Sqwish Sqwash fails the Ninja

On October 13th, 2012, I participated in my 6th adventure race.

The race was described to be a challenging mud race like I’ve never seen before.  Let’s just say it wasn’t.  The race was 8 miles.  That was one of the few bright spots of the race for me.  I’m signed up for my 2nd Tough Mudder (December 2nd) and figured an 8 mile race would be a great test to see where my endurance was at, as Tough Mudder is 12 miles.  Needless to say, I was able to power through the obstacles, and with help from an energy bar my friend brought along, I was able to tackle the 8 miles pretty well.  The use of my newly discovered run/walk ratio technique, I was able to maintain my energy level through the entire race.  My only difficulty came from muscle failure, that’s great news for a CF’er.  Like an idiot, I worked on squats at the gym a few days before the race.  I wasn’t fully recovered by race day.

Aside from the distance, Sqwish Sqwash was a huge let down.  While they had some interesting and unique obstacles, may of them were poorly constructed and appeared to be a safety hazard.  Fortunately for the Ninja, I was in pretty good shape and completed all the obstacles…with one exception, the balance beam.  I suck at balance beam.  It also proved to be more difficult in regular tennis shoes as opposed to my typical 5 toe’d Vibrams.

The t-shirt was dull and boring; however, the finishing medal is probably the coolest I’ve earned.  They took lots of pics and they were all free to download.  As with any race, I still had a good time.  I love race day, I love the people, I love to compete, and I love to finish.  I just wish the course itself was a little more pleasing.

As a result of my total disappointment with the race and organization, I’ve decided to stick with race organizations I’ve either already run and enjoyed or have a national following.

That about covers it.  I have two more official races before the end of the year and one fun practice race in a few weeks.  If I include the practice race, that will give me 10 races this year (my goal was 12).  ”Not bad for a kid growing up with CF”