Rugged Maniac 5k

 

Rugged Maniac 5k Review

If you’ve been reading Live Life Active for a while now, you’ve seen me do TONS of mud runs (Warrior Dash, Rebel Race, Patriot Challenge and more) because I absolutely love them, but now I’ve added one more to my belt.  The Rugged Maniac!

There’s something about getting totally dirty and jumping through mud that a part of me just loves.  I guess it brings back memories of playing soccer in the rain and just having fun with it.

Well I saw that the Rugged Maniac was coming to Charleston, SC and when I saw a Groupon come out for it, I jumped on the deal right away.  I think I paid $69 with the Groupon (The lowest you can get it for is $45 a year in advance and it ends up costing around $100 if you sign up on race day).

Before running, the only thing I had heard about the Rugged Maniac was that Mark Cuban was a partner of it and if you know me, you know I LOVE Mark Cuban and some Shark Tank action 🙂  I knew if Mark Cuban had any say in the design of this course, that it was going to be tough..and boy, was I RIGHT!

The Charleston race took place on March 12th at Boone Hall Plantation which is an excellent venue for a mud run.  Tons of space and open areas.  Actually… while we were running, we saw a big group on a trolly getting a tour of the plantation.  I made sure to wave while they drove by.  I’m sure they weren’t expecting to see all of us crawling through mud when they signed up for that tour!

Anyways….

What To Wear

So as always, I wore a very tight outfit because you need to for mud runs otherwise your clothes get weighed down from all the mud and it’s a pain in the booty.  If you’ve never done a mud run, take my advice and wear something tight.  Cotton is a bad idea.

So here are some of the obstacles we saw at the Charleston race.

Obstacles

Napoleon Complex

Several walls to climb.  I found these to be easy but that’s probably because I’m somewhat tall for a girl and have long legs.  You may have trouble with this if you have shorter legs!

rugged manic wall climb

Beam Me Up!

Another type of wall to climb.  Can be a bit tricky at the top to transfer from one side to the other especially when you’re all wet!

rugged manic wall beam climb

The Trenches

Okay I’m not going to lie..this was was a bit scary.  You jump from one mud pile to the other with a big ditch in between.  The first 5 or so jumps were a piece of cake but the last one was actually pretty far and it had me a bit intimidated.  I saw a lot of girls walk around this obstacle and not even try it but I went for it and made it.  Boom!

rugged manic trenches jumps

Tipping Point

Just like a see-saw growing up except your walking on it and muddy and wet.  Takes balance and patience.

rugged manic tipping point

The Ringer –

Takes a ton of arm strength and hand eye coordination.  The rings are like moving monkey bars.  I made this one about half way and then my left arm wasn’t strong enough and I fell into the water.  It was super hot though and the water pit felt cold and amazing so I wasn’t so mad about it.  I was actually glad I made it half way across.  Not many girls were even attempting this one or they would drop right away.

rugged manic the ringer

The Gauntlet

Walk the plank while these big bags are in your way. Takes balance!

rugged manic the gauntlet

Ninja Escape

This is also just like Ninja Warror the TV show.  You jump from one angled board to the next to get to the end.  This one’s tough when you’re wet and be careful not to twist an ankle!

rugged mania ninja escape

Pack Mule

Grab a 25 or 50 pound bag and drop it off on the way back around the loop.  I liked this one actually!  It was different than any other mud run I’ve done.

rugged manic pack mule carry sandbags

Quad burners

Okay these were one of the hardest for us.  When we did our race they were all mud.  Imagine trying to get up these hills while completely slippery and muddy.  Tons of teamwork was needed to get each other up these hills.  To make things harder, there were water pits at the bottom of each hill that you had to drop into and climb out of before getting to the next hill.  These were killer. I’m not joking..KILLER.  There were so many of these throughout the course too.  I’d be okay never climbing a muddy hill ever again.  For realz.

rugged manic dirt hills quad burners

Claustrophobia

Crawl your way through a tunnel in the ground.  This one was kinda crazy and if you’re claustrophobic you may not like it.  You crawl though a cold tunnel that’s dug in the ground and it’s pretty dark in there.  The only think you see if the person crawling in front of you and dark walls to your side.  It sort of scraped up my knees in that tight space too.

