Race Review: BADASS Dash, Nepean, Ontario, Canada – July 19, 2014

Location

This BADASS Dash was held at the Nepean Equestrian Centre located at 41 Corkstown Road. It was easy to navigate to and was just north of Hwy 417 on your way to Ottawa. Garmin found the location easily which is sometimes not the case. There was good signage at the roadway and upon entering the 200+ acre park signs were everywhere to direct you accordingly.

Parking

As you entered the park you were greeted by Steve who was very friendly and directed us to our parking spot. Parking was $15.00 per vehicle and there was plenty of it and close to the main registration/race kit pick-up tent. The lot was varied with some gravel, grassy areas, and cement and you could come and go to your vehicle with ease.

Registration/Race Kit Pick-up

Racers had the option of picking up their race kits prior to the event, at a local Ottawa Running Room, or they could attend the park on the morning of the race starting at 7 a.m. The first heat was the Elite’s at 9 a.m. The race kit included your timing chip (shoe tied) and tech t-shirt. Plenty of volunteers were on- site to direct and scan you in to avoid any lengthy line-ups.

Bag Check

Bag check was available on-site free of charge, however, vehicles were close enough, as mentioned previously to come and go to if you did not want to check an item.

Washrooms

There were ample port-o-lets on-site near the main venue area and it appeared to have main building access for additional facilities and change areas….we chose to change at our vehicle instead.

Race Details

Spectators are free and can sit along the course and watch the event. We arrived early and jumped in at the 10:15 heat to avoid waiting. The course is flat and fast and would be recommended for those who want to run and improve their times with little to no elevation changes or extreme obstacles.

Some of the more creative obstacles along the 7Km route included the lily pad crossing, transport truck cargo climb, spider web shower and cargo net inflatable slide climb. Other obstacles that became somewhat repetitious were the horse log jumps (way too many, but made sense since we were at an equestrian centre) and weaving in and out of the tree lined roadways.

The K9 course seemed popular and drew a new crowd to this type of venue and the racing kids seemed to really enjoy the energy of having the animals around while racing to the finish line.

The volunteers were well designated with bright t-shirts and were very motivating throughout the course. Most obstacles had a volunteer to monitor and enforce the rule to do burpees, push-ups, superman planks or sit-ups if anyone chose to forego any obstacle. One of the obstacles appeared to be unmanned as we ran through an open barn; it looked like it would have been volunteers tossing balls at you? But there was nobody on-site.

Attitude

One of the joys of these races, normally, is helping out fellow racers over obstacles and supporting them throughout the course. During our heat, many racers went by without a smile, wave or friendly hello, I had one young fella’ push past me on the backwards cargo crawl. It is sad to see how ‘arrogant’ some of the ‘team racers’ have become, forgetting that they are in the ‘recreational heat’ and that some of those racers are first-timers and will be heavily influenced as to whether or not they will do another event, based on how accepted they felt.

Finish Line

Upon completion of the two bouncy rooms (very fun) and the inflatable slide climb (also fun, but needed to be wet!) you rounded the bend to the finish line. To our disappointment the MC had disappeared and the two medal girls were off chatting, so we passed the finish line with no fanfare and went to grab the medals ourselves. The finish line had fresh orange slices, water, cereal, energy drinks and bananas and was well-stocked.

Vendors/Entertainment etc…

The merchandise table was easily located and the only other vendor was a chip truck on-site. Photos could be taken at the main podium area, as selfies, but there was no live entertainment to be found. Tech shirts are unisex so pick one size smaller for female racers.

Medics were on-site and their tent was clearly marked.

Overall turnout was approximately 430, not bad for a first time location.

Prizes were awarded to the top Elite racers.

Communications

This race definitely had great communications and sent out reminders and discount codes throughout the lead up to the race. Their FB page is current and photos and race results have already been loaded and released. Special thanks to Brett Pegler for keeping me in the loop and Brian Sharenow for the great interview!

Overall a family and pet friendly event with basic accessible obstacles.