Patriot Challenge 2014

Awesome medal, great shirt, & our names on our bibs!

Last weekend I ran the Patriot Challenge obstacle course mud run.  This was my 2nd year running it, and it was even more fun this time around!  I am already signed up for next year, too. 

You can read my recap of last year's race here (which means we've been blogging for over a year now - yay!).  I was hopeful that I would have improved since I've been going to boot camp for several months, and I did!  I finished in 54:17:9, over 3 minutes faster than last year.  But more importantly to me, I didn't skip any of the obstacles!  Last year I was unable to do any that required upper arm strength.

I still had trouble with one this year - it involved a rope hanging over the back of the bleachers, with a tire at the end of it.  I had to pull the tire up until it reached a certain mark.  I really struggled and that slowed me way down, but I eventually got it done.  I am determined to keep working on my arm strength - some day I will be able to do a pull-up.

After

Before

I got a lot muddier this year, probably since it wasn't raining during the race.  In fact, I noticed my clothes didn't come entirely clean on the first washing, so I'm going to have to re-wash them.

There also seemed to be more crawling this year than last; including crawling under a row of Jeeps as seen in the slideshow below.

Some people were complaining during the first part of the race that there was more running this year than last, but I wonder if that was on purpose.  Last year, the first obstacle was right at the end of the 1/4-mile dash down the drag strip, and we ended up having to wait in line at that and the next few.  More running at the beginning spaced us out better, so there didn't end up being really any wait time, so I think it flowed better this year.

If you read last year's recap, you'll see that I wondered if wearing workout gloves would help with my grip.  I tried it this year and I do believe it helped, although there were no monkey bars this year, I still think having the gloves was a good idea.

This is a super-fun event.  It's timed, but it's not serious.  They don't add to your time if you skip an
obstacle that you can't or don't want to do.  It's family-friendly, and there were lots of kids there running it with their parents.  If you plan to be in the Indy area next 4th of July, I definitely recommend this race.