Rugged Maniac

The Course

The Obstacles

Hill Climb – You won’t find this obstacle listed on the course but you can see it the moment you pull into the parking area. The Wilmot, WI course was held on a ski slope and they definitely make the most of the natural features. Right out of the gate, runners ascend the long, steep hill. Proper pacing is critical and will set the tone for the rest of the race. Its easy to start out too aggressively and burning too much energy early on. The course winds around sending runners up and down the slope several times.

A-frame – Back at the base of the ski slope, a ladder-walled A-frame structure waited. The obstacle stood around 10 feet high. With a ladder structure instead of solid wall, there are plenty of hand and footholds to make the climb pretty simple.

Tire Run – I wasn’t entire sure what to expect from running through a gauntlet of suspended tires. If you ran this obstacle in a crowd, the extra movement might have made it more challenging. Without many racers around, the tires didn’t really have enough weight or momentum to make movement difficult. Tires also littered the ground beneath the suspended tires making it important to watch your step. More people were tripped up by those tires than where knocked down by the hanging tires.

Mug Crawl – No obstacle course race would be complete without a low crawl in the mud. The Rugged Maniac obstacle had a thick, sticky mud base with a wet top to splash up at you. The barbed wire was fairly high so you could get away with crawling on your hand and knees instead of getting down into a true belly crawl.

Stepping Stumps – This obstacle was made up of four or five tree stumps in a row. They were probably about three feet high with maybe four feet between the stumps. They weren’t that difficult to cross and there was also no penalty for falling off.

Steep Hill – Aside from the elevation change of the course, there was a proper hill obstacle with ropes to help with the ascent. The hill was dry and grassy so it would have been much more challenging if the hill had been muddied up.

Tunnels – The Rugged Maniac tunnels were very well executed. The concept is simple, just drop into a hole in the group and crawl until you reach the other side. The tunnels were long enough that there was a stretch where you couldn’t see daylight at the other end. A couple racers ahead in my tunnel were definitely freaking out a bit. The bottom of the tunnels were rocky and pretty harsh. I spent some time picking gravel out of my knees after the race. I found some more several weeks later…

Water Tubes – These plastic tubes led downward into pit of muddy water. Once you wade through the muck, you can crawl uphill out a tube on the other end. The tubes are corrugated so sliding down would be a little rough but the tight quarters makes crawling down a little awkward. Climbing out is quite a bit easier.

Water Slide - This obstacle is more or less a nice long downhill slip and slide. It was a good opportunity to cool off and there was a bit of a line so runners could catch their breath while they waited. A head first dive is always the fastest way to go but be careful to avoid taking out any stragglers who haven’t cleared out of the wading area at the bottom.

Fire - Many obstacle courses feature a fire obstacle. This one was pretty weak. Maybe I just arrived at a lull in the flames but there really wasn’t even a need to jump to clear the fire.

Overall Obstacle Difficulty Rating: 2/5

Hardest Obstacle:

Time: 45:48

Mud Rating: 1/5

Clean Up:

Atmosphere: