Dead End – Apocalypse – August 30, 2015 by Walter F Hendrick (Sandy)
I know I have said/written this often, but Dead End Apocalypse was one of the OCR races I considered a “bucket list/must do” race. Originally my schedule was to race Warrior Dash on Saturday in the state of Pennsylvania and finish early and get on the road and arrive to Canada nice and early on Saturday With a few days prior to the race weekend, I decided I wanted to also race at Tough Mudder, which was also in the state of Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh), but was over a 300 mile drive from the Warrior Dash venue/event. I decided it was worth the drive and ended up doing both races on Saturday and then driving to Canada (yet again) later at night and arriving after 1:30 AM.
Pre-race MC:
Dead End MC Anthony Horng was awesome all day, I ran the first wave of the day, so I had a chance to hear him early in the morning as he fired up the racers and spectators. The funny part is, he spoke French almost the entire time and I couldn’t understand a word he said, but he still had such amazing energy and fired me and got me motivated to attack the course.
I was the last racer to start the course for my third and final lap and was able to still hear him working the crowd and encouraging racers as they approached the festival area. I ended up finishing the this lap just before several of the very last racers on the course and Anthony was aware that two of the racers on the course were doing their very first obstacle course race and unknowingly decided to do one of the harder 12K obstacle races in the sport. When they were approaching the festival area, and last few obstacles, he was on the microphone cheering them on and letting them know that all the volunteers that were just exiting the course were cheering for them as well. This was a moment I think you had to witness to really appreciate.
The Course:
The course started out with a short flat sprint and then turned and went straight up the ski mountain. I was actually a little shocked how long the trail continued on before we arrived to the first obstacle, which was a barbed crawl and then just after the crawl the course went into the woods and up a technical section of the course. The course remained in the woods for a brief distance up the mountain and then exited and came to the next obstacle that was a ladder wall type obstacle. If memory serves me correct, the course continued up the mountain and back into the woods and came to a rope net draped over a boulder that racers had to climb up. What made this obstacle challenging, was that the rope net hugged the boulder and left very little room to insert my foot, so I had to use more upper body strength than I would have expected. The course continued on in the woods just a short distance further up the mountain and then exited the wooded trail and turned and started back down the mountain a short way before coming to the next obstacle that was a hoist type obstacle having to hoist a (semi heavy) object via a rope pulley system.
Just past the rope pulley obstacle, was a very steep mountain descent for a brief distance and then the course turned to the right and went back in the woods and up another technical trail and then back down before coming to the next obstacle that was a very high and challenging inverted wall obstacle. I enjoy this obstacle a lot and find it to always be very challenging, but I do have to point out that on lap # 2 the delays at this one obstacle got really long and caused a long backed up line. After the inverted wall, the course continued down a short distance more and then back up and out of the wooded trails and it was now time to go back up the steep mountain I just mentioned above. The course continued up the mountain and through a small wooded area and eventually made its way back to the top of the mountain and again back into the woods and very quickly came to the next obstacle which was a nice and easy Slackline Tyrolean traverse. The course stayed in the wooded area for a while and the next few obstacles while still out of the direct sunlight where a fence wall climb, a thru the middle of a wall traverse, and then a high wall with a ladder wall attached just above it obstacle that was very challenging and required a great deal of upper body strength to complete.
At this point the course exited the woods and came to one of the Dead End race signature obstacles, which begins with a porta-potty that has no toilet or floor in it and racers had to climb down (where the floor would be) into a trench filled with a lot of muddy water and swim/wade for a short distance until we came to another porta-potty that this time racers had to climb up into and then open the door and exit. After this, the course started back down the mountain and then after a brief trail down the mountain turned back up and back into the woods and more technical trails and zig-zagged back up the mountain for some time. The course briefly exited the woods and then went right back in and started back down the mountain and shortly after arriving to the next obstacle that started with a crawl through a larger truck tire and then a crawl through a camo type net and then to a second section of net that was more like a fish type net. This crawl was brutal on the elbow and knee’s as the dirt had a lot of small rocks and debris in it. Just after the crawl the course went back into the woods and continued down the mountain and came to a shorter wall hurdle and then not far after the wall was a suspended half black plastic drainage pipe that racers had to climb up onto and then slide down a short distance.
