Gladiator Assault Challenge

The slope we hiked up to get to the starting line

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of completing my first ever Gladiator Assault challenge! My husband Thack and his Army buddy Adam had done it last year and came home telling me that it was harder than Tough Mudder so I went into it with high expectations.

The event was hosted at 7 Oaks in Boone, IA. Knowing it was taking place on a  ski slope I came better prepared for hills this time, but only by a small margin. (cut me some slack it takes time to become a hill master!) 

Race day was sunny and hovering around 50 degrees, perfect for a road race in my opinion. When it comes to obstacle races which will undoubtedly require you to jump into freezing water more than once, it was a bit on the chilly side but not unmanageable. We started out hiking to the top of the slopes to get to the starting line. Some people hated it but I thought it was a good warmup. From the top you got a good view of a few of the other obstacles including cargo nets for climbing and "Leap of Faith" which is basically a plank you jump off of into a lake. 

The course promised 30 obstacles packed into 5.3 miles. We started off down the ski slope which didn't give much opportunity to run right off the bat. I was literally surfing in the mud at a few points. At the bottom they had dug pits with hills over the top (think mud mile if you're a Tough Mudder) the water was FREEZING and I will say they were a bit tough to get out of. After that there were some climbing obstacles and low crawling. None of it crazy, just good muddy fun. 

One portion that stood out to me was "Toast" It was basically a muddy trench with water at the bottom but you had to walk/run through flames to get to the end. They had banked fires at the top billowing  walls of smoke in front of you so you couldn't see and had to go by feel. Mentally it was a bit of a challenge for me. Jumping over fire, yes. Running through fire on a flat surface, sure. But trying to get through it on slippery muddy terrain knowing I would have to go slowly and wouldn't be able to leap or dash through had me a bit shaken. My strategy was to scoot down into the trench and then get up as quickly as I could to pick my way through the flames, trying to avoid slipping into the trench because I didn't want to fall butt-first into fire. I focused on watching my feet and made it through in what I would guess was under 60 seconds. Not horrible but I definitely did not want to go through that portion again. 

One of my favorite parts of the event were the beautiful stretches of trail we got to run on. We wound back into the woulds and up and down the sides of some pretty steep hills. At one point we were actually "running" down the middle of a creek but the water was clear and cool which around mile 4 actually felt pretty good. 

The last obstacle was a cargo net and once we got over it we were able to head down the chute where we received our medals and a choice of Blue Moon or Coors Light and the obligatory free banana. There were even oranges for the Blue Moon! (Well played GAC, well played!)

We met some fun people along the course! Lots of Cross Fitters and trail runners, who would of course be a perfect fit for the event. Overall I really enjoyed myself and was only mildly crippled the next day. Though it wasn't easy by any means I felt the main portion of the challenge was in the cardio, not as much the obstacles, which I wasn't expecting. I think this would be excellent for someone who is a stronger runner or is just trying an obstacle race for the first time. 

All in all the day was a smashing success and I would love to participate again in the future. That being said, and meaning this in only the nicest way….

It's got nothing on Tough Mudder ;)

Thack and I post race! Cheers!