Rugged Maniac Vancouver 2017 was Love At First Run!
I’ve run a few OCRs over the past few years, but I’ve not been as impressed by the way any of them were run as much as I was by this Rugged Maniac event. I visited the site last year but did not participate in it. My wife typically runs the Lululemon Seawheeze half marathon on the same date as this event.
Last year we decided to head straight to the site after her race to see if we would be able to even attempt both of them. We arrived with an hour to spare last year for registration. I look back and say we should have just paid to run it even though we didn’t have our OCR gear or change of clothes. We did decide to go ahead and register for this year’s run and lo and behold, it didn’t end up falling on the same day as my wife’s half marathon. Sweet!
I arrived on-site a little early, 7 am, in fact. I was there to help Vancity OCR setup their Platinum Rig for their spot in the Festival area. Upon arriving we came across a group of Volunteers in the Parking lot whom were receiving their training. We apparently arrived at the perfect time as they had just setup the VIP parking area & were going over the procedures for it. My wife & I had purchased the VIP packages when they were originally on sale.
VIP Parking
The organizer asked me for my VIP Parking pass to keep as an example of what they looked like. We were the second car in the lot just behind one of the other Vancity OCR members. The site was still a little sparse but they had their tents all setup & a few areas fenced off, presumably for Registration, Bag Check, & the Beer Garden.
Over the next 2 hours while helping out, I was able to see the hustle & bustle of Rugged Staff members & Volunteers start to build out & setup the course & festival areas. It all came together quite quickly. I guess that’s the beauty of having inflatable Start and Finish lines, and a few as obstacles as well.
I saw a roughly 10-12′ warped wall with a cargo net strung up to a double stacked cargo bin that had what looked to be a soon-to-be inflated slide. It was pretty high and looked like it would be fun though I am mildly afraid of heights. Two of the members of the group that I would be running with had more than their fare share of fear of heights. I was certain this would be a challenging obstacle for them.
Whether it was due to the outdoor amphitheater, or the quality of the speakers, the music they played and the announcer sounded phenomenal. It was nice, loud, and had a good sounding quality even though we were more than 200+ feet away from the closest speakers.
Registration
It was now quarter to 9 and the crowds were starting to gather as registration opened at 9am. I wandered over to the Registration area, there were about 7 or so lines with at least 40 or so people in each line already. I made my way past those lines to the VIP registration. Those lines were much shorter, about 20 people or so in total.
The registration process went pretty quickly. I got my additional Rugged Bucks that were included in the early VIP sales, my two beer wristbands, and off I went. I found the rest of my group & awaited our 10 am start time eagerly. Ten o’clock came pretty quickly & after a short preamble from the Starting announcer we were off. The course was slightly altered from what was supplied on the map as a smaller area of wooded area that we were supposed to run through had recently been clear cut. Other than that, the Map & Obstacles therein were pretty bang on.
The Obstacles
First was ‘Shoe Catcher’ an ankle-knee deep pond crossing, nothing too major, but you could hear people complaining that they were already going to get wet. Come on people, wait till they bring on the mud, what are you gunna do then?
Next was a 5′ wall with a sideways freely rolling pipe on it, this one wasn’t all that tough, but having the rolling pipe on top limited your spots for grabbing onto to get over it. Next was a crawl under another obstacle, it had some barbed wire above the crawling area but it was above some beams so it didn’t really pose a threat.
Following that was ‘Tipping Point’, a seesaw-esque type obstacle, the planks are offset a bit so they rest in a downward position for ease of getting onto them. Just walk across the board and keep your balance while the other side lowers down as you cross it, now do it again and you’re onto ‘Jump Start’, a vertical planked wall climb.
Move along to ‘Frog Hop’, four square platforms floating in knee high water attached to each other sideways. As people ran across these, due to the way they were attached to the next lane, they bounced quite a bit. Quick feet & balance failed me & I fell in dismounting the third one. It would be nice if they padded these on top as they really hurt your knees when you went down.
‘Claustrophobia’ was next, this was basically a ditch covered with a black tarp. It got hot in there. Then came ‘Pipe Dream’, this was a typical pipe crawl with a barbed wire covered mud pit, I didn’t notice the barbed wire when I came out, ouch! Out through another pipe & onto ‘The Trenches’, they were just that, 4 equally distanced knee deep trenches. I hopped the first two & then jumped into the next two & box jumped out of them for something different.
The ‘Guillotine’ was next. This one was different, it was basically a 2″ thick, two foot wide wall on rails that you had to lift up, crawl under while holding it up & then let it down behind you. There were two of them & each time a nice person in front of me offered to hold the wall up for me. I turned them both down in order to try lifting it myself to complete the obstacle.
New and Different Obstacles
So far, most of the obstacles have all been slightly different than most of the others I have encountered at other runs. I brought my Garmin Virb XE with me & documented all of the obstacles, I haven’t used it much lately as everything seems to be the same. That wasn’t so with this race.
