Race Review - Rugged Maniac, Temecula, CA 2019

Last month I had the opportunity to compete in my first Rugged Maniac race in Temecula, California. Here is my review of the race and some details about my experience.

The Company

Established in 2010, Rugged Maniac is a North American obstacle course race founded by Brad Scudder and Rob Dickens. In 2013 Rugged Races LLC were invited to compete on the tv show, Shark Tank. Mark Cuban reached a deal with Brad and Rob for a $1.75M investment and 25% equity in the business.

The event has since expanded to 30 events in the United States and Canada each year.

Why Rugged Maniac?

I had never run a Rugged Maniac race, but it has always been on my radar as a possibility for a free weekend. I canceled a previously registered race for that same weekend and now I had an open date to race. On a whim, I entered an online contest with LATF USA News for a free Elite Heat registration. I’m not the kind of person that wins contests, but I figured why not drop my name in the hat.

I won the contest! A free Elite Heat registration to the Rugged Maniac race. I was beyond excited to have won the contest, and to finally get my first chance to experience Rugged Maniac.

The Venue

The race was held at Galway Downs Equestrian Center in Temecula, CA. This was a 2-hour drive for me, with a departure time of 5:30AM to arrive in time to get registered, warmed-up and toe the start line at 9:00AM.

When I arrived, I was happy to see that there was plenty of event signage and volunteers already out directing traffic to the parking area. Parking was $10 which I think is reasonable. Since it is an event location, we parked in a designated gravel parking lot right next to the event. That was also nice as there was no long walk to the event, or shuttle.

Galway Downs is nestled in a valley with rolling hills on all sides. It was a beautiful warm Southern California morning, highlighted by hot air balloons setting adrift on one of the opposite hillsides.

The venue itself was held on the equestrian grounds that appeared to be designed for cross-country horse riding and show jumping competitions. The main festival area and start/finish point for the race were in a grass field that I would imagine are used for polo or horse riding.

The registration/check-in area was right up front and very well staffed. You get your bib, wrist bands, and your race shirt at check-in.

The Obstacles

The first mile of the course was a fast sprint across the polo field grounds. As you can imagine, this was basically as flat of a course as you might find in obstacle course racing. The first three obstacles that we encountered were, Shoe Catcher, a sprint through several small ponds designed for horse cross country. Then Tank Buster, a series of toy jack style barricades on the ground that you had to weave through, and Barricades which is a 4ft high wall with a rolling bar on the top.

From this stage we moved behind the venue into an all dirt track. Obstacles encountered here were Jacob’s Ladder, Jump Start, which is a series of dug out pits that you can attempt to bound over with the right speed and rhythm. Following that we got our first taste of mud in The Trenches, then onto Pole Position, which is a 4-5ft high shelf that you have to bring yourself up onto, then slide down a fireman’s pole on the other side.

A short run and then we hit Sled Dog, which is a weighted sled pull with a rope. Back in the mud again with the Commando Crawl, then a series of dirt mounds for the Quad Burners.

It was a really nice refresher to enter the Iron Curtain. This is a water pool, with hanging rubber curtains that obstruct your view as you run/walk from ankle deep water to then drop down into waist high water. I enjoyed this one just to cool off and get the mud off.

Right away we then got to Mind The Gap. One of the fun things about Rugged Maniac is that they have a series of inflatable obstacles. For this one, you climb up using hand and foot holds, jump a small gap to the other side, ascend to the top and slide down the other side. I way underestimated how fast the slide down was going to be, and I jumped up on the top and started my slide a bit sideways. I flew about 5ft off the end of the slide and landed on the hard dirt. Luckily, I didn’t seriously injure myself. Just some deep bruising to him hip, but I nearly got my arm caught underneath me which would have been really bad. I would definitely recommend that Rugged Maniac place some safety equipment here like mats or hay bales.

Next was Slippery Slope, a slanted wall with a rope to climb over, followed by Head Scratcher which was another mud crawl under barbed wire. This was a well placed obstacle, because just ahead was Barzan. Barzan is a monkey bar traverse obstacle, but it has some horizontal and vertical bars, and the bars are at different angles and heights. This was way harder than I expected and with slippery wet and muddy hands I did not fare well and ended up in the water. Barzan was probably my favorite obstacle though, because of the technical difficulty.

