The Viking obstacle course is an obstacle course race that has a very limited amount of space for runners and allows only a few to race it each year. Viking is a well known obstacle course among the OCR athletes and it was an honor to get a chance to run it. Looking through the pictures on their FaceBook page does not do it justice. This one works you, it worked me into my first ever DNF (med drop).
Viking Obstacle course is a lovely venue on the Sunny hill golf course in a small town of Greenville, right outside of New York. I entered a contest to win a few ultra race and when I was selected I couldn’t have been happier. I knew the head director from all of the Spartan racing I had run, and was extremely glad to get this opportunity to run a race he helped create. The landscape of the track is mainly trails, with very little effort having to be done on the road. The course is a 10k (6.2mile) course through the woods in the surrounding golf course, throughout the event I heard people playing golf and the deviant in me was pushed to the side of screaming “FOOOUR” every time I saw someone teeing off. I didn’t want to embarrass my running partner, so I swallowed that and just ran. The creator used the woods in a way that made it extremely challenging, along with excitement around every corner. The obstacles were very well put together, regardless of the woodsy fell to each one. I loved the way it was different than any other race I had previously done. The cool thing was, if you couldn’t do an obstacle, they allowed you to take a bead to do a penalty at the end. Want to add a caption to this image? Click the Settings icon.
Bill and I had talked about running a race together at his pace for some time. We were going to run the ultra Spartan race in NJ, but things happened. So, this was our chance. We started off taking it easy for the beginning of the first loop, as we had discussed running 20k together, and then seeing how spent we were and continue at different paces to the end. We started off at a nice 10 minute pace, talking and being into the experience that neither of us had done before. The very first obstacle was a troll trap, I should have realized it was going to be a tough course with the way we worked through that one. (cough cough Bill!) The woods were nice a cool because of the rainstorms the night before and some of the wood was a bit slippery, but nothing really to hazardous. The first real obstacle was called Odin’s Tables. Think of Jack and the beanstalk using a rope to climb down the giants table, it was like that. The woods snaked through over rivers, over logs, and onto some slippery rocks that were covered in moss. Bill and I worked together and go through each of the obstacles’ unscathed and in very high spirits. Until the log walk and traverse.
I want to preface this with; 1.) my strength wasn’t the issue, I had done every obstacle nearly perfectly, 2.) I have good balance, I am a surfer and skateboarder, 3.) I chose the wrong shoes, 4.) the logs were slick, it had rained, I should have known better. I took off on the log walk and decided to use the stand up method, the logs were regular thickness size, and were the length of just about half a tree. There were about 9 or 10 people on the obstacle as well as Bill and I trying to figure out the easiest way to get through. My method was not being used by anyone, I thought it would help me get through faster to help anyone that needed it. I became overzealous and decided, with only one log left, that I was going to make a jump for the nearest tree to get some support and be done. My shoes had a different idea. As I started my quick step to the tree my shoes gave out. I grunted because I knew this was going to hurt. Half of my body on one side, half on the other, my ribs connect with a log as thick as my thighs and lightning traveled through my body.
I couldn’t breath, my ribs were searing with pain, and I felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head. I had fallen directly on my ribs, smacked the log I was on, and broke a log that was holding it up. I could feel everyone had stopped and was staring at me, so I tried to get it together. The volunteer thought I had hit my head or my leg and was very concerned for me. I didn’t want to be pulled to I faked and said I was fine. I didn’t need help and I was going to finish this first lap.
A rope climb, a backwards table, and a traverse grip wall were all it took. After I was successful in the wall I had to fall to the ground, the second my feet hit and jarred my body I felt the pain my adrenaline was covering up. Pain to much I hadn’t felt before traveling throughout my body. I had to finish. At the next log carry obstacle I asked for an ambulance to come and check me out, I wouldn’t be an ultra that day.
I walked through the motions with Bill, as he continued to conquer each obstacle. I was so mad at myself, it wasn’t anything to do with the race, I made a mistake an paid the price. The technical obstacles were awesome and very much higher than the ones at Spartan. I did the rope climb that was on the back half of the race because I wasn’t going to let that beat me. The terrain was used to a perfection I had not seen in a long time. They were deliberate and masterful, graceful and challenging. When they pulled me I was roughly 1 mile away from the end. Bill had continued through and I went to get checked out. He loved the end of the race with some climbs and a swing of sorts. I sat down and laid with my back on the ground and realized how much pain I was in, and I was happy to not go back out on the course. I don’t like to give up, but wanted to not hurt myself any more than I was already.
If you have never done the Viking Obstacle course, then I suggest you give it a shot next year. I will be back and I plan to conquer each obstacle over and over again to gain the title of Ultra Viking. This year was not my year, but next year will be.
