Terrain Race New Jersey August 4th
Terrain race is an OCR that has been growing in popularity on the west coast for a good part of the last eight years. It’s call to “Conquer your terrain” ring true as they set up their obstacles wherever the location. I first heard about terrain race three years ago when they had their inauguration race at Englishtown, NJ. The price was fantastic and they had an option to run the race as many times as you wanted in a day for a small amount. Of course I chose to pay extra and run the race for a 35k obstacle course. This year I was not able to run the adult wave, due to breaking ribs and bruising a kidney, but I would NEVER let my kids down…so Mini Monkey rejoice!
My three mini monkeys were so excited when we pulled into the parking lot of Raceway park, Englishtown NJ. , 8, 5, and 3, were ready to get muddy and have a great time doing it. My littlest donned her butterfly wings and was ready to run! We had a 10 o’clock start time and were going to make it just barely. I got them all signed in, bibs on, and over to the start line we went. My son went to the front of the start line and left the girls with myself and their Gaba. The commentators or hype men, not sure what they were called, did such a great job getting these kids psyched for the race. They joked about the way to get prepped, I believe his name was Dustin? All of the kids got their wiggles out and got ready to run. With the chant “Who are we?” “MINI MONKEYS” they were off.
The half mile course was set up just brilliantly. The kids found their feet and took off for the first couple of yards and onto a balance beam. Middle child hit the ground running and continued to the crawl through mud and ropes, I made her get down and dirty…hey I was saying it was ok, I wanted her to have fun. The tire pull was next, followed by the sand bag carry, neither were tings the kids and I worked on. Then….the best part of their day. The race director or volunteer stood and said “jump in, get muddy, get dirty go go go.” A little tentative at first she stepped one foot at a time, then jumped in and ran through. After that, she didn’t miss a single puddle or mud and said “oh baby this is the good stuff.” She finished the race, had a great time and posed for their mini muddy monkey picture. My son had finished before us, so we all went back to cheer on and run with the youngest. We found her laughing and singing as she was running up some dirt hills with her Gaba. She high fived everyone she came across and I had all three of them go through the finish line together.
As the race ended each one got their race medal and shirts. The festival area opened into a huge downpour and it added so much to the wonderful day. The kids ran around in the rain and played in the puddles without worrying about getting dirty or yelled at for getting wet. In the festival area there was a few different places to get some gear or some free samples. Rx Nutrition was there with their bars and pastes, really something to try.
My lasting impression of Terrain Race was the same as it has always been. This is a great race for anyone at any level. The masters can have a great race through the woods and test their metal on some of the rigs they have. It’s also perfect for new people to OCR, there are no penalties, I heard one volunteer say to a person who looked distraught at the rig, “hey buddy, I just want you to try, you can do more than you think.” What a positive message! I will be back to Terrain Race, NJ next year and as always I plan on doing the unlimited laps. It’s a great test to see where you are with your training and doing the unlimited loops helps you test yourself for future races!