ROC-in' and rollin'

a couple of months ago, there was a really fun-looking 5K obstacle course in san diego.  from the looks of the website, the ROC ("ridiculous obstacle course", duh) race was totally that show "wipeout" brought to life for regular folks like me.  i was a little bummed that it was too far for me, but shortly after they wrapped that race up they announced that it would be coming to the OC.  um, yes please.

the only sucky part about registering for races like this that aren't particularly local to me is the fact that bib pick-up is generally close to the hosting venue on the day before.  this was no different.  and so i found myself driving down to fountain valley on a friday afternoon to grab my stuff.

the next morning, the hub and the girls piled into the car with me to head down to irvine for the race.  turns out it was being held at the old el toro marine air base, and it was weird and cool to park our car on what used to be a runway.

it was a huge space though, and perfect for something like this.

as my family took off in search of somewhere shady to wait for me, i made my way towards the start line.

it was pretty stinking hot.  just standing there, waiting to get started, i was already wiping away the sweat dripping down my face.  ew, i know.

after a short run, the first obstacle came into view: the "con-cree-stadores."  i'd seen something like this before a few months ago at the diva dash.

as i was panting and wheezing, trying to catch my breath from jumping over about 95 of these things (okay, not really, but there were a lot), i heard someone calling my name.  i turned and came face-to-face with one of the ladies i'd previously only "met" via the facebook page for a local moms' running group.  while i'm not usually into running races with a buddy, it was kind of fun to have someone to go through this one with.  and she was really nice, so there's that.

next up, the "belly flop drop."  although i was a rebel and slid down on my bottom instead of going down head first.

i actually attempted to take a video of me on the tarzan swing, but it didn't work.  oh, well.  let's just say i made it across, but not without getting my feet completely soaked in what was now muddy water at the bottom.

mile marker!

i lack decent upper-body strength.  lucky for me, my new friend was perfectly willing to give me a boost so that i could make it up and over this wall.

reggae music was blaring from the next obstacle, "cool runnings."  i picked up a tube to slide down on, ran up the ramp, and attempted to slide as gracefully as i could down the other side.  except that i picked up a lot more speed than i'd planned on - and stupidly had my mouth open as i landed into the pool of water.  i ended up with a mouthful of gritty, sandy water that also found a home in my eyes.  blech.

but hey - it was nice to cool off a little.  the sun was kicking my ass and i could feel it burning my shoulders as we trotted through the course.  "tire mile" (it wasn't quite that long, but it felt like it) and the tight rope traverse came next.  we managed to get through both obstacles without landing in any more muddy water, and found that we'd also completed the second mile.

in case you're wondering, "aqua drag" has nothing to do with dudes looking like ladies.  instead, it's basically an adult-sized inflatable slip-and-slide.  not wanting a repeat of the cool runnings obstacle, i ended up totally misjudging the speed i needed to get through this thing and came to a grinding halt about halfway through it.  when i say "grinding," i mean it - my right leg and knee were scraped all to hell up and down one side from rocks that found their way onto the slide.  ouchie.

i am useless on monkey bars.  i think i touched about two bars before i slipped off and scampered to the other side through - yup, you guessed it - a foot of muddy water.

at least the rest of the obstacles were really fun.  i had a blast jumping up and down on the world's biggest moon bounce.

the wrecking ball loomed ahead of us, just past the moon bounce.  the hub had texted me to let me know that he'd overheard people talking about making sure to get a wristband from the staff here to pick up a medal at the finish line.  and then chatter around us told us that we had to actually get all the way across without falling into the water in order to earn the wristband.  as we watched just about everyone on this thing lose their balance and fall in, i figured there was no way i was gonna get through it.

but i surprised myself as i took that first tentative step...and then another, and another - and found myself standing on the other end with nary a drop of muddy water on my person.

my friend managed to get across it too, except that when we went looking for those wristbands - the ones that you absolutely had to have to claim the bling - nobody knew what we were talking about.  big WTF to the organizers here.  hmph.

that's okay.  we were having a blast at this thing, and were almost done with just one last thing left to conquer.

do you SEE how tall that damn thing is?  holy crap.  i'd seen it at the beginning of the race and just about shat myself imagining going up that ladder and then sliding down.  but the adrenaline kicked in and after scampering up all those steps, i jumped up, landed on my ass, and went flying down that slide.  i gained so much damn momentum that i slid allllll the way to the very end of it.  hell, i almost fell out the exit.

fini.