Sunday, May 6, 2012

The Dirty Hog Race - Laurinburg, NC

Yesterday I took an hour and forty-five minute drive from my home near Charlotte to Laurinburg, NC to do the Dirty Hog race. There was another mud run, The Thunder Challenge, going on at the same time in the nearby town of Raeford but I decided to do the Dirty Hog for a few reasons:

1) Longer Distance - the Dirty Hog touted a 9-12 mile course with about 30 obstacles that sounded quite challenging on their website.

2) Mystery Challenges - I was intrigued by mystery challenges that determined the difficulty of your course.

3) It was a shorter drive to the course.

My biggest fear going into this race was that it looked like a new mud run promotion. I am no expert at organizing these races but I am sure the logistics to get just one off the ground can be a daunting task and I appreciate the effort that has to go into it.

There is plenty that can go wrong on race day.  Unbearable  long waits to do obstacles is one issue that has arisen in a few races that I have done but the absolute worst is when a course is poorly marked leaving the race participants in utter confusion and frustration. Most people who enter these races take the race seriously and want to get everything out of it that they can. There is nothing worse than knowing that you missed challenges. These races are not cheap and people want their money's worth. I know I do.

I guess you know where I am going with this.  The Dirty Hog had some really impressive marketing. It sounded like they had it all together - at least on paper. The marketing appeared on par with the more established races like the Warrior Dash, Tough Mudder, and the Spartan Race but the execution was probably one of the worst I have seen.  The event itself appeared to be an exercise in over-hyping and under-delivering.

The race map made lots of promises that fell far short.  Here are some examples:

Obstacle #3 MX Hell promised "1.5 miles of grueling watered down motocross track, sure to slip you on your ass."  The reality was that there was more sand than there was mud.  It was like running on the beach for most of the course.

Obstacle #5 Hineys - "High knees through tires up a watered down hill."  The reality - tires up a slight grade if at all and dry as a desert.

Obstacle #6 Blue Baller - Jump into a blue ice cold pit.  The pit was no deeper than slightly above my knees.  It felt great.  With temperatures starting to push into the 80s in the sun - this was hardly an obstacle but a way to cool off.

Obstacle #9 Where Pigs Fly - A rope climb up and then a deep cold muddy plunge.  I do not recall any ropes.  It was a jump into deep muddy water that completely submerged me.  So that one they got half right.

There were supposed to be Reality Show Style Challenges - I do not recall encountering any except for shooting the paintballs with slingshot at a target.  I missed the log carry completely.   The barbed wire over the mud pit was so high that you could bear walk on hands and feet with your butt up in the air and still easily clear the barbed wire - no need to military crawl.  I did get to do a car push, tire flip, sand bag carry and a high wall climb which were the most challenging of the obstacles.

I could have dealt with some of the obstacles falling short of their promises but that wasn't the worst of it.   The course was poorly marked and the race was not properly staffed with enough knowledgeable  people who could give directions.  Even the people at water stations and the obstacles had no clue about where to go next.  After going for about an hour and a few minutes in what we estimated was about 7 miles or so - (not 9-12 miles as advertised) - I found myself back near the race start with a group of about 15 to 20+ others who had no clue where to go.  There was no staff in sight to direct us to the next part of the course.

We looked around for a few minutes then finally decided to just head to the finish line out of frustration.  Nobody was happy.  We all wanted more but did not know where to go to find it - and nobody could help us.  Very disappointing.

So I learned my lesson.  I think I will stick with the big name promotions next time.  I may try the Spartan Beast in October down in South Carolina and then eventually the Tough Mudder.  I'll keep you posted.  When it comes to new mud race promotions - do your homework - and don't fall for the hype like I did.