Krazy Kids Inflatable Fun Run 2017

June 10, 2017

Last year I took my daughter to the Insane Inflatable 5k, which was fun, although the distance was a bit long for her. It was a good decision at the time to leave my 5-year-old son home, as he certainly wouldn't have been able to handle the distance.

But the Krazy Kids Inflatable Fun Run was the kids version of the same race. Half the distance, and kids only, so it was much more their speed. The price was also a lot easier on my wallet.

Pre-race faces

The Insane Inflatable 5k was family-friendly, and it had a small bouncy house to keep kids occupied when they weren't racing. The Krazy Kids Inflatable Fun Run, however, was all about the kids, so they had several bouncy houses available, and the kids certainly made use of them.

Running to the next obstacle

The check in was organized and quick, and it wasn't long before our wave time. Adults were not allowed on the obstacles, but I would be allowed to run alongside the kids and take pictures while they went on them.

Negotiating the obstacles

I would be running alongside, but I gave orders that they should stick together so I could keep a better eye on them. This led to my son taking off, my daughter grabbing him to hold him back, him hitting her...and a fight ensued. After a few threats to take them off the course if they continued to fight, they continued on and had fun.

Going down one of the many slides

In one obstacle my daughter went through a tunnel and hurt her neck, so I ended up carrying her for a ways, but her desire to have fun overwhelmed her pain, so she continued on.

Casually strolling through an obstacle

As with all such events involving large amounts of kids, there were collisions, stepping on each other, tears, etc. but for the most part the little troopers kept going and having fun.

Climbing the hill

Another slide

More slides

Heading for the hill

Over the top

Down one more slide

We completed the 1.5 mile course in only a half hour, and both kids were tired, sweaty, and happy.

Showing off their medals

Ninja Pose!

Looking forward to next year!

BoldrDash Winterdash 2017

March 4, 2017
I did the BoldrDash WinterDash in 2016 by myself, and this year I decided to do the family race with my 8-year-old daughter.  In the day or so leading up to the event, I wasn't "feeling it," but in the end I'm glad I went because it went fine and my daughter and I had fun.

Boldrdash Kids & Family Rocky Point 2016

September 10, 2016
This was to be the second BoldrDash Kids and Family race that my family did, and it would be held at Rocky Point, Rhode Island, the site where an amusement park used to be. I had been there several times as a kid myself, my favorite being the Corkscrew, a roller coaster that lived up to its name.

There was no sign of the amusement park now; it was all covered in grass and all the of the rides and buildings were gone. Instead, there were lots of BoldrDash obstacles.

Savage Race 2017

July 15, 2017
There was a lot of anticipation for this race. Word of its good reputation had spread from other parts of the country and so many people were looking forward to it coming to New England.

From looking into it ahead of time, it looked much like a Spartan Race, but without the Spartan elitism. Similar obstacles, but with some fun ones thrown in. Spartan Race seems to be all about brute strength, whereas Tough Mudder's shtick is more about teamwork and mental obstacles, and the vibe I got from Savage Race was somewhere in between.

Insane Inflatable 5k 2016

September 3, 2016
After the debacle that was the Samurai Sprint (not the race's fault, but rather my injuring my shoulders and not feeling good enough as a racer), I decided to focus a little more on "fun" races.

This race was the "Insane Inflatable 5k", a 5k race where the obstacles were all inflatable "bouncy house" type obstacles. I didn't think that my 5-year-old son would be up for the distance, and that coupled with the price made me decide to so only with my 7-year-old daughter. That turned out to be a good decision.

Sasquatch Hikes Mount Monadnock 2017

May 20, 2017
After the ignominious end to my OCR season last year, I was looking for "easier" events to go to this year. I took my daughter to the BoldDash Winterdash, but so far that was it.

Then I heard about Sasquatch Take a Hike. It's inaugural event would be a timed hike up Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire. Mount Monadnock is relatively close to home, and I had always wanted to climb it, so this "race" seemed like a good excuse to do it.

Tough Mudder New England 2017

June 25, 2017
I did my first Tough Mudder (TM) in 2015, and I had a lot of fun. It didn't take me long to sign up to go again for both TM New England and TM Northeast in 2016. Unfortunately neither race panned out. In general, 2016 did not turn out to be a good racing year for me, and Samurai Sprint was my last race of the year. (the exception being the two family races I did with my kids)

I transferred my 2016 registration to this year, and I needed the motivation to get into shape and hopefully get back into OCRs regularly. As usual, the training was not to be, so I ended up going into this race out of shape, again. Since as far as I knew, my friends weren't going to this one, so I figured I'd have to do it alone. The downside, of course, is that you have no one to run with, but the upside was that I wouldn't be holding anyone back by how slow I am.

But fortunately I ran into some fellow members of the New England Spahtens, and we would run (walk?) the race together. We spent the wait for our race time arguing about who was slower. The racers would be Mama Hen Sandy Rhee (who lives up to her nickname), the two Amys with their matching blonde hair, telephone pole-impersonator David with his Go-Pro camera, and his friend Phil, who at 61 is a badass. Sandy had done the race on Saturday, and was thinking she wouldn't do it this time, but we convinced her to go with us and she obliged.

Samurai Sprint Mud Run

2015 was the year where I tried Obstacle Course Racing to see if I could actually do it. The answer to that question was a definite yes, and my season reached its peak with The Killington Beast in September.

2016 was supposed to build upon 2015, and be the year where I improved on everything. I would take on even more Obstacle Course Races, and try a variety of them to see which kind of races I enjoyed the most, thereby defining what direction my racing would take.

