It's always a privilege and blessing to be invited to Dan "Nitro" Clark's Gladiator Rock N Run 5K in Orange County California. In case you were wondering...YES that is THE Nitro from American Gladiators!
Immediately arriving on site, I noted the amount of people having fun, laughing, and smiling. The grass area had tons of sponsored booths, food trucks and most importantly...the beer booth.
Everyone was muddy, wet and laughing a lot. Thats what I love to see. This year the selection of food, merchandise and sponsored booths, gave athletes quite the variety to enjoy. Boy, do we love choices!
One of the biggest things I love and I mean absolutely LOVE...is how Dan interacts with everyone. Not just some people, but everyone that is running. He's at the start of every wave, getting everyone pumped up before take off. Not only that but he takes notice of the biggest team, which of course was the Weeple Army!
The course had tons of rocks and dirt. The first thing we accomplished was a hill, then cargo nets. I love the height of the cargo net, it allows those who are afraid of heights to conquer their fear. Up next there was a big wall, called Walls of Fame. Up and over and your done. Again perfect height. The mud pit was kinda long and my friend lost his shoes during one point of the mud walk.
Some other challenges included:
- "Buddha's Burden" which included picking up a sand bag and carrying it around a giant Buddha and dropping it back off. I honestly think they could have made it harder with a longer a carry or adding burpees at the end. I did the walk with sand bag carry with no hands hahah. I carried it on my shoulder and walked just fine.
- "Cinder Block Burppes" was ruff. Who wants to add a cinder block up and over then back down for a burppe? Hahahaha exactly. But we did it.
- "Rope climb" I loved this challenge. There were ropes with and without knots. I'm glad that was an option, some athletes don't need knots and some do. We love choices. Again, I saw some great teamwork. Cheering on others and some holding the rope steady for others.
- "Polar plunge" was needed at the start and at the end! Polar was just a pool of ice cold water. Because of how hot it was, I wanted to swim in it a little longer hahah. Perfect cool down right before finishing.
- "Morning Wood" made you work together as a team, carrying a really big heavy log around. I really enjoy team challenges. Lets get everyone on the same level and work together.
- "Mud Madness" challenge was a mad crawl, I wasn't a fan due to the lack of water. But lets take into consideration the drought we have going on here in California.
- "Tired out" was an accurate name for a challenge. Grab a tire. Put it over your neck. Do lunges. Adding weight to lunges, in hot weather can add for a hard work out. People were tired by the time they reached this obstacle, but from this obstacle you could see the finish line, so we pushed through.
- "The Beast" was right at the end of the race. Let me tell you going up a muddy wall at 90% degree, grabbing on to a rope that is super muddy, it's really hard. I stood back to watch people attempt this challenge. Let me tell you its always a good laugh because its just a really hard challenge. You see so many giving it there all. Not only that, but the team work that goes into it was super inspirational. At the top of the wall, there was a line of people helping others up and over. That's so awesome to see complete strangers helping one another. By the time you hit this obstacle, you're so tired! For me, I don't use my legs, I use all upper body. I didn't need any help. I was so proud to see so many accomplishing this.
Great job Gladiators!!! Dan you put on another amazing OCR event. Stepped up your game again this year with new shirts, new obstacles and completely tiring us out ! I will definitely be back! Wait, did I say that out loud :)