We then hit Pull Your Weight which was a weighted rope hoist obstacle. Next was Antigravity, which was more fun than I expected. After stepping up onto a platform, you jump onto two trampolines as you make your way to a cargo net covered climbing wall. Then Fenced In, once again put us down in the mud as we moved under metal bars through a troth of mud. We then immediately hit a large dirt mound to ascend on our way to Hell And High Water. This is a really fun water traverse where you are moving across floating plastic barricades while also using swinging ropes. We then jumped down into covered trenches for Claustrophobia, which was about a 50-meter army crawl.

One of the best obstacles of the race, Off The Rails, was next up. It’s best to take a running start and grab the rope overhead as you lift your legs and glide along a rail out to the end of the structure to hit a bell and fall down into a cold pool of water. This was a lot of fun to do, and to go back and watch racers attempt later in the day. Everyone had smiles on their faces.

As we entered the last 250 meters of the race, we were brought back into the festival area for the final obstacles and finish. First, we encountered Full Tilt, which is a monkey bar ladder that tilts forward as you reach the midpoint so that you go from climbing upward then to climbing down.

The grand finale, and finish comes with The Warped Wall, Mount Maniac, and Accelerator 3.0. It takes an explosive sprint as you attack The Warped Wall, which resembles a skateboarding quarter pipe. I was fortunate enough that my run and jump reached the top, and I was able to pull myself over. Once you’re over the top you traverse a cargo net for Mount Maniac to reach the summit of Accelerator 3.0. Accelerator 3.0 is a 50ft high inflatable water slide. You splash down into a pool of cool water, then make your way over the barrier and you’ve crossed the finish line.

I felt like all of the obstacles were well built and safe, besides my comment about the issue related to Mind The Gap. There were volunteers at all of the water-based obstacles which was sufficient for this race in my opinion.

The Swag

When you cross the finish line you get your finisher medal. They also had bananas, oranges, waters, Rx Bars, and possibly some other snack for finishers.

First, second and third place overall finishers for both women and men received additional special medals and prizes, as did the first overall 50+ woman and man.

Post race free beers were provided. I honestly cannot remember the brand, but they offered a blood-orange wheat beer and an IPA.

The Festival

The festival area was well organized with sponsor vendor tents setup around the perimeter giving away free samples. From what I can remember there was an energy drink company, a protein drink company, a protein bar, possibly a local bank, and the sheriffs department.

The main stage was the focal point for awards and a beer stein holding contest. The MC and DJ were a good pair and did a good job of providing race information, but also keeping the atmosphere light and festive.

In addition to the beer tent, they also had a food tent that was offering snacks and it looked like grilled hot dogs and burgers.

No discussion about an obstacle course race venue would be complete without mentioning porta potty’s and changing areas.

I arrived at the event early, so the porta potty’s were clean and well supplied. It appeared to me that they had more than enough, but people at the end of the day may have a different experience?

They did offer a “shower” off area, which was really like a series of elevated water pipes with pretty light sprinkles of water coming out. Despite that, it was still good to rinse off a bit before putting on clean clothes.

The changing room was the standard four walled tent. It would have been nice to have a few chairs inside and possibly a table, but it’s just nice to have a place to change so no complaints from me.

For a bonus, if you make your way over to the merchandise tent you can pre-purchase races for next year for only $29. I went ahead and bought two race registrations!

Any Disappointments?

I really enjoyed the race. If there is anything that I could find to be disappointed in, and honestly, I’m being nitpicky in my opinion, is that they didn’t have a well-organized finisher photo area. I didn’t get a post-race photo and that would have been nice.

Besides that, I would just suggest that they place some safety equipment below the slide at Mind The Gap.

Conclusion

I had a blast at my first Rugged Maniac. The location and venue were excellent. The Rugged Maniac staff and volunteers were great. The obstacles were unique, fun and challenging.

I’ve already pre-purchased two races for next year, so I’ll be back for more Rugged Maniac racing in 2020. I hope to see you out there!!