Tough Ruck 2016

April 16, 2016
After my 2015 Obstacle Course Race season, I knew that I had a lot of work to do. I felt that in spite my finishing seven OCRs in 2015, and improving a little bit over the journey, I still had a long way to go. By no means did I feel "in shape," so I was determined to do 2016 better. On Veteran's Day 2015, I saw an announcement for Tough Ruck 2016, which was a charity event to raise money for families of Fallen Servicemembers and First Responders. In addition to raising money for a great cause, it would be good motivation for me to train.

Epic Sixth F.I.T. Challenge

April 9, 2016
The Epic Sixth F.I.T. Challenge was my second OCR of 2016. I have to admit I wasn't looking forward to it very much. It had been a very tiring week for me, and due to real life getting in the way, I had all but ceased training. Doing this race was going to stink in a big way. But I had paid my money, and so I went.

BoldrDash Winterdash

March 5, 2016
2016 got off to a rocky start OCR-wise.  After proving to myself in 2015 that I could do these races, I was determined to make 2016 a year in which I would “do them better.”  My first planned race was the Blizzard Blast at the end of January. I missed it because most of my family was sick and I had to take care of them.  By all accounts I missed a fun race. For most of February I was suffering from strep and then bronchitis, so my training essentially came to a halt. Most of the people I knew would not be attending this race, and although I know several New England Spahtens, none that I knew would be going to this particular race.

Epic Fifth F.I.T. Challenge

November 14, 2015

The Epic Fifth F.I.T. Challenge is the last OCR I will be doing for 2015.  It was a short race, only 3.68 miles, so I was not too worried about it. It was also a small race, with only 500 participants.  I had not seriously exercised since the Killington Beast, but I was not too worried, but now that the race is over, I wish I had trained more for it.

Killington Spartan Beast 2015

September 19, 2015

They say that when you are in the midst of a difficult trial, there is a moment of truth in which you overcome your fears and succeed in achieving your goal (or don’t). The Killington Spartan Beast was the trial, but my moment of truth for it actually came several weeks ahead of the race.

Boston Spartan Sprint 2015

August 29, 2015

Last year at this time, prior to my first OCR, the Boston Spartan Sprint 2014 in Amesbury, I was jittery, excited, and nervous for weeks before the event. This time around, I have many more races under my belt, and the nervousness didn’t kick in until a day or two prior. I had done more difficult races already this year, I had been to the locale...there was really nothing to get worked up about. The real nervousness will kick in prior to the Beast...20 days from now.

Battlefrog New England 2015

July 25, 2015

With the hoopla leading up to this race, I was a little worried about how it would go (short version: There were questions about Battlefrog's future because it was rumored they were in financial trouble). As for difficulty, this race was less distance than the Spartan Super, and I knew the venue to be flat, so I was not too worried.

Parking was similar to the Super, but right away you could tell things were a smaller scale. Whereas the Super they had maybe 10 porta-potties at the parking area, here there was only three. There was also a line at the buses, but fortunately I didn’t have to wait too long to get on one. At the venue, Registration was extremely fast and easy. Up to the festival area, the layout seemed a little strange, and I had to cut through a merchant tent to get inside (perhaps I didn’t enter the right way, but I just followed the crowd). Bag check was smooth dropping off, but less so picking up--it did not seem very organized despite several volunteers helping out. I ended up having to find my bag myself and then point it out to the volunteer who retrieved it.  

Boston Spartan Super 2015

June 20, 2015

In the days before this race I was somewhat apprehensive--although there were to be no hills, it was the first race I would be doing entirely alone. I did most of last year’s Spartan Sprint alone, since Ben was late, and then had to rush to meet his son, perforce having to leave me behind (I told him to go on ahead), he was there with me for a short while.  Both Bonefrog and Tough Mudder I did with John et al.  There would be the New England Spahtens to run with, but without any identifying gear on, I didn’t really feel “part” of them despite running with them. Essentially, I would be running this race alone.

Tough Mudder New England 2015

June 7, 2015

After having done the Bone Frog three weeks ago, I was not nervous about the Tough Mudder.  The distance was the same, but far fewer obstacles and those didn’t seem as difficult--many were teamwork based, while others were more “mental grit” obstacles rather than physically demanding.  Ultimately, the biggest punishment was the mountain itself.

Bone Frog Challenge New England 2015

May 16, 2015

This was my second OCR.  I had originally planned on doing the Killington Spartan Sprint in 2014, but real life got in the way, and I could not manage to train so I did not feel up to it. I vowed that 2015 would be different, and so I signed up for the Bonefrog Challenge. I planned on starting 2015 with some hardcore training, but again, real life got in the way and I wasn’t able to train much until March, and then I knew what I was doing was not enough. The closer I got to the event, the more I felt that I had bitten off more than I could chew. 10+ miles, 50 obstacles, 6000’ of elevation change...this felt like it would be too much for me. I kept training as much as I could, however, and even managed two long “runs” of 10.5 and 11.5 miles on the treadmill in the month leading up to the race. I was very slow, but I could do it, and that gave me a little bit of confidence.

Boston Spartan Sprint 2014

August 9, 2014

The Boston Spartan Sprint was my first Obstacle Course Race (OCR).  The past few years had been tough on me and my family, and so seven weeks before the event I signed up as a way to motivate myself to try to get back in shape. Given the condition I was in, seven weeks wasn’t long enough to prepare for a Spartan race, but at least I could get started. I was confident I would be able to finish, and this race would serve as a means to learn what I needed to work on to better prepare for the next one.