Running Dirty- Chantilly Virginia Saturday September 7th 2013 Review

Let me start off by saying that I enjoyed myself very much at Running Dirty as did each member of our team. We had a crew of ten, six of which were first time Obstacle Racers and the overall mood of everyone was that of a memorable day. That being said, with so much competition to put on the next great race many of the newer races don't always live up to the marketing machine they employ. By providing some constructive criticism, these races have the opportunity to build on things for next year (hopefully) so they can put some pressure on the 'Big 3' to keep them honest.

Obstacles: 6/10
This race advertised 23+ Navy Seal inspired obstacles that will push you to your fitness, toughness and athletic limits. They covered the staple obstacles like berlin walls, barbed wire crawl(s), Log Carry, and Person Carry (No Man Left Behind). They had a few obstacles that were really well put together like Drunk Monkey, Spider Wall, and Going A Wall. These were the only real challenges of the day. Drunk Monkey was an inverted Monkey Bars built over water that started high, went low, and made you end high again. My main critique of this obstacle was the fact that the bars started too high for everyone to reach. My wife, who is 5'1", needed a boost to reach the first bar and had to very carefully dismount as to not potentially slip on the wet wood and crack her head open while landing. This could be alleviated by either raising the starting platform or extending the last bar further above the wood landing platform. I did the bars twice and would rank them as an intermediate difficulty. The main difference in difficulty between  Drunk Monkey and Savage Race's Sawtooth and Tough Mudder's Funky Monkey is the length of the obstacle. Drunk Monkey, while well designed was not very long, which made it less challenging than it's counterparts. Going A Wall, was a roughly 16-20 foot tall A frame wall with ropes to climb. This obstacle was very fun and the pitch of the A Frame made it a challenge. While I did not experience a line in the early wave, my goPro captured quite a long line behind me as I was going up. Another unique obstacle was the Parallel Bars, which added a challenge while running through the trails. Overall I thought that the obstacles were well made but that a few more larger scale and harder obstacles would be necessary for future races.

Venue: 7 /10
The race took place on Ticonderoga Farms located in Chantilly, VA. I actually work at an office about 10 minutes from here and literally had no idea that this place existed. It is a wonderful farm and this rating has nothing to do with the farm itself, but Running Dirty's use of the facility.

The first thing that could have been improved would have been marking the entrance. While Running Dirty had a volunteer standing outside the farm's main entrance, there were no signs signaling that this was the right entrance for the race. In fact, I missed the entrance along with a number of other cars and turning around on the small dirt road was tricky. Once inside, parking was smooth and the volunteers had a good system for organizing car rows. There was about a 1/4 mile walk to registration and everything went very smoothly. This was actually very impressive considering the fact that Running Dirty acquired about 1,000 runners by combining races with Rogue Runner relatively last minute.

They made great use of the trails, but apart from a few mud crawls, there was really very little mud. We ended up being dirty at the end, but the last obstacle was a mud crawl. Aside from that, mud was almost non existent. One of the more frustrating developments was the lack of direction to the shower area and once finding it deciding it wasn't worth waiting on the long line. I ended up washing off in a burger king bathroom on the ride home.

The after party section was well done with corn hole set up and easy access to the beer trucks. The band was really good and our team really enjoyed ourselves. We took pictures with our team as well as other participants. The vibe was on point and I would have stayed longer if I didn't my have to pick my son up from the babysitter. Sadly, Ticonderoga farms had their own food stand area but not only was it not advertised it was a 1/4 mile away from the party area. I ended up getting food on the walk to the car, but definitely could have used a burger while drinking some beers. The burgers were pretty good too!

Post Race: 6.5 /10

A rare but good shot of Chris, Kenise and me!! (Sorry Kel)

One area that tends to be overlooked is what happens after the race. Running Dirty was on Facebook a few days later adding photos and updating the page. As far as photos for this particular race, professional photos were on the low side. Oddly, this is the first race that has captured me in action with a decent shot, but based on the number of participants there are likely a good deal of unhappy campers because to date there are only  323 photos from the race (My wife being one of them). Running Dirty addressed this in a response to a customer post advising, 

"Unfortunately we were not able to use the company we had used before with the timing and photos being done at the same time. Therefore, we have to do these in house/with volunteers and upload the photos/watermark them ourselves. Because of this it takes quote some time. Since we did not have many photographers onsite not everyone is guaranteed their own photo op. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to improve this for future events"

This is unfortunate, but on the positive side they are aware and are taking note for the future. That being said, based on the website and past events, people were expecting more photos and they should have planned better prior to the event.

Overall: 6.5 /10

As I stated earlier I enjoyed myself very much at this event. Despite some shortcomings I would certainly recommend that people sign up for Running Dirty and give it a shot, especially if this is your first attempt at an Obstacle Course Race. For those that have done higher mileage or other bigger name races (Tough Mudder, Spartan, Savage) I would go into Running Dirty knowing that you will have a good time, but as it is currently constructed you may not be as challenged as you may have hoped. With some tweaking and planning this race will be headed in the right direction. At the end of the day, each participant takes something different away from these races. For me it was fun times with friends old and new and experiencing my wife running her first Obstacle Course (and conquering the Drunk Monkey!!) I would definitely Run Dirty again!