Abominable Snow Race 1/27/18 Lake Geneva, WI
Weather: Mid-high 30s, sunny
Trails: hilly, windy, and mostly muddy! Patches of snow/ice
on the trails, a lot more on the ski hills.
Distance: 4.8 miles, no mile 4 marker - very confusing!
Arrived in Lake Geneva around 5 PM on Friday and went
straight to packet pickup at a local bike shop. Saw the Yeti (guy in a Yeti
costume), he got lots of honks from cars when he was on the street corner! Got
my bib, swag, chip, and various accoutrements, except the hat (which they had
to run out and get more of, and would be back in 10 minutes). I took the time
to get a sandwich and some chocolates at downtown stores, went back and got my
hat, and drove to the hotel.
Left my hotel at 7:45 AM for my 8:45 AM heat. Traffic was
minimal, well organized to get to the parking area. The wait for a shuttle bus
took a little while, about 10 minutes, but two buses arrived at once and we
made it to the staging area at around 8:15. I got myself ready, deciding to
wear my jacket since it was colder than I thought it would feel. I figured I
could take it off later if needed and tie around my waist. Checked my bag and
went to the start, where I hopped over a wall to get into the start area (what
is with OCRs and hopping over 4’ walls?) and Coach Pain gave us a motivational
talk about how negativity is a cancer. (He apparently had multiple speeches
prepared because someone else heard a “Don’t Fake It Until You Make It” theme.)
Then we got started! Immediately we had to climb an icy hill and people
realized how reliable their traction control methods were (I had brand new OCR
shoes on so I felt like a mountain goat, relatively speaking). I managed to jog
a good amount of areas in this entire race, as long as they weren’t too muddy
or uphill.
Course map
Obstacles in order (I may not have remembered all of these
accurately. The names of most of these obstacles were listed on the map, but
there was no reminder of what they were exactly. A few of these might be mixed up!):
Ice Breakers (wood ladder-style wall about 12’ high. Rungs
were slightly slippery, but easy)
Barricades (over a 4’ wall, under a wall, then through a
wall with a gap at 3’. Easy)
Cold Snap (I think this was the inverted wall – I had to use
the support beams to get up. Thank god I’m tall. Otherwise I wouldn’t have had
the reach.)
Abominable Forest (muddy trail)
Alaskan Oil Rigs (oil rig shaped towers 17’ tall, had to
climb them and ring the bell on top. Muddy, so they were slippery to climb. If
I hadn’t had such height and good reach, it would have been way harder.)
MILE 2 MARKER
Winter Weaver (7 beams about 3’ apart on a light A-frame,
like a house roof, had to go under one beam and over the next. Elites could not
touch support beams. VERY hard. I fell once then decided to use the support
beams to give me leverage – if I got my foot under it I could pry myself onto
the next beam. Easier on the back end. This is where I started yelling out “I’m
middle-aged!” and another dude was like “And I am an overweight middle-aged
man!” LOLs all around!)
The face of pure exhaustion.
Rocky Sled Pull (pull weighted sled, men 3 sandbags women 2.
I put the rope around my hips and went at it. Tough on muddy uphill parts
because it was hard to get purchase – there were 2 uphill bits – but overall
not bad. Approx ¼ mi. Another “thank god I’m tall so I weigh more” moment)
Hurdles (3 walls approx. 4’ tall – tough on the crotch!)
Polar Bear Crawl (bear crawl under cords, approx. 200’ total
broken into 2 parts – easy crawling, but muddy as hell, gloves got soaked and
covered! The volunteer was a teenage or college-age guy who was VERY intense,
just screaming motivation at everyone. I told him “I wish I had your energy!”
and stood up at the end to go, and I hear him say behind me “…it’s cumbersome.”
Not sure if he was talking to me or not, but it was a good response!)
Abominable Wall (8’ wall, a lovely man let me climb up him
to get to the top, then I just got myself dangling off the other side and let
go. Easy with that guy’s help!)
Cliff Hanger (traverse wall, section with outcroppings above
and below, I slipped off this twice due to muddy shoes. Passed the middle
section, which was a flat wall with some rope loops to hold onto. EEK, LOL. Got
back on when 3rd section was the same as the first.)
MILE 3 MARKER I THINK
Himalayan Climb (climb steep ski mountain using a rope. A
bunch of us were doing it in a row and I said “this looks like an Everest
documentary.” Guy behind me was way faster than me, I’m glad the hill ended
when it did or he would have been waiting on me.)
