Obstacle course racing is still a new sport, and yet, in some ways, it lacks imagination. Once you've jumped a bale of hay, well, you've jumped a bale of hay. So, it's nice when someone puts a new spin on some of the staples of OCRs. Thus, I was excited to participate in the Hero Rush, a firefighter-themed OCR, even if it was the first year it was being held. Coming off of the Carolinas Beast, I had some hesitation about whether I would be able to actually do it, as running an OCR with a open wound on your toe is probably not recommended (I had the toenail on my right big toe surgically removed the Tuesday between Carolinas Beast and Hero Rush). And truth be told, I probably shouldn't have run Hero Rush, but well, I can be extremely stubborn at times and darn it, I wanted to do Hero Rush. So, with 2 ibuprofen, numbing cream, and numbing spray on-board, I lined up to the start line of Hero Rush on Oct 20, 2012 and took off running.
Don't tell my podiatrist.
Hero Rush was definitely unique. The Charlotte race was held at the Z-Max dragway near Lowe's Motor Speedway. Parking was plentiful and there were actual bathroom facilities, which was a nice touch. On the bad side, though, this meant that a good bit of the run was on concrete, which is not a lot of fun when wearing trail-running shoes. Waves started every half-hour, but each wave was then broken down into mini-waves which started every 15 minutes. The bad thing about this was that the DJ decided that prior to every wave starting, he needed to play "Kickstart My Heart" by Motley Crue. Unless you are a serious metalhead, there is only so much Crue one can take. By the time my friend Shana and I headed back to my car, I was ready to kick something, and it wasn't the DJ's heart.
Shana and I were signed up for the 10:30 wave and were close enough to the front to be in the 10:30 wave rather than the 10:45 wave. The DJ made some barely understandable announcements, "Kickstart My Heart" blared over the speakers, and we were off, running up wooden stairs on a platform and then sliding down firepoles, aka Dispatch Descent. There were about 4 or 5 sets of stairs to the platform and an equal number of firepoles. The organizers were smart and had the timing mat set after participants ran a short distance away from the firepoles, so the backup at the start did not affect timing. I started running down the dragway and was glad to realize that my toe was pretty numb. Unfortunately, I was still recovering from the Beast, so my energy was, again, not where it needed to be. No matter, I chugged along, marvelling that I was actually at the front of the pack.
I'm never near the front of the pack.
After running the length of the dragway, I came to Forcible Fury - a series of doorways with springs on the doors to make it hard to open them. I took a doorknob to the hip which hurt massively in the moment, but was easily run off. The dragway ended in a patch of rocks and the next obstacle, Cargo Climb was set in this area. Up and over the cargo nets and finally onto the off-road portion, down the edge of dragway. The course then turned back and ran parallel to the dragway, but on the grass side and uphill to the next obstacle, Stretching the Line. Fire hoses were tied onto tires and we had to drag or carry them around a course. I opted to carry mine and then took off running into the wooded area behind the Z-max. I slowed down a little when I came to River Rescue - running through a pebbly creek. I did not want to run the risk of injuring my toe any further. Up and out of the creek bed and through some more trails. I realized I was running behind a cute couple and I used them to pace myself. Next up was Staying Alive: CPR Stop, in which organizers had strewn CPR dummies across the course and volunteers watched us do 30 chest compressions. The volunteers at that obstacle were three boys, one elementary school kid and two teenagers. They seemed somewhat impressed when I ran past the water stop, dropped to the ground, pounded out 30 compressions, and got up and kept going. Just a Mud Pit, which disappointingly, was just a mud pit. Or mud patch. The next obstacle was Crowd Control, which was your typical run-through-tires-hanging-from-ropes obstacle. After this was Dummy Drag, a unique obstacle in which participants had to partner up with another racer to carry a dummy (two tires tied together) on a stretcher over and under obstacles.
Running to the next obstacle, I saw people waiting down below it. It was Hoarder's Hell, in which you had to climb a ladder to a "window" of a makeshift second story building, walk through a smoke filled "room" and then go down a cargo net to the ground. There were only two ladders and rooms, and as I learned when I finally got into the room, there were a lot of scared people on the cargo net holding up the line. Cool idea for an obstacle, but poor execution. I got a little impatient when I finally got to the cargo net and went out and around two people on the net already.
