Superhero Scramble Intimidator - Carolinas

     Summer in the Carolinas is an interesting thing.  It comes in a lot of varieties.  Hot and dry. Hot and wet.  Hot and unpredictable.  The one thing it is not, ever, is cool.  The thermometer  hovered around 89 as I pulled in to the parking lot.  I just happened to have thrown a camel back in my truck on the way out the door - I made a snap decision to take it with me.  Most other people didn't.

     Check in was fast and easy, with an adequate number of volunteers and a good process. There was a bit of confusion at the start of the first wave - there was a decision to start the 9:15 Scramble Gamble and the 9:30 open wave at that same time - no big deal.  I hopped over the Rugged Maniac Style wall into the paddock with plenty of time to spare.  A few minutes later, and we were off.

      I had made the assumption that this race was going to be obstacle rich - I mean, 8 miles, 25+ obstacles?  That translates into three obstacles per mile, right?  

   
At first, it appeared my assumption was correct - after a couple of hundred meters we hit the first obstacle - a rope climb cleverly suspended from the bottom of the second obstacle (two cargo container high cargo net climb and traverse).  Like the Spartan, one had to climb into a waist deep puddle to get to the ropes.  Unlike the Sparatans, there was an option of a rope without knots.  I have no problem getting up knotted ropes, but getting down is always problematic - I mean, the knots are in the way.  I flew up an un-knotted rope, ran through a drainage ditch, and went up and over the cargo net.  The race was going well.  A few hundred yards later, there was a rock carry (one of the standard sandbag totes, but with a big rock).  Great - again, three obstacles right off the bat.

And then they stopped.  We ran. And ran. And ran. And then we started walking. No obstacles.  For miles.  At some point, we passed a mile marker that said three miles.  Sure, could have been. All we did was go up one hill and down the next.  For a long, long way.

At some point, we did emerge from the woods and hit a pair of rock climbing walls.  Then we went up hill, and down hill.  Really steep hills.  Somwhere around five or six miles, I hit another flurry of  obstacles - a walk over the 2x4 balance obstacle, which I promptly fell off (unique to this race is that if you fail an obstacle, you have to do 20 burpees and 10 "spinners" - that thing where you put your head on a baseball bat and spin around. That put a new twist on things).  Immediately adjacent to that was a leap of faith type obstacle - I have no fear of heights, and always enjoy these.  I hit the bottom of the pit, but very softly.  It seemed to have been covered with a tarp to keep the water in the hole.

Then I ran again.  Up hills. Down hills.  Hills so steep that you had to nearly go on hands and knees.  Then we went through the famous Carolina Adventure Park river - it was medium-high this time.  Full of pea gravel. At some point, there was also an over-under-through obstacle.  By the time I got to it, my calves were cramping so bad that I had to stop and stretch then out before very painfully hoping over the wall. At this point, the race stopped being fun.  It had a very low density of obstacles thus far (there was a cinder block carry at some point - could have been before or after the river, I don' t remember) and the terrain was, frankly, boring, but hard.  Everyone around me was complaining about the same thing. Not enough water.  Legs dead.  Very few obstacles.  Some time around mile 7.5 or so, we emerged from the woods to face a ring-over-the-mud pit obstacle. I violated my own cardinal rule for an obstacle I've never attempted before - I didn't stop to watch how other people did it.  I tried to swing monkey-style from ring to ring, and they were really too unstable to do that with , so I fell about the fourth rung.  Watching others, I should have advanced one hand after the other, using two lanes of rings, but hey, live and learn.  Pretty soon after that, there was a mud pit that required you to jump in, and then go under water to get below some boards placed perpendicular to the pit.  By that time, anything with mud in bottom that I had to dislodge my feet from caused my legs to cramp painfully, so I really wasn't feeling it.

Then we ran again.  Up hill, down hill.  Tedious.  I ran a while with a group of Marines. Marines.  They were angry. Their complaint?  Too few obstacles.  Not nearly enough water.  Their legs were cramping up.  It wasn't fun any more.  Marines.