Next was ‘Commando Crawl’ a barbed wire crawl in the dirt, no mud at this one. ‘Pull Your Weight’ came next, this was like a herc hoist but they had large chunks of chains attached to the other side. I don’t recall if there were different weights as I didn’t really pay attention & this obstacle was the first to be unmanned, or so I thought. I reviewed the footage & did find the volunteer, I guess I just missed him.
Next was ‘Pack Mule’, grab a couple sand bags, walk up a flight of stadium bleacher stairs, across, down & back over again, drop the bag, then up and over ‘Let’s Cargo,’ a cargo net climb, run a maze of cattle stalls then up & over ‘Jacob’s Ladder’.
We then came across ‘Anti-Gravity’, this was fun! It’s basically two rectangular trampolines with a 45-degree angled wall after them with a cargo net to climb to get to the top. There were 4 lanes to this one & it wasn’t that busy so I ended up bouncing between the trampolines a bit then took a good bounce & landed almost at the top of the wall grabbing onto the cargo net for my life.
Onto ‘The Ringer’, a multi ring swing apparatus. Now, I know I have NO grip strength, it’s one of the things I plan on working on this year. My wife and I rarely get through the Monkey Bars or rings. Yet this year, with almost daily training, my wife made it all the way across ‘The Ringer’! I was so proud of her, I ran over to her and gave her a huge hug and kiss, I was just so darn proud of her. I plan on crushing this one next year!
Onto ‘The Gauntlet’, this was a new take on the lily pads, knee deep water with foam pads floating on the water to make a crossing, but this one had four large inflated tubes hanging down blocking your way. They weren’t light either, someone next to me bounced theirs into mine & tossed me right off the pads into the water.
‘Swing Shot’ came next, these are a bit tough to explain, basically a horizontal ditch is in front of you, you get up on a raised stand & grab onto rigged bars that attached to the top & swing you to the other side. They are weighted to make sure they return back to the other side but be careful as they keep going, swinging back and forth a few times.
It Doesn’t Have to Be Graceful
I knew failing this obstacle and landing in the ditch was a very huge possibility due to my grip. Well, I reviewed my video footage and I stood at this obstacle wiping my hands and the hand holds for a good minute. When I did take the leap, I was able to hold on long enough to get over the pit, but only barely. I ended up landing in such a way that I was right on the edge, heels hanging off, body leaning slightly back, and arms flailing on offset windmill patterns to do all that I could to not fall backwards. Well, it wasn’t a 5 point landing, but it worked!
Next was ‘Bang the Gong’, a waist deep water pit jump that had small gongs hanging over it that you needed to jump up nice & high to slap with your hand. Onto ‘Fenced In’, this one was a fencing covered mud crawl & it had more than its fare share of mud awaiting! We’re onto the home stretch now! Up next was ‘The Crag’, a large inflatable waist height double layered staircase with upward protruding pylons. This one was just way to much fun to bounce & play on.
Almost lastly was a triple threat, The Warped Wall, Mount Maniac, & Accelerator 3.0. The Warped Wall was not too too high, I ran up it, & got my arm up and over the top, someone ended up grabbing my leg & helped me the rest of the way. People helping people, I love our community! I then climbed the cargo net to the top of the slide.
That slide! It was pretty high up & had quite a vertical drop to it. If my Garmin is to be believed, coming down that slide I reached speeds of around 24km/h (14.1mph) & lost about 25 ft of vertical height all in 2 seconds time. Whee!!!
Lastly was ‘Pyromaniac’ a fire jump to be reckoned with! Most fires that I’ve come across near the finish line at other races looked like an afterthought when being planned out. Yet, this one was nice, wide, and quite high at times! This fire put most of those other races to shame, maybe all of those other races could learn something from this fire. The fire roared so much my sister said she thought she got singed from it.
Maniac Multi-Laps
My only disappointment from the day was that we were told that if we wanted to multi-lap that it would cost us another $25 per lap. Just last year Rugged Maniac allowed us to multi-lap for free. A few of our group went to register for a second lap and they were told they weren’t able.
At least as of today, Rugged Maniac has announced they will be coming back again next year and they have unleashed Rugged Maniac X which allows for unlimited multiple laps for $20 and gives you an exclusive Rugged Maniac X Headband. I’ve already pre-registered for next years X event as a VIP.
All-in-all I would still give Rugged Maniac and its festival area 5 stars!
Photo Credit: Charity Fick, Ryan Fick, Game Face
Ryan Fick
Ryan has a beautiful Mudd Queen as a wife & 3 gorgeous daughters Brandi (20), Samantha (18) & Sierra (5) that keep him busy.
Drop him a line if you have any questions or just want to say Hi.=)
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