Good, Clean, Fun: Pick Two
Jun. 4th, 2011 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyspriteI think I have had the most fun today that I have had since I was small enough to actually play in a playground. Today ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
umbran and I participated in the Boston Ruckus, along with jducoeur, hungrytiger, mindways, and two random women that we met up with along the course. And it was pretty much as awesome, icky, and fun as I had figured it would be.
I'll admit that I had some heebie-jeebies leading up to the event itself - it's a nearly-4-mile obstacle course that includes everything from mud pits to monkey bars, and while I'm in decent shape, I know that I'm no super-athlete. I also hate competitive sports; between that and the thought of spectators watching me as I flop and fail my way through physical challenges, it felt a little bit like the worst parts of high school gym class coming back to haunt me.
On the other hand.... it's a nearly 4 mile obstacle course. With monkey bars, and balance logs, and climbing nets, and clambering and dangling and crawling and goodness only knows what else (they don't disclose all of the obstacles before the race). So ultimately enthusiasm won out over trepidation, and by the time we got to the event site and I got my oversized tag pinned to my undersized torso, I was quite literally dancing with anticipation. (Seriously. They had an awesome DJ.)
The only real downside of the event was the obstacle-to-course ratio - I had been hoping for a series of fun, adventurous obstacles separated by short walks/runs, and in fact it turned out to be a series of extended footraces interrupted by occasional obstacles. Apparently the race itself is the main draw for a large percentage of the participants, and we were fairly frequently passed by streams of people running at top speed as we sauntered blithely along, enjoying the pretty grass and trees and wondering when we'd get to something exciting.
On the other hand, when we got to the exciting bits, they were pretty darn cool, if exceedingly messy. Mud pits seemed to be the theme for the day. I did my best to avoid getting filthy at first, including lettingumbran carry me on his shoulders over the first mud slog (a 6-8 foot wide, 1-2 foot deep pit that was followed immediately by a ten-foot dirt hill that I scrambled up with no problem), but ultimately I had to surrender to the schlurping, gloppy, ickiness when we hit the aptly-named Bog Zone. The first obstacle there involved belly-crawling through a series of interrupted tunnels - interrupted, in fact, by approximately six-foot-wide, thigh-deep (on me, at least) mud pits. With no room to get out, stand up, or prepare to hop over said pits. I was lucky that I was at least flexible and small enough to contort around and enter the pits feet-first; some of the bigger or more speed-oriented racers just wound up flopping in headfirst.
On the other hand, once I surrendered completely to sodden pants and squelchy socks, the course became a lot more entertaining. I made it through all of the obstacles, though admittedly I had some help on a few - while I am strong, I can't clamber over an 8-foot wall without a boost. Luckily, I had teammates that could double as terrain; my only regret is that there really was no way that I could help them - while there were places that being petite helped me, I can't exactly lend that around.
I think the climbing nets were my favorite challenges, mostly because I am a small monkey-woman and therefore able to scramble up rope nets easily, contort around at the top without trouble, and dangle blithely at improbable angles without fear on the way down. On the other hand, the balance logs (walking on a muddy log stretched about 4 feet above (you guessed it) another mud pit were a lot harder than I had anticipated. I've done a lot of balance work, but I'm used to doing it in bare feet, with some ability to sense and grip with my toes. I made it, but a lot more slowly and worriedly than I would have liked.
My greatest personal triumph, though, I think was the monkey bars. While I was short enough to need a boost to get to the bars, and lacked the upper body strength to go across hand-over-hand,mindways suggested just getting my feet over the bars and using all four limbs - once I managed that, scrambling across was deucedly easy, and the look on the photographer/safety guard's face as I dismounted by letting go with my hands, dangling from my knees, and dropping into umbran's arms was priceless.
And there were nets to crawl under, and ranger bars that involved dangling by your hands and knees way above the ground, and tire scrambles, and disgusting splashy pits of waist-deep mud (though ultimately, once you're utterly soaked and muddy they become a *little* less objectionable), and dirt barriers to climb and clamber back down, and generally a whole heaping lot of fun. Physically, it wasn't a crazy challenge; while it's lengthwise further than I could run (I'm a walker, not a runner), the obstacles themselves were more on the 'entertaining' end of the spectrum than the 'oh my god, I'm doomed' end - there was nothing that I couldn't get through easily with just a little help, and most of them were simple enough to do on my own. That said, I'm entirely cool with that. I know that there are much more challenging obstacle runs out there, and I'm happy sitting down here at the kiddie table while the crazy ninja superstars simultaneously set themselves on fire and get hypothermia at the Tough Mudder.
