Rock Solid Mud Run Race Report

I woke up pretty early (6am) on my own after spending the night in NJ. NJ is an adventure all of it's own, since this was my first foray into the state. I drank my protein shake and tried to relax before leaving at 8:00. It was not easy. I was really nauseous from nerves. I had spent the entire week almost forgetting that, hello, this was the distance and difficulty of a Tough Mudder.

I got to Raceway Park with no difficulty either. I got a really good parking space. As I pulled up and put on sunscreen, I noticed a ramp over where people walked into raceway park where people were already running over and jumping into the lake. I thought the first wave didn't start until 9, but apparently it started at 8. I had no difficulty getting my race packet, but they really should have had a separate table for people to fill out their waivers because the line was very slow moving.

Bag check was allllllllll the way over on the other side and I already had my bag checked in by 8:45. My wave wasn't until 10:00 so I had a lot of time to kill. I went over to where the starting line was.



Just before bag drop off


Starting line


As you can see, it was not very crowded. They had waves going off every 15 minutes. I was....quite early. I sat on the lip of some concrete flower thing and talked to this guy next to me. He was bald, built like a mofo, and shirtless. Clearly, this guy knew what he was doing. He had done a Tough Mudder and was a trainer at a local gym. Two women walked over, complaining that the bag drop off was really far away, saying, "I'm not doing this one again next year!"

I said, "You haven't even been on the course yet."

There were A LOT of people this bitchy. It was not the crowd of a Tough Mudder, but it wasn't the "yay this is fun, but I suck at it!" crowd of a Warrior Dash. This was the "everyone else is doing this, so I have to show that I'm part of this tough crowd" type of people. About half the people were fun and friendly (albeit with that accent that drives me up a wall) and about half were whiny people that I assume were local that reminded me of that South Park episode where Jersey takes over. I saw a lot of men with Pauly D hair who were shirtless. I also saw a guy who looked like the other guy from the Jersey Shore who dated Sammy? I can't remember his name. Anyway, most of those guys, as Jersey Shore style as they looked, were actually pretty friendly and talkative.

I decided that I wasn't going to wait for my wave and went in the 9:15 one. First, they have you run down the drag strip and back and then over that ramp that I saw walking in. Then you jump off a dock and wade/swim over to a section of the lake. Then you have to swim across again. It was at this point that I saw a guy who was having trouble swimming, as he was just walking across. Then you come up on short, go in through a concrete tube much like where sewers exit onto waterways. Then it's up a mud hill, over a top of a telephone pole on its side, down a mud hill. Across a balance beam with a mud pit, then an army crawl under some wires. Then through some more tubes and then up a platform for the 15 foot drop into the water.

Unlike the Tough Mudder, the platform was straight up and down--not at an angle. There were no slats or even knots in the rope, and it was very very very slippery. In order to get someone up, man or woman, they had to be supported. I did this for others about....a million times it seemed. This is where the crowd sucked. There were tons of guys that just sat there and gaped without doing much. The height of the jump was the same as the Tough Mudder, and it's far more frightening when you're up there staring down. I mean, yeah, it's only 15 feet, but it seems like it's a million. I've done this before and I was prepared, hoping I wouldn't lose my sunglasses. After jumping in, we had to swim across the "lake" and go under some floating barrels. Unlike the Tough Mudder, the water was not insanely icy.


Barrels


Platform


So we had to run around the "lake" and go over the concrete sewer tubes that we went through (clever, IMO) and around the ends of the parking lot and into the woods. Once you emerge from the woods, you're faced with a wall that's about 5' tall. Again, no one would help and it took quite a bit of upper body strength to get up it. Then you came upon these metal poles that you had to swing your legs up to (they were overhead and my abs hurt from all of this) hook them over. Then you crab walk down them. This was followed by 6'+ poles you had to go over. Then more zig zagging balance beams. Then over varying height telephone poles. Then up a balance beam and down the other side. This was followed by 2 8' walls which I needed help up, dear lord. Then a rope climb where a rope is suspended between two points. You grab it with your hands and hook your legs over the other and so you are inverted and have to pull yourself up hand over hand, foot over foot.


The up and down balance beams


The over/under telephone poles with the metal poles in the background


Then we had a water station followed by running through tires. Then came the short little jaunt through the woods again and over to the rope bridge crossing. You're tight rope walking across a rope with a rope overhead.


Woods


Rope crossing


The line for the rope crossing


We came upon the water station again and this is where the course divided between the 5 and 10 mile courses. Around the metal pole point, I did something to my calf that made it erupt in pain and eyed just quitting the course completely. I was very very very close. I sat down next to those telephone poles and actually considered it. I mean, I was alone--no one would know what I'd done. But I told myself to just sit for awhile and see how the pain was going. I figured it was my mind telling me to quit since this course was so difficult. I mean, they had a LOT of extremely hard obstacles packed very close together, unlike at the TM where they gave you some "cool down" time. Plus these obstacles were more "upper body" dependent than at the TM.

