As I said before, due to timing of changing of the volunteer guard, I didn't have a chance to eat lunch since I wanted to get in the next available afternoon wave. I don't think I'll bonk, but I also hadn't had a chance to fully hydrate. It's the cramps I'm worried about.
While waiting in the start line area, the 2nd to last obstacle (the warped wall - Dark Angel) isn't far away and the emcee is commenting on a participant's Speedo as he climbs over. It's Sexxy Eddy! I give him a shout out.
Off I go at 2pm and once again the course plotters have laid out some great trails. Some rolling climbs on grass, in and out of the trees...oh and obstacles, of course. 4 foot walls, log carry, a new one called Xosquelette (Exoskeleton):
There's lots of mud; unfortunately it's grey in colour, is rather pungent in odor and full of little rocks, some of which end up in my shoes. This will test the properties of my new socks by MudGear (review to come soon).
Barbed wire crawls (2 of 3), a tunnel crawl (Labyrinthe) get us all covered with mud for a stretch. Getting to the rope climb at that time of the day - the ropes are completely caked and I can't even get a proper J-hook and slide off, so I have to settle for the knotted rope.
When the angled walls appear, I help people get over, then I get a small boost. At the next wall, I'm all alone, so I throw caution to the winds and get myself over without looking too clumsy, or losing any teeth.
Top Gun (the paintball gun obstacle) comes up soon enough so I take a couple of extra seconds to guess where the barrel is pointing...and I hit the target with my first shot. Yay!
Making great use of the terrain and trees, we get to CZJ (Catherine Zeta-Jones), with crisscrossing strings to duck and weave around; Koalex - like Spartan's Tyrolean Traverse, without the water, plus it's angled downward. Thanks to CMQ spring training camp crash course, it's much easier to navigate (thanks Sara!!)
Still covered in mud, we slide under a fence and the 8 foot wall looms. I try to get over unassisted, but it's become a roadblock in my mind. Ugh. With a little help, I get over.
The monkey bars haven't changed, but once again I freeze and it's another roadblock. That, and maybe since I spent part of the morning pulling people over the SuperXman wall (or wasn't letting go of someone's hand...or maybe NOT HAVING HAD LUNCH), once I lift my arms to reach the first bar, they feel heavy. Arrrgghhhhh! I cooperate with someone and we help each other across. This is not how I wanted things to turn out.
Finally, a water obstacle, although at this point the mud is drying and looking like scales on my skin. It's like Tough Mudder's Cage Crawl, so once we are out we run down a slope towards none other than SuperXman. It takes me 2 trampoline bounces to get over that bad boy, so anyone who said they were too short for it...
Back in the woods we find another unique XMan creation, Le Funambule ("Tightrope Walker") - there are small knotted cords hanging at regular intervals, so particpants grab one and shimmy along to the next one to continue. The photographer captures participants in moments of extreme concentration:
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| "I have short arms...how will I grab this?" |
Hell's Path, which is like Quintuple Steps, has been re-tweaked, I heard (steeper angles, wider apart). Both tries I fail so I run the penalty loop and move on.
More obstacles - a tire flip followed by a playground fence climb led to the most technical section of the race, which included 2 creek crossings. A pattern I'm starting to see with both XMan and XTrail at this venue is coming out of a large drainage pipe into a creek. Instead of jumping in (and risk busting an ankle) I sit at the edge of the pipe and snag my shorts on something. Oops.
The water is pretty chilly so at some point I lose feeling in my feet. We go in and out of the water, up some rocks almost Gollum-style, and back down across another creek. This goes on for a bit until lo and behold we reach possibly my favorite obstacle - Indiana Jones! Again, zip line into the water, hollering the whole way down.
The technical sections continue until music and the emcee is heard in the distance. The goofy, Wipeout-inspired inflatable obstacle is next. I crawl across, then I choose to opt out of the Platinum Rig (seriously...I need to conquer that at one of the XMan races this season!) Finish the last obstacles and...done!
Cleaning up reveals the more-than-usual scratches and bruises on the knees and elbows, which is what I've come to expect from XMan, plus there were quite a few crawling obstacles on mud-covered rocks, or in PVC pipes (Les Égouts)
Mud's supposed to be good for the skin, right? On the drive to Ottawa our skin feels all stiff, crackly and dry. It doesn't really matter, because at our destination (Kelly's house) cupcakes await! Those, plus Rock Band with the girls tops off a great day.
Next up is Mud Hero Ottawa which includes a birthday run - shenanigans guaranteed!
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