Ultimately, I have dirt under my fingernails, a pair of sneakers that I'm likely to just declare casualties of the event, and a serious plan to do this again next year - hopefully at less of a saunter and more of a hustle, if only because that will increase the subjective obstacle-to-course ratio. And because, hey, it'll be yet another challenge.....
umbran and I participated in the Boston Ruckus, along with jducoeur, hungrytiger, mindways, and two random women that we met up with along the course. And it was pretty much as awesome, icky, and fun as I had figured it would be.I'll admit that I had some heebie-jeebies leading up to the event itself - it's a nearly-4-mile obstacle course that includes everything from mud pits to monkey bars, and while I'm in decent shape, I know that I'm no super-athlete. I also hate competitive sports; between that and the thought of spectators watching me as I flop and fail my way through physical challenges, it felt a little bit like the worst parts of high school gym class coming back to haunt me.
On the other hand.... it's a nearly 4 mile obstacle course. With monkey bars, and balance logs, and climbing nets, and clambering and dangling and crawling and goodness only knows what else (they don't disclose all of the obstacles before the race). So ultimately enthusiasm won out over trepidation, and by the time we got to the event site and I got my oversized tag pinned to my undersized torso, I was quite literally dancing with anticipation. (Seriously. They had an awesome DJ.)
The only real downside of the event was the obstacle-to-course ratio - I had been hoping for a series of fun, adventurous obstacles separated by short walks/runs, and in fact it turned out to be a series of extended footraces interrupted by occasional obstacles. Apparently the race itself is the main draw for a large percentage of the participants, and we were fairly frequently passed by streams of people running at top speed as we sauntered blithely along, enjoying the pretty grass and trees and wondering when we'd get to something exciting.
On the other hand, when we got to the exciting bits, they were pretty darn cool, if exceedingly messy. Mud pits seemed to be the theme for the day. I did my best to avoid getting filthy at first, including letting
umbran carry me on his shoulders over the first mud slog (a 6-8 foot wide, 1-2 foot deep pit that was followed immediately by a ten-foot dirt hill that I scrambled up with no problem), but ultimately I had to surrender to the schlurping, gloppy, ickiness when we hit the aptly-named Bog Zone. The first obstacle there involved belly-crawling through a series of interrupted tunnels - interrupted, in fact, by approximately six-foot-wide, thigh-deep (on me, at least) mud pits. With no room to get out, stand up, or prepare to hop over said pits. I was lucky that I was at least flexible and small enough to contort around and enter the pits feet-first; some of the bigger or more speed-oriented racers just wound up flopping in headfirst.On the other hand, once I surrendered completely to sodden pants and squelchy socks, the course became a lot more entertaining. I made it through all of the obstacles, though admittedly I had some help on a few - while I am strong, I can't clamber over an 8-foot wall without a boost. Luckily, I had teammates that could double as terrain; my only regret is that there really was no way that I could help them - while there were places that being petite helped me, I can't exactly lend that around.
I think the climbing nets were my favorite challenges, mostly because I am a small monkey-woman and therefore able to scramble up rope nets easily, contort around at the top without trouble, and dangle blithely at improbable angles without fear on the way down. On the other hand, the balance logs (walking on a muddy log stretched about 4 feet above (you guessed it) another mud pit were a lot harder than I had anticipated. I've done a lot of balance work, but I'm used to doing it in bare feet, with some ability to sense and grip with my toes. I made it, but a lot more slowly and worriedly than I would have liked.
My greatest personal triumph, though, I think was the monkey bars. While I was short enough to need a boost to get to the bars, and lacked the upper body strength to go across hand-over-hand,
mindways suggested just getting my feet over the bars and using all four limbs - once I managed that, scrambling across was deucedly easy, and the look on the photographer/safety guard's face as I dismounted by letting go with my hands, dangling from my knees, and dropping into umbran's arms was priceless. And there were nets to crawl under, and ranger bars that involved dangling by your hands and knees way above the ground, and tire scrambles, and disgusting splashy pits of waist-deep mud (though ultimately, once you're utterly soaked and muddy they become a *little* less objectionable), and dirt barriers to climb and clamber back down, and generally a whole heaping lot of fun. Physically, it wasn't a crazy challenge; while it's lengthwise further than I could run (I'm a walker, not a runner), the obstacles themselves were more on the 'entertaining' end of the spectrum than the 'oh my god, I'm doomed' end - there was nothing that I couldn't get through easily with just a little help, and most of them were simple enough to do on my own. That said, I'm entirely cool with that. I know that there are much more challenging obstacle runs out there, and I'm happy sitting down here at the kiddie table while the crazy ninja superstars simultaneously set themselves on fire and get hypothermia at the Tough Mudder.
Ultimately, I have dirt under my fingernails, a pair of sneakers that I'm likely to just declare casualties of the event, and a serious plan to do this again next year - hopefully at less of a saunter and more of a hustle, if only because that will increase the subjective obstacle-to-course ratio. And because, hey, it'll be yet another challenge.....
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 12:36 am (UTC)PJW
no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 12:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-05 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-06 01:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-07 10:07 pm (UTC)