I pushed myself to keep going, but i was staring at the course separation saying that I could just go with the 5 mile one. I chose the 10 mile course (the one I was signed up for). It involved a huge swath of trail running to get my heart rate under control, but my calf was hurting pretty badly. I spent a good chunk of that walk/running in chunks. I tried stretching out my calf but it only made it hurt more. There were some more over/unders that were just BRUTAL. I ran into a couple of ladies who had done the Bear Creek TM as well as the one at Raceway Park (where this race is) that said that no joke, this was way harder than the TM. I heartily agreed, needing to stop after the over/unders. it seemed like there were a dozen over/unders and it would never end. Again, I needed to sit and contemplated going back the way I came in order to quit. I was pretty spent. I had brought a camelbak, remembering what the TM was and how during the trail run I desperately needed water. I'm so glad I brought it. I brought fruit snacks and ate some of those, too, when my heart rate was calm enough to make me immediately throw up. It seemed to take forever. There were a couple of army crawls through muddy water and hills to climb (my favorite...bleh). Finally, after enough time, we rejoined the 5 mile course. I was convinced that there couldn't possibly be that much left, but was informed there were still 2.5 miles. Oh dear god. I didn't get a lot of pictures during this time because I was seriously too tired and injured to get my camera out.

We rejoined the raceway park stadium again after climbing over a wall and jumping onto the "field". There was a platform that involved climbing up a wall with a rope. Now I was up THIS wall like a ninja. Then across a rope bridge. You're supposed to crawl, but I just walked, making sure to step on the knots. Then up another wall and down the other side. After this I saw an army crawl with what looked like bungee cords over head. I saw a woman wearing a Rock Solid T-shirt in a lawn chair laughing with a beer. She said, "The wires are electrified."

I thought she was kidding because TM makes sure to make it very clear that there are electrified events and Rock Solid did not make this distinction. I heard a girl squealing in pain. I looked at the wires and looked over to the edges of where you were to crawl seeing little transformer boxes. Oh dear, it really is electrified.

I tossed my camelbak aside and took to crawling. I got zapped in the neck, right where my shoulder muscle already spasms most of the time. It made it spasm in pain I've never felt before. I thought I was going to die and almost cried out for someone to help me. I got zapped in the damn calf muscle where I was injured and THAT was the worst pain I'd ever felt. And I kept getting zapped in the ass. Jesus did it hurt.


The platforms right before the electrified crawl


Then it is down the straightaway again. I thought, "Surely we're almost done."

Oh no, not even close. We took a veer over to the motocross course which was built with a ton of mud hills. We had to run around it and then enter and go up and down a bunch of mud hills that were being sprayed with a sprinkler. My camelbak hose kept getting mud and sand on it from where it would hit my chest from the electrified mud army crawl. So I kept getting mud in my mouth. :( I rinsed myself off in the sprinklers but it lingered. Up and down up and down until we reached what I refer to as the mud hill from hell. People would charge up it and slide right back down. It took me 3 times just to get up it and I had to immediately put my hands on my knees out of fear I would throw up right then. Then we had to climb up a ladder and onto a tarp "water slide" down the other side. I didn't get any pictures of this, but by the time I reached it, the tarp was getting holes in it from use. As I was standing, waiting to go down, this guy went down. The guy "watching" this obstacle would tell us to put our legs and arms in the air in order to go down on our backs. He was also smoking a cigarette that almost made me puke. A guy a couple in front of me went down and took a rock to the junk. His scream reminded me of the scream from Home Alone when Kevin puts the tarantula on the face of the robber. I would have peed myself laughing if I wasn't so exhausted. I went down after they cleared him out of the way and landed in the heap of water at the end. It was somewhat painful but I didn't care. I thought that it couldn't possibly go on much more.

We had to go through some more mud bogs and turn around to go back down the straightaway, but not until after we climbed a cargo net that was ridiculously huge. After that, it was down the straightaway (I assume it's slightly longer than a quartermile long). But it the blacktop was sticky and hot (important for tires on car races). I could see the finish line but it seemed like it took forever to get there. I also kept having to stop to limp due to my calf.

Finally, I crossed the finish line, collected my medal, banana, and water. This guy asked me how it was and I said that it was harder than a Tough Mudder. It was at this point that I saw those two women that I saw on the beginning of the 10 mile course who agreed with me.

From there I went over to the showers and rinsed off.


Post shower






So would I do it again? Probably. They do need to make some improvements. Oh dear, I almost forgot this part. The person who did the "send off" for each wave was Danny Bonaduce. I was convinced he was high with how he was behaving. lol And when I was showering, the guy next to me was like, "Yo, you going to the party?" and kept telling me about a great self tanner that I could use since I'm so white.

yeah, that's nice dude. lol

I am sunburned. I had dirt in my blisters that were from Merrell. I have scrapes on my legs from slipping off those walls. My calf is obviously killing me. At least I have some training ideas for the Tough Mudder in October. Next up is Big Bash Obstacle Dash on Sept. 17. I believe that one is only 3 miles, so I won't die like this one. No joke, it was the hardest one yet.

Next up is the Big Bash Obstacle Dash (also an inaugural race).