Preface:
I am just an average Joe. I can run 3 miles on a good day. I don’t lift weights, use the machines at the gym or otherwise train seriously. But I love a challenge and fell in love with OCR immediately. My philosophy is: I may not be the best runner, but I WILL do all the obstacles.
Grit ‘N Wit was a combination of physical obstacles and mental challenges. The idea was great and the execution was pretty good for a brand new race. Unfortunately, turn-out was not high, but hopefully we will see this race back again next year as there are plans in the works for a spring race.
The race started off with a short uphill sandbag carry. At the top of the hill was the first puzzle: memorize the order of the colors in a pie-sliced circle. Back down the hill and drop off the sandbag, then up the hill a second time and on to the next obstacle, a wooden ladder. After the ladder was two color wheels, where you had to decide which one was the correct order of the colors. The correct answer led to a short series of tires, while the wrong answer had twice as many tires for you to run through. Of course, the results of your answer were hidden by a small hill so you couldn't cheat.
Next was a set of inverted monkey bars, which I actually managed to complete! After the monkey bars came the next mental challenge. Sudoku with cinderblocks. There was a 4×4 square number and you had to rearrange the cinderblocks to get the numbers 1 through 4 in each row and column. There followed a trivia question, several 4 foot walls, a 10 foot wall that required teamwork to get over, and a word scramble.
The most challenging obstacle was both mental and physical at the same time. You had to walk an inverted balance beam while solving a maze. The maze was a large wooden box that made it difficult to balance while getting the golf ball from one side to the other. After a spider web of stretchy ropes, the last puzzle was a two-for. Answer a 50/50 trivia question, then solve the matching puzzle. The wrong answer (me) required solving a harder puzzle.
The obstacles and course were not overly challenging, but were fun. There was both field and trail running, roughly 3 miles. The event was untimed and the festival area was rather small, typical of new races. Some of the vendors left before the final heat, which was the volunteer wave.
I hope to see this race come back stronger next year, as it was fun and interesting. I give this race two out of five stars, which is plenty of room for growth.
—–Caryn DeCrisanti—–
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