull frogs!!  The water was deep enough to swim it.

As we climbed out of the water after this obstacle, we were off and running.  From here, the 6km went to the right, and we went to the left.  Over rocks, through the woods, running on logging roads for about 4km.  The first 2 obstacles that we hit were a bunch of tires for us to jump over, and a water hole that was covered by chicken wire.  This was a little claustrophobic as the chicken wire was pretty close to the wire and we actually had to go under the water to get through the final two sections.    The darn horse flies followed us everywhere.  The next obstacle that we encountered was a HUGE waterslide.  The picture below does not do it justice.  There was about a 10-15ft drop which helped you pick up speed to the bottom.  The slide was designed to stop you before you made it to the pond....thank god!


You jumped in the water...which was deep and swam to the other side.
 

Next up were the rings.  There were 3 options at this obstacle...you could walk across a log, take the rings, or the triangles/knots.  I chose the middle option and swang across the rings.  I felt like a monkey as I went from one ring to the other, not falling into the water below. After this, a little jog away came the following:

• monkey bars - once again - I tried the higher bars and made it across...my grip strength is getting better.
• A scale wall with a fireman pole to get down

• a smaller waterslide which was fun
• tightrope walk - this one was fun...I actually kind of bounced across

• hay bale leaps

And this leads us to the Sumo jump!  Tracey and I climbed that thing like champs and looked over the edge.  That was the wrong thing to do...I froze.  I couldn't...and then I got inside my head.  My fear of heights took over BIG TIME!  Tracey tried to go once and backed off...she wasn't sure she could go either.  Another group of my friends climbed up behind us...and they bravely jumped.  That's all Tracey needed...she went.  Me?  Nope.  I sat on the edge....for a LONG time!  I mean long enough that the volunteers were like "Okay...you need to leave now"

There I sat!

My friends cheered me on from the ground and all I could do was shake my head.  After about 30 minutes...I did the walk of shame and climbed back down.  Tears in my eyes, feeling defeated, I walked over to Tracey and some other friends and said "I don't want to talk about it".  I took my medal but would not let them place it over my head...I felt like I hadn't earned it.  I really wish they had the tarzan rope this year that they had last year...at least I would have felt like I had finished.  There was a gal there before we got there, and she was still on the platform as we were leaving...I still wonder if she jumped.

I know that fear is all mental...all mental....but even as I write this my heart is beating faster just thinking of sitting on that ledge!  My mom said it was better to have fear than to have none and injure myself somehow.  Maybe....but why couldn't I overcome this today?  I look at my wins....I did the slide, the monkey bars, and rings with success....I'll take that!  I'll take the other memories and laughs that I had with my friends out there on the course...and next year I'll go back and try again!!!

In terms of the race itself...the scenery was awesome....and it was well spread out on the family farm.  Parking was super close to the event itself, there were firefighters there to hose you off, pizza, beer, etc!  Unfortunately the organizer had a really hard time getting volunteers this year so he didn't have people in all the places he wanted.  I'm hoping that some pictures come out of it...lord knows I'll be in lots if any were taken of that sumo jump....just sitting there!  I also really loved that the directors dog could be seen at many of the obstacles running around making sure everyone was okay!  This was the last year for UOA...but the organizer says he'll do something next year...bigger and better I'm sure!!!