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| #28 - Complete a Mud Run |
It's funny to think that several years ago I would have laughed if you asked me about signing up, training, and completing in races and runs. Now, with an understanding of how to correctly train and to take care of myself, I'm very much into the process of challenging myself in these races. I enjoy the idea of setting a goal, training for it, and ultimately doing my best on race day. Not to mention, I very much love raising money for charities.
After running in my first 5K (Bucket List - #27 Run a 5K), which was a total success in raising money for helping to find a cure for Cancer, actually running my first 5K, and being able to get onto the field of Yankee Stadium, I decided to register for the Rugged Race For Respect. The event, held at Aviator Sports and Entertainment Center at Floyd Bennett Field here in Brooklyn, (and for your DP devotees, yes, site of yours truly's only collegiate baseball win), is basically a 5K obstacle and mud run.
The course which included various obstacles from 8 foot wall climbs to tunnel crawls, to simply meddling in mud, definitely put a spin on running a 5K. The Rugged Run's design placed a lot of obstacles in the first half mile to really wear you out before the course took you on a run through the trails of Floyd Bennett Field. Even on this trail run were you met with several obstacles such as wall climbs, spider crawls, balance beams, and a few stations of carrying a 20lb sack of sand for 200 feet.
The ending, was reserved for the harder tasks of a 10 foot wall climb, and the eventual tire swing, an obstacle almost all ended up skipping because of it's insane difficulty (Furthest I got was half way through it).
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. I gained confidence after outrunning many who "looked the part", and I accomplished somethings I set out to do. Which is always a great confidence booster. And yes, at the end of the day, it was all in good fun for a worthy charitable cause for the New York Special Olympics.
If you haven't done one of these runs, I highly recommend it. As stated, great challenge, great experience, builds confidence, and raises money for a worthy cause. You'll wake up soar, but it'll be worth it.
Hopefully, next year, I'll be able to get a team together to do it again.