The next obstacle was Basement Entrapped. You either climber a ladder or a rope in order to get to a two-story platform, and the walked a rope down to the ground. The line for the ladder was a good 5 minute backup, but there was hardly anyone trying to get up the rope (which was actually a deflated firehose). I thought I would take the chance on the rope and was ecstatic when I climbed it up to the second story. Woo hoo! First time accomplishing a rope climb at a race! I ended up passing the cute pace couple at that obstacle, since they opted for the stairs. I was flying high still when I came to the next obstacle, Towering Inferno. Large tubes were laid on their ends and wooden slats were placed inside as sort of a makeshift ladder to the the second story; water flowed down the pipe, making me glad I had brought a pair of swim goggles along. I climbed up the tube and emerged on the second story platform. In order to get down, you had to slide down a gigantic waterslide, which I happily did. At this point, the course was back onto concrete and off of the trail. The next obstacle took place on the infield of a dirt track race course at Lowe's Motor Speedway, a variation on the dummy drag called Stretcher Evac. I teamed up with a girl who had been running a little ahead of me; unfortunately for me, she was not quite so confident in her evac-ing skills, leading to the metal stretcher falling on my hand. However, we finished and took off running again, out of the dirt track and over three fire piles for Fire Walker. The next obstacle was Foam Adventure, in which a small tank was filled with foam (like you would find at a foam party). I accidentally inhaled through my mouth while running through and had the worst taste in my mouth as a result. From there, the course went down under the bleachers of the Z-max and into the dark. There, I was greeted with a crowd of people waiting to get through the next obstacle: Entanglement. Four tubes were laid on end next to each other and cords were strung through them so that you had to inch through them, akin to Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment. The backup at this obstacle easily killed my time by 5 minutes, and as I was waiting, I realized that my right thumb was wet and throbbing. In the dim light, I realized I had cut myself deeply on the metal stretcher and I was bleeding. I pushed the pain out of my mind and took full advantage of my small stature to quickly get through the tubes. Up the stairs and past another water stop, I came to Bystander Blast, in which participants had to wade through a pool of water while being shot with water sprays controlled by people on the sidelines. On to Fire on 16!, a devilish obstacle that involved hauling heavy fire hoses up and down the bleachers at the Z-max. Up the stairs was awful, but the downhill gave me a chance to recover. Two reps of that and it was off to the HazMat Zone. It's hard to explain this one. Basically, a pool was filled with day-glo water and jelly-like bits of material, making the pool more solid than fluid. We had to wade to the middle, dive under a floating barrel, and then come out. I was grateful for my goggles, once again. Climbing out of the tank, it was time to get back on the dragway and run towards the finish. But between the finish line and HazMat was Mazed and Confused, in which you had to crawl on your hands and knees through a dark maze. It wasn't bad, but I was slipping a little on the dragway surface and I was ready to be done. Getting up, I got ready and sprinted across the finish line. And headed to the First Aid station to see about my thumb.
The "5k" turned out to be 5 miles. When I found that out, my reaction was: "Huh." I guess 3 Spartans has really screwed with my sense of distance. I ended up finishing far better than I expected: 1:14:07.6, 19th in Age Group, 44th for Gender, and 165 Overall. Would I do it again? Probably not. While the obstacles were unique, I hated having to run on the asphalt and concrete in my trail shoes. Another thing that was a huge turnoff: the lack of camaraderie amongst racers. Attempts to encourage other racers were generally met with silence and for once, I really felt like I was running alone. Not sure if this was due to the kind of racers/runners the race attracted or what, but it definitely did not feel as fun as it could have been. However, I will say that it got a couple of acquaintances interested in OCRs, so that was a positive, and it would probably have been better if you were running with a group that stayed together.
So, Hero Rush. Good entry level OCR that would probably be fun to run with a group. Just make sure no one drops a stretcher on your thumb...
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