At some point, we emerged from the woods and I could suddenly see my truck.  I seriously considered abandoning the race, even though I could see the finish line.  The next obstacle?  A deep mud pit that one had to slog across.  I took one step in, and my left calf cramped up so bad that I could not control it.  I had to climb out and sit on the side of the pit for about 10 minutes. Every time I tried to stand, I cramped up again. I literally couldn't get my lower body to react the way it should have.  I ended up burpeeing an obstacle that should have been a gimmee, and I was far from the only one.  Immediately after that was a sandbag carry through some sort of atv pit full of mud and water.  I took a chance and went for that one, and did have any issues.  At this point, I had used most of my camel back's water, and also drank at every opportunity.  I was cramping and dehydrated. It sucked.  There was also and over the hill-through the mud-up the hill type obstacle at some point in here, but I don't remember exactly where.

The next obstacle was the obligatory fire jump. The  Superhero Scramble folks follow it up with an ice water bath. It felt great.  The problem was, I could generate the force necessary to jump over the fire - the picture of me with the fire at the beginning of this blog is actually me trying to decide if I can risk jumping without burning myself.  I ended up literally just stepping over the fire - proving that it can safely be done that way.

The next obstacle was the "signature" one of the event - a rope aided climb up a 15 or so foot slope (maybe a 70 degree slope with 90 being straight up?) to a mega-slide into a pit of what I think was supposed to be slime, but felt pretty much like water.  No issues getting up the slope.  The slide seems to have been criticized for being poorlly padded and scrape inducing on other races, but it was a smooth ride for me. It was fast and fun, unfortunately, when I hit the slime, again, leg cramps. Twenty feet from the finish line, I had to sit for 5 minutes, and pull the cramps out of my calves.  

 That did allow me to see an amusing aspect of the slide - about every third person on the race found something that someone had lost in the slide.  Folks popped up with headbands, water bottles, sunglasses, hats...

I also got to watch some little guy talk trash to the two guys blocking the way to the finish line with the MMA pads. He said something to his girl friend, and then charged right at the bigger guy who was blocking the way.  The big guy lowered his shoulder and checked the guy around 8 feet into a bale of hay.  He was fine except for wounded pride. 

I finally got up, hobbled through the guys. who recognized I was hurting, and hit me medium-hard rather than full force. The reason I'm smiling in the pic is because the guy on my right checked me into the guy on the left (the big guy).  I was close enough to his size to knock him off balance into the bale of hay, causing him to fall over.  I crossed the finish line, grabbed my medal and T-shirt, and went to grab a drink of water.  But they were out of cups.  At the finish line. No cups.  People were kneeling and letting the water fall directly from the cooler into their mouths.  I hobbled to my truck., threw a towel on the seat, and left.  

I honestly don't know what to think of this one. I've done a Super Spartan, two Spartan Sprints, a Spartan Beast (the same place, even), a Hero Rush, a Rugged Maniac, and a Warrior Dash. I've also done two Goofy's Race and a Half at Disney. I'm used to having to persevere.  I've loved aspects of them all. This is honestly the first one (with the possible exception of the 16ish mile, much higher obstacle density Spartan Beast) I'm not sure I'd do again.  First, the terrain was brutal, but not in a fun way.   You can't have a 10 mile race through ridiculous terrain in the summer in South Carolina without a LOT of water stops - at least one per mile and a half of so.  If you aren't going to do that, you really, really need to publicize that you need to carry your own water and electrolytes.  I suspect that the race organizers were comparing the event to what they did in Florida.  South Carolina is just as hot, but isn't flat.  You've got to take that into consideration.  Their lucky that they didn't have a number of heat strokes out there.  Also, we were promised 25+ obstacles.  In fairness, I may have forgotten about a lot of them, but I can only remember enough to get me into the mid-teens.   I also hate that they packed so many of the obstacles into the last mile - some of that was unavoidable, as it is with any race, but there were multiple time were emerged into a flat area (I say we, I ran solo, but stayed near a lot of the same folks the whole race) where an obstacle could have been placed, only to realize it was just a long out and back that eventually led back to a hill.  Some of the obstacles are truly cool and not represented in other races, but if you are so gassed you can't enjoy them...

I get the idea that you want to have demoralizing terrain.  I get the idea that you want your race to be hard. I get the idea that you want people to say to themselves that they've accomplished something.  Somehow, this race, rather than doing that, made me mad.  I was irritated when I was finished, not proud of myself.  This seemed to be the prevailing opinion of those who finished about the same time I did, as well. I might do it again, because, well, time cures all wounds, but I'll be sure to carry a lot of water and a lot of gel.  Maybe I'll look back on this one with fond memories at some point, but right now, not so much.