5K Obstacle Course Race
Challenges Await!
ThunderDash Obstacles + PRO Tips:
#1 Pond Crossing
This obstacle is the first you will encounter. It can be congested so watch your spacing. The bottom of the pond is basically 12” to 18” of shoe sucking muck with some aquatic plant life thrown in to wrap around your ankles with the “soul” purpose of claiming your shoes. The aquatic wild life (frogs) will make their displeasure with you invading their pond known vocally.
PRO TIP: make sure you tie your laces and double knot them, use duct tape around the laces
#2 Over/Under
Hey! It’s a 4′ wooden wall with barbwire…what could possibly go wrong? The name says it all, OVER the first wall and UNDER the barb wire. Repeat two more times.
PRO TIP: think of the TV show COPS so you have your own personnel soundtrack of “BAD BOYS” in your head as you evade the pursuing law enforcement
#3 Muddy feet
We just threw this one in to annoy you. You can go over the wood if you were a high school steeple chase runner and are confident in your ability to not face plant in the mud or slither under the rail on your belly in the mud… your choice.
#3 Shark Pit
No there are no sharks in the mud. We built this obstacle back when SHARKNADO 1? 2? or 3? was all the rage. Barb wire, mud pit and a 30’ climb up the berm, what more do you need? You do earn a beautiful hill top view of the ranch!
PRO TIP: Once again shoe sucking mud looking to claim your shoes. Gloves would help on the steep climb for those of us with delicate hands and fancy nail polish
#4 Tunnels
You’re going to get down and dirty here! 24′ long tunnels right down in the mud which one year ate a wedding ring. We were able to find it with a metal detector 3 weeks later after we pumped 3′ of rain water out of the trenches.
PRO TIP: Think like a snake and slither your way through. Practice dragging yourself forward on your elbows.
#5 Black Berm
Probably the easiest looking obstacle yet historically the best team building location. The ropes installed for you to get over the berm are just a LITTLE too short to reach from the mud pit. The baby shampoo added to the mud doesn’t help either.
PRO TIP #1: If you’re on a team grab the smallest member by the extremities and toss them up the hill to grab a rope, then use them as a ladder
PRO TIP #2: If you’re an individual runner help a team out throwing their smallest person and be the first to climb over them
DEVIOUS PRO TIP #3: Once you and your team are all over the top pull the rope up so nobody else can follow you
#6 Tightropes
Scared of heights? You will cross a 20’ wide chasm that is 8’ deep and littered with the bones of past participants… not really, the bones are mostly what the coyotes collect and leave around the ranch.
PRO TIP: Turn sideways and grasp the top rope and shuffle sideways across ropes. Some of the ropes are closer together for those of us that are “vertically challenged”
#7 Climbing Wall
You know those climbing walls that you see at all the Market Days or County Fairs where you are roped up in case you fall? This is nothing like that, this is all you. First some 2 x 4s then a flat wall with blocks and a VERY vocal cheering squad to get you up and out of the ravine.
PRO TIP: The army handbook states that for any work over 3’ off the deck you have to have 3 points of contact at all times; that means 2 hands and 1 foot OR 2 feet and 1 hand in contact with the wall at all times. I think when I get to the top my belly counts as 2 points.
HISTORICAL TRIVIA: In the spring of 2015 the walls were completely washed away. Some of the framing you can still see half buried in the run off while the majority of the structure probably made it to the Guadalupe River 1 mile away and beyond
#8 Spiderweb
Training video for the women:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUPQfzAyVeI
Training video for the men:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX2_LCUkhDs
Or if you don’t want to train slither under all the ropes. But realize the local deer really like this area and might leave some “jelly beans” on the ground for you.
HISTORICAL TRIVIA: When we had our first trial run event this obstacle was installed late Friday night. The night crew finishing up the course could not find it in the dark and it was left off the course only to be found Saturday afternoon during teardown
#9 Fire Poles
Ever dress up as a firemen as a kid for Halloween? Ok maybe as an adult? Or maybe you are a fireman! Back in the good old days firemen slept upstairs and slid down a pole to the garage and now you can too! Climb 12’ up, reach out to the pole and with a leap of faith step off and slide down. Just watch the chafing on your thighs!
PRO TIP: For “dainty hands some gloves could help and DON’T LOOK DOWN!
#10 Tired Out
As the name implies this is where you might start to feel the burn. Navigate under the tarp and over? or through the tires in your path.
