Rebel Donut Dash 5K (Race Recap)

Over the long Labor Day weekend, I ran my first race in New Mexico! It also happened to be my first obstacle race and my first race since surgery. Raisin Bread and I signed up for the Rebel Donut Dash 5K. Although there was not much information available when we registered, it looked like it would involve running, obstacles and donuts. Not a combination that had crossed our paths previously, but why not?

We arrived at Balloon Fiesta Park around 7:35 am on race day for our 8:00 and 8:15 am start times. We picked up our race shirts and heard an announcement that we would not be starting until 8:30 am. Um...great.

There wasn't much to do but sit around and wait.

Rebel Donut van

So we took selfies and sat in our car to pass the time.

We finally started by around 8:35 am and just ran together since the event was starting so behind schedule.

The course was set up so that we completed most of our mileage first and then did the obstacles. We ran about 1.5 miles out and back and then wound up in the field where all of the obstacles were set up.

At the water stations, water and donuts were available!

Cinnamon sugar donuts at a water stop

The half dozen or so obstacles were all pretty simple and easy to complete, which I liked. They were also optional, so if you wanted to skip something, it was up to you. I don't think I could hack a Spartan Race or Tough Mudder type obstacle run, but this was just the right difficulty level for my clumsy and easily bruised self!

There was a tire...I mean donut run.

A wall climb

I wasn't quite sure what we were supposed to do at this obstacle besides maybe crawl through the tire, but it seemed like a good photo op!

Some strips of bacon we needed to jump over

A teeter totter

A balance beam

The last obstacle was a run through foam, which I skipped.

We crossed the finish line at 39:16! Not bad for taking our time through the course and not having run very much at our new high altitude location!

After crossing the finish line, we each got a donut! Yum! I only got through half of it before I went into sugar overload.
 

Overall, I thought the event was a lot of fun, especially as I start back up on my running and half marathon training. I was also impressed that the race was chip timed. All of the fun runs I have done in the past were not timed at all, and some other races were only clock timed. There were some issues with the organization of the event, such as the late start and not communicating event details until the last minute. It was still a fun start to our long weekend though.

We also went home with donut-themed t-shirts, koozies and keychains.