The best part of this obstacle for me is when the guy in front of me said something along the lines of “Well there’s no turning back now.  Oh and I just farted”.  hahah AWESOME, random guy, thanks for that one.  Definitely lightened the mood though.

rugged manic cave tunnels

Cargo Nets

Several cargo nets throughout the course.  These are pretty simple. Just make sure your feet don’t slip.

rugged manic cargo net

Commando crawl

Crawl through nasty mud and under barbed wire.  One thing I wish they had mentioned on this one was that THERE WAS BARBED WIRE.  I didn’t see any signs for that one and neither did the people around me.  Keep an eye out for that one!

rugged manic barbed wire

Head Scratcher

More barbed wire with an army crawl under it.  This one got pretty tiring.  Quite a distance to crawl and be super careful not to cut yourself.

rugged manic barbed wire crawl

The Accelerator

Our race ended with this huge slide.  To be honest I was most excited about this slide.  It was right by the start line and looked so fun to end a race this way.  Unfortunately there were some HUGE rocks at the bottom where I landed and I scraped up my butt and back really bad.  The girl next to me on the slide had the same thing happen to her.  We must have landed on the same rocks.  I really hope the crew were able to fix that before too many people got hurt.

rugged manic the accelerator

Antigravity

Leap off a trampoline and jump onto a cargo net to climb over the wall.  This one was fun!

rugged manic antigravity trampoline and cargo net

Pipe Dream

There’s a pipe that’s on a steep hill and has a rope inside it.  You have to get inside the pipe, grab the rope and pull yourself up to the top of the hill inside the small space.  This one was pretty tough and needed some upper body strength.

rugged maniac pipe dream

Frog Hop –

Run across these floating blocks to get to the other side.  The trick is to try to land in the middle and run fast.  I could see this being a shin buster though for those who slip or don’t quite make it.

rugged maniac frog hop

Balance of Bust

A simple balance beam with water on each side.

rugged maniac balance

The Warped Wall – 

Have you ever seen the show Ninja Warrior?  Yep this is JUST like the wall that they have to complete on that show except your muddy and exhausted.  It was our last tough obstacle of the race so I was exhausted before attempting this one.

They have volunteers at the top who help to grab you and pull you up if needed but there are a lot of people who don’t complete this one.  I ended up making it up the wall only because my boyfriend and another guy pulled me up.  My running start up the wall was not as elegant as I had planned in my head.  I wanted to just run up the wall and dominate that wall but in the end I think I just looked like a bug splattering against a windshield with my arms up and the guys grabbed me to pull me up.

It was NOT pretty.

This is also where I banged up my knees really bad on the wall. Got some bruises from this obstacle that lasted almost a week!  Whoops!

Hopefully if I ever have a revenge to this warped wall I can make it look more like the elegant visions in my head..not a splattering bug on a windshield 😉

rugged manic warped wall

All images are from RuggedManiac.com.

Photographers are all over the course but unfortunately they didn’t get any of either of us 🙁  Totally bummed about that.  These are a few I have of us from after the race.

Rugged Maniac 10k Charleston (2)

Rugged Maniac 10k Charleston (4)

The After Party

After the race, they have a huge party where they have contests, alcohol and food.  The contest we watched was a pie eating contest and it was awesome! This one guy dressed as a ninja turtle DESTROYED his pie.  Way to go, man!  The energy from the host and the music was amazing.  Such a great post concert event.

Rugged Maniac 10k Charleston (5)

Rugged Maniac 10k Charleston (7)

Lessons Learned

Lessons learned…build a stronger upper body for the next time I do a Rugged Maniac!  So many of the obstacles require upper body strength!

Second lesson learned, don’t wear shorts next time.  Wear longer capris or running tights next time.  My knees got torn up!

Rugged Maniac 10k Charleston injury

My future in knee modeling is far far behind me now 😉

Rugged Maniac 10k Charleston injury 2

This was an attractive look I had to pull off for the next week at work.  The Rugged Maniac got me good!  I’ll be back though..I’ll be back!

Oh and if my knee injuries weren’t bad enough, the sun decided to pick on me as well.  I didn’t think it would be that hot out so I didn’t put on any sun screen.  DUMB MOVE, ERIN.  I got F-R-I-E-D.  It’s like I was wearing a white tanktop everywhere for the next week.  I think that tan line will be there for a while actually.  Ugh..no good!

Rugged Maniac 10k Charleston sunburn

Lessons Learned

After the race I could barely move and lucky me had to go MOVE out of my apartment afterwards.  Seriously the worst planning ever but I had closed on my new house the day before the race so it was just bad timing.  What was I thinking though.  I should have waited until the next day to move big furniture.  Moving after the Rugged Maniac should never be on anyone else’s agenda.  EVER.  Trust me.

Overall I had a frickin’ blast and would totally do this race again.  It was an amazing full body workout and was so much more fun than just running a normal 5k.

Have you ever done a Rugged Maniac 5k before? If so, leave a comment below and let me know how you liked it!

If you want more information on the Rugged Maniac 5k or to find one near you, you can visit the Rugged Maniac website.

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