Rugged Maniac

Last month Mrs and I participated in the Rugged Maniac event held in Southwick, MA with a group of people associated with the adoption organization PAWS New England.  Our sweet Luna came from  them.

I was a bit apprehensive leading up to the event, but figured I would just go with it.  The course is a 5k with 20+ obstacles including short walls, tall walls, mud crawl pits with barbed wire over them, cargo nets, and underground tunnels requiring crawling.  The following video shows most of them.

We arrived in plenty of time to meet up with the group and take a look around.  This is not a timed event unless you want it to be which requires spending an extra $10 for a timing chip.  I intended to stay with Mrs, so it was nothing we needed.  This was more of a test to see if we would like an event like this.  I'm not exactly one who enjoys being filthy.

The start/finish line of the event.

 A section of the course.  This event was held on a motocross track.  Ordinarily I would have mixed feelings about these events tearing up the countryside, but this area has already been ruined.  In this shot I am almost in the center about to walk down the little, muddy hill.

Cargo net climb.  Mrs and I are on the far end.

Probably the most fun obstacle on the course was the slide.  I was surprised by how much speed we gathered before we hit the pool of muddy water.

 One of the barbed wire crawls.  This was one of the dry ones.  Others were through muddy water.

Towards the end there are these little piles of flaming logs.  They were easy, but a little warmer than I expected.  Actually, it felt quite nice to be going over them after all that cold, muddy water.

The final obstacle.  Wall climb, cargo net between the two storage containers, then a climb down.

It was a fun experience and I enjoyed going through it with Mrs.  She was a trooper and did well.  We did have one person injured not long into the event.  The woman who coordinated the group lost her balance on a log crossing and hopped down into the pit a short distance below her.  She broke the bone in her heel and required a transport to the medical tent in an off-road vehicle.  She is fine and recovering well.

I would probably do it again, and would like to try it for time.  I think I did better with the obstacles because I wasn't tired from the jogging/walking we did.  I wonder if running the event would change that.