#11 Dead Tree
Nothing too hard, just a big dead tree in your path.
PRO TIP: Look for the game camera and ham it up for the pics!
#12 Wave Wall
Climb up on one of the 4 sides and “shimmy” along the rails leaning in and out. If you have a team start on opposite sides facing each other and tickle them when they are leaning back
#13 Barrel Roll
What’s your inseam? Mine’s 32” but I still can’t straddle the barrels. Go head first with your hands out or sit on your butt and swing your legs over.
PRO TIP: The barrels roll!
#14 Tire Wall
As daunting as this obstacle looks only ONE person chose to take the longer way home last year! The staff working this obstacle are highly motivational and safety conscious.
PRO TIP: No kidding here, the army way is the safe way. Three points of contact at ALL times.
#15 The Abyss
Some participants will look at this and just run over the edge and disappear into the…….wait for it……Abyss!
PRO TIP: We did a lot a work burying the 3 poles with ropes to help going down the slope, use the ropes
#16 Not So Almond Joy
The course is the widest at this location at approximately 150’ wide. This gives the participants the option of running their own route through the hills and valleys of “Mounds”…Get the name now?
PRO TIP: Pick your route wisely because there are random swamps full of mud and or water located throughout the Mounds
#17 Cattail Quarry
Depending on the amount of precipitation the course experiences you might have an inner tube island, a floating platform or just some nasty mud.
PRO TIP: Be prepared!
#18 Ladders
You have a choice to make here. How do your arms feel? A knotted climbing rope, rope ladders and welded steel ladders are your only way out of the quarry.
PRO TIP: The ropes and rope ladders require lots of energy to climb. The steel ladder rungs are not evenly spaced and can catch you by surprise. Choose wisely
#19 Monkey Bridges and Cloverleaf
Four rope bridges will get you across the gorge while giving you a nice view of what’s ahead. Using the rope to get down to the elevated walkway will take you under the bridges you just crossed.
PRO TIP: Don’t look down but do look up
#20 Loch Ness
Pile O Trees to climb over. You pick your route.
HISTORICAL TRIVIA: Our 2nd race a nest of paper wasps had moved into one of the dead trees, luckily one of our staff found them before anybody encountered them in a bad way. Wasp spray just p#$@ed them off more so we rerouted the course around them.
Race 0 Wildlife 1
#21 Tire Pit
This was one of the older quarries on the property that we have filled with old tires, and of course mud.
PRO TIP: Your about 2.75 miles into the course and the muscles are pretty tired. Watch your footing climbing the pile of tires
#22 Frog Xing
Once again you will become intimate with the local wildlife. The frogs were here first and will still be here Saturday afternoon once everybody goes home.
PRO TIP: Keep your mouth closed. You wouldn’t want to inadvertently swallow Kermit
#23 Swamp Crawl
Barb wire, mud and now Cow Bells! I need MORE COWBELL!!!! First into the mud then over the A frames and back into the mud, this is a mud run right?
HISTORICAL TRIVIA: Two years ago we had a lot of rain. It took us two weekends to find all the parts of this obstacle that had floated off
#24 Rolling Pins
New in 2016 the participants all shared one thing after climbing out from the swamp crawl. When presented with the rollers they gasped “REALLY?”
PRO TIP: Lay down on your belly and reach up to the next roller and drag your muddy slimy self up the incline. Be sure and take note of all the bib numbers stripped off the earlier participants, don’t worry, that’s why we have a second chip on your back.
#25 The Final Pit
Laura insisted on this last mud pit so that you would be nice and muddy for the finisher picture.
PRO TIP: Seek out Laura before you shower and give her a BIG HUG. She requires 10 hugs a day.
#26 Slip n Slide to the Finish
Is this an obstacle or a childhood memory from summer times past? Take a slide down towards the finish line, you’ve earned it.
PRO TIP: Don’t just sit there and wallow in the mud with your team. Get up and run across the finish line and set your own personnel record…. Don’t forget Laura’s hug!
General Tips:
- Bring a cheap paper paint suit with you to the race. Even though we have great showers when you start to dry off you still might be a little dusty. Wearing the paint suit on the drive home will save that rich Corinthian leather in your car
- Showers: At the finish line follow the signs down to the pond to get rinsed off. We have great water pressure with only a few frogs sucked upped in the pump.