Once the course excited the woods, it continued on a short distance and came to a slanted wall obstacle that offered versions with a rope hanging almost all the way down the wall or a more challenging version that had the rope higher up and harder to reach. A short distance later was the next obstacle, which was a wall traverse that started with a wall with foot and hand holds and then had a wall with just foot holds and metal chains and then the wall had a portion with foot holds and very loose vertical rope, which I found to be the hardest section of this obstacle and the last wall was again set up with hand and foot holds. The course continued for a very short sprint and came to a water slide that was pure fun! Just past the water slide was a very challenging warped wall, which I have to admit, if it didn’t have a short rope hanging from the top of the warped wall, I wouldn’t have been able to complete. The warped wall also included a ladder wall section just above it, which for some maybe made it easier, but for most made this an even harder and challenging obstacle. The course now turned back towards the festival area and had a fire jump and then went back up the mountain for a very short sprint and came to a short crawl under a wooden platform.
The course continued down the mountain a short distance and came to a water entry and at this point racers had to enter waist deep water and then swim/crawl through metal/steel water drainage pipe that had water running through it and then exited the water and then looped back around to a Slackline traverse, which I always enjoy because I can do this one while on the top of the Slackline and get across it nice and fast without using a great deal of energy! A short distance after the Slackline was a 6 foot wall climb and then the course started back up the mountain and came to a series of very muddy, and as the day went on, filled with water trenches to hurdle and climb in and out of. After the trenches, the course continued back up the mountain a very short distance and came to a sandbag carry that was a nice short distance up only a short section of the mountain.
Just after the carry, the course made its way back down the mountain a short distance and to a second trench type obstacle that was nice and dry and an easy challenge this deep into the course. Just a short distance further was another water entry and racers had to enter a chain-link fence structure that was set up also in the water and racers had to get pretty low in the water in at least one section. Just after exiting the water was another net crawl and almost immediately after the crawl, now covered in a lot of mud, was a rope climb that was attached to the Platinum Rig. The ropes were not the highest I have seen, but they had a lot of mud on them, which made for a more challenging rope climb.
At this point the course had another short net crawl and went through a shallow running water stream and under a stone bridge (that cars drove over) and then turned and made its way to a lake and the next obstacle that was three white water rafts daisy chained together and racers had to make it across all three rafts and then back into waist deep lake water and back out of the lake. Just after the lake, the course crossed back over to the festival area and came to a black plastic drainage pipe climb obstacle that at least on lap # 1 wasn’t so bad. A very short distance later was the next obstacle, which was a high wall climb and then a crawl through a metal structure that reminded me of something a mouse or hamster would play in. After climbing down a rope and off the metal structure the course came to the next obstacle almost immediately, which was a metal ladder suspended in the air by slacklines. This basically was a monkey bars obstacle, but with the movement the ladder had, it was much harder than a typical set of monkey bars. Just past the monkey bars, was the next obstacle, that was a series of (if I recall) four “8 foot walls”, which at this point on the course was much harder than they sound. Just past the walls came the Platinum Rig, and depending on what version of the course racers were racing was the second from last obstacle.
For those of us doing the 12K (actually was just over 13K) version of the course, it was time to repeat the entire course I just described above, but this was Dead End Apocalypse and just doing a second lap was not going to do and the race directors decided to up the challenge in a big way and required racers to carry a 30 pound sandbag with them almost the entire second lap/loop. All I will say about taking the sandbag along for the trip was I made a huge mistake at the porta-potty obstacle and dropped my sandbag in the water and ended having to carry what for the most part turned into a bag of concrete the entire rest of the way that weighed more in the neighborhood of 50 pounds.
The only obstacle left at this point was one last warped wall, which after dealing with everything I described above was a nice and easy challenge and fun way to end an amazing and challenging course.
The final twist and very cool surprise, was after completing lap/loop # 2 and completing the course was that racers were told to cut open the sandbags (which I didn’t do, because I took mine home with me) and locate their finisher medal inside of them. I ended up doing a third lap and noticed at least five or six sandbags left on the course, so I guess those people left with no finisher medal!
The Bling:
The bling is insane awesome, the finisher medal is big and sexy and a combination of yellow and black chrome and it’s solid and weighs a lot and is different than the one I received only a month or so ago, which I personally really liked. The finisher shirt is a very cool red shirt.
Overall Feelings and Event Rating:
I really enjoyed the course and even though I was dreading the thought of having to carry a sandbag for lap/loop # 2, I enjoyed the challenge of that as well. I want to point out then when it comes to racing on mountains, size doesn’t always matter most (lol), as an experienced race director can design a course that takes advantage of a mountains strongest/most challenging attributes. So don’t always judge a mountain from the parking lot prior to a race based on its size. The course had a lot of challenging obstacles; Dead End race kept it a secret (for most racers) regarding having to carry the sandbag for the second lap/loop and doing this was a risk and one that I think worked well.
The staff and volunteers were all awesome (which I have come to expect in Canada), she bling is top of the line, so based on all of these factors, I am rating the event/race a 4.9 out of 5 stars.