The Experience of My First Obstacle Course Race

I seriously questioned my sanity for joining Lion Dash 2014 just one day before my 2-week army reservist. That meant forgoing recovery before attending to military duties. Nonetheless, despite this being my first obstacle course race, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

While I had been nervous about not being able to overcome all the obstacles, my worries were unfounded. My regular functional training had paid off.

The Obstacle Race Experience – Lion Dash 2014

I started the obstacle run intending to stick with my team. But I ended up moving ahead with my ex-platoon-mate during the first kilometer. Again, during my final few kilometers, I went on ahead alone, finishing at 1 hour and 6 minutes.

Trail running & natural obstacles

With a trail distance of 8km, the run between obstacles was within my abilities and physical stamina. However, I lost count of the number of obstacles that I had traversed. Mud running on uneven trails and jumping over, or crawling, under fallen trees were obstacles in themselves. And I didn’t know if they counted towards the planned obstacles.

I also nearly dislocated my ankle twice from attempting to speed up despite poor footing on the trails and managed to sustain several cuts from scrapping against branches.

Nonetheless, crawling through mud and wading in waist-deep swamp water were easy. I have done it many times before during army outfield exercises and obstacles.

The Most-Hated Ice Pit

The ice pit, on the other hand, was another story. The shock from jumping into chest-deep ice water left me guffawing and convulsing.

Yet, I believe the Lion Dash Sprint is less physically demanding than other obstacle races around the world. I will just have to make do until Spartan Race decides to come to my area.

You can look for Spartan Races around the world and near you here.

Photos of Logen at Lion Dash 2014

I will let the pictures do the talking from here on. I need to slow down and look at the camera in future obstacle races so that the photographers will take more pictures of me.