Deadliest Net (climb up cargo net and down the wood ladder
steps on the other side of the A-frame. About 25’ tall. Intimidating but not
hard)
Queen of the mountain
Himalayan Descent (slide on your ass down an icy hill. At
the bottom was glare ice so I slipped when I got up. Only time I slipped the
whole race! There was a medical snowmobile at the bottom and I said “it’s a
smart place for you guys to hang out!” LOLs all around!)
Polar Vortex/Slip Wall (very steep wall, need to keep feet flat and lean
back using rope to climb. I did okay on this, I took off my gloves and got
almost to the top but then my feet slid out and I hit the wall pretty hard.
Knocked the wind out of myself a bit but tried to not show any weakness. Did
not attempt it again!)
Snow Thrower (use a slingshot to hit a target with a small
ball, or do 20 burpees. I am not sure if I hit the target but the volunteer
dude said “you’re good.” It was tricky! But I couldn’t have done those burpees,
I was still recovering!)
Himalayan Descent 2 (another slide on your ass, this one
less icy at the bottom)
Avalanche (climb over 3’ tall snow walls on the side of the
ski hill. Easy, but dang those hills catch up with you. We went up that
mountain SEVERAL times. And down. And up.)
Lumber Jacked (log carry, approx. 40-50 lb log for about
300’. I started with it on my shoulder but that bothered my neck so I held it
in front. Not too bad but I grabbed a heavy-ass log, not some lady log)
THE LAST GAUNTLET – finally, obstacles all in a row with no
long muddy trails in between!
Avalanche Part 2/Tubing (ride a tube down the mountain! Very fun. Easy on the
cardio, haha. I’d been waiting for this one because at one point we’d carried
the tubes back up the hill from the bottom, and I thought that meant the tubing
part was coming soon, but then we went off into the forest again. When I got my
chance I picked a nice big tube and went belly-up. I slid pretty far but
checked behind me before I got up and a dude was barreling toward me, he
knocked me a bit farther and I made sure EVERYONE had come to a complete stop
before I got up, LOL)
Arctic Assault (two 4’ walls)
The Apex (wall with rope holds and a steep pitch that you
need to traverse – I failed very quickly, the ropes were so small and the knots
on them were too small to get a good grip.)
FINISH! 2:01:40 on my watch. Got my medal, water, banana,
and cocoa easily. Bag pickup was easy, changed in the trailer after a 5-minute
wait for a stall (there was no water in mine, according to the guy ahead of me,
but I wasn’t going to shower anyway). The changing trailer steps were very
narrow and I slipped right off it coming out and fell on my butt. “Are you
okay?!” “….Yes.” Embarrassing, but I was uninjured, besides a large bruise on
my left buttcheek. Stretched near the bathroom trailer and got on a bus to the
parking area. Easy out!
Pros:
-Organization. This race was very well-planned. The staging
area was small enough to find everything easily. Very nice to have heated
trailers for changing and bathrooms, as well as free bag check. Had option to
go to the nearby ski lodge to stay warm. Course was well marked.
-Course. Good mix of obstacles both standard and unique,
varying from easy to extremely difficult. No burpees punishment required (except
at one obstacle), but if you were Elite you could only fail 2 obstacles
maximum. The terrain was quite hilly and somewhat technical, especially with
the mud. Would be slightly suicidal to run through a lot of that.
-People. Both volunteers and participants were quite
friendly, as were the proprietors of the Lake Geneva shops/hotels I visited.
-Swag. T-shirt, hat, wristband, and a fantastic medal. Good
value.
Cons:
-Not a big post-race spread. Just bananas and water, plus
either a beer or hot cocoa. I chose hot cocoa since I needed to drive home. This
didn’t really bother me since it’s an all-day event and hard to keep a big food
spread temperature-controlled that long. Plus Lake Geneva has plenty of
restaurants to grab lunch.
-Lots of potential for disaster. It’s due to the time of
year, really, but if you do this race you are taking a big gamble with the
weather/traveling and with cold and flu season being in full swing. The latter
really hurt me this time, although not as much as it could have.
-Parking. It cost $10, which isn’t as bad as some races, but
the lot was quite remote from the start line and required waiting for a
shuttle, which was a bit of a crapshoot.
-No bag at packet pickup. Such a nitpick, but I don’t like
it when races make me carry all the stuff they hand out at packet pickup.
Please provide a cheap plastic bag! Fortunately because I am female, I had a
purse to stuff it all in, but what would the men do?
Race Grade: A. The cons are really minor compared to the
stellar level of the pros. Just a great event.
