Bootcamp Challenge

Last week Russ and I went to San Diego. We planned our trip around the Bootcamp Challenge race that he wanted to participate in. It was a 3 mile course with several obstacles and drill instructors along the way. This year marked the 20 year anniversary of the year that he completed boot camp so he thought this would be a fun way to mark the occasion.

We arrived in San Diego on Wednesday and the race was on Saturday morning. We spent our days sight seeing, eating, drinking, and relaxing. It was a great trip!

On Saturday morning we were to be at MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot) by 6:30. We got up early and took our hotel shuttle over to the base and had no problems getting on and to the spot where we needed to be... which meant we had a lot of time to kill. The actual race kicked off at 9:00 am. There were booths sat up though so we just walked around and saw everything.

Russ had decided to run the race in his boots and utes (utes=utilities=cammies). He had received his packet and race number in the mail only the day before we left for our trip. He happened to receive two race numbers and coincidentally, he received number 666 as one of them. Quite the coincidence for the "Devil Dog" so of course he wore that one.

Shortly before the race began they were going to have a safety brief. This guy took the stage:

And he immediately yelled for everyone to drop on their faces. Thousands of people dropped quickly into the pushup position. Me - well... I high tailed it out of there to the side of the crowd. Russ, he dropped as quick as any of them. They did push up after push up while yelling what they were told too... "Marine Corps", "Motivation", "Dedication."

The sea of people doing pushups:

Russ up:

And Russ down:

When the safety brief was over it was time for the race to begin. The colors were presented, the anthem was sang and then the race was off.

The start:

Russ at the start:

After the race started they had shuttles that the spectators could get on to go over to the obstacle course and watch your participant complete it. I watched Russ start and then hurried over to the shuttle area. I got on the second shuttle and they dropped us at the obstacle area. I immediately knew that I had missed Russ because there were guys walking and a lot of older and overweight guys. I knew there was no way he was in with this group. I snapped a couple of pictures and then hurried back on the next shuttle so I could see him finish.

When I got back to the finish area the clock read 33 minutes so I thought he should be finishing anytime... 3 miles plus obstacles. Nope, I was standing watching and he came up and tapped me on the shoulder and said "How am I doing?" Darn it - he had already finished!! I missed his ENTIRE race (well, besides the grand start)... Total bummer! No good pictures. :(

So, here he was after he finished in 28:53:

We hung around for a while, each had a beer and saw the results posted and then walked around the base a bit. We stopped to take a picture because this was his battalion when he was here:

It was a great race, well organized (with the exception of the shuttles). We had a good time. We went back to the hotel that day and just hung out, relaxed, ate some pizza, and mourned the fact that it was the last day of our trip.

Now we're just planning where we want to go next... :)