Vote: 4 out of 5 Fitness Dojo Roundhouse kicks. Strongly Recommend
Reviewed By: Bryan P
For the third straight year Fitness Dojo and Team Martial Arts Fitness Center ran the McGuire Mud Run. As in previous years, “The Beast of the East” did not disappoint. Plenty of trails, sand, water and mud to go around McGuire runs a very well planned out race. We ran this race together as our running team usually does and finished under the hour mark, so let’s get dirty one more time as we review this event.
There are 17 obstacles listed on the website, which is pretty decent for a 10k mud run. Everything from mud pits, swampy running, trail running, road barricades, water crossing and more. The Beast offers obstacles that are challenging but not impossible to tackle solo. A real positive for this event is that our group didn’t have to wait at any of the obstacles, this helped keep us running and our race time down. A big upgrade from last year was that there were plenty of water stations this year. Last year, they had run out of water at many of the water stations by the time we ran the race. Not a problem this year. In the first half of the race we came to what was called the “Dragon Teeth”. These were dirt hills with wood on the front and back side. These were fun to run up and slide down the steep backside. The Mud Mountain was a 20 ft. high muddy mountain of dirt. As we approached this obstacle there was a good 30 ft. or so of knee high muddy water to run through and then up to the top, back down the other side and into the water again. Due to the rain leading up to race day, one of the sand pits from last year was filled to about chest high water. This was a nice way to cool off half way through the race. In the final stretch of road, the nice people at McGuire opened up a fire hydrant for us to run through. This proved to be a great way to shower off after we crossed the finish line. We skipped the lines at the showers and went back to the fire hydrant to hose off. This proved to be much faster. Overall “The Beast” is a great course for first timers and veterans of obstacles races. McGuire runs this race very smooth and our experience went without any problems.
Here are some thoughts and things that could make this event even better. Overall this course was basically the same as last year’s course. The course as a whole is a very good course, but new obstacles would be welcomed. Our chip timing seemed to be off a little. We timed ourselves using a watch and the times didn’t match up to well. Two years ago, McGuire had hidden ammo cans hidden throughout the course with prizes in them. We found one and carried it about 3 miles to the finish and still have it. It was a cool souvenir to take home from our first time running the course and we think they should bring it back.
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