Saturday, November 23, 2013

TM San Diego 2013 Review

Moderately difficult course, less challenging than Snow Valley and Vail Lake earlier this year, but more so than Georgia.  There were three tough hills at about 2, 6, and 7 miles.  The base of the third was a really steep, sandy climb that slowed me more than anything.  There were some cool new obstacles, my favorite was something called "Ninja Gap"

And another was "Spidey Crawl"

They added another that required a partner, like "Warrior Carry",  it was just Wheel Barrels".
I have added a bit of upperbody muscle this time, so I really didn't struggle with any of the obstacles this time except the higher "Berlin Walls", but that was because of calf cramps.  Unfortunately the extra weight played havok with my back and legs.

The over-all obstacles were:
1) Kiss of Mud 2) Ha-ha Ditch 3) Electric Eel 4) Funky Monkey 5)Hurdles 6)Hazards 7) Glory Blades 8)Walk the Plank 9)Warrior Carry 10)Twinkle Toes 11)Arctic Enema) 12)Jesus Walks 13)Bushwacked 14)Boa Consrtictor  15)Cliff Hanger 16)Ninja Gap 17)Hold Your Wood 18)Trench Warfare 19)Spidey Crawl 20)Cage Crawl 21)Death March 22) Mud Mile 23)Berlin Walls 24)Lumberjacked 25)Soggy Bottom 26)Log Jammin' 27)Proving Grounds (sled pull) 28) Everest 29)Electroshock

It was a cool dry day, so pretty much perfect for running.  The course was probably the most balanced yet between obstacles and course difficulty, so that was nice.  I ran most of the course with a really nice marine, we were 5th and 6th in the first heat of the day for most of the time.  i passed him towards the end, but got passed by two guys that were a bit behind us for most of the course.  I ran the roughly 10.5 mile course (they said 10.8, but it I don't think it was, unless you count the looping around in some of the obstacles) in 1 hr 50 min.  my goal was 1:45-1:50 so I was pretty satisfied.