This past weekend was a two event weekend. After returning from the Ragnar Trail Relay in Zion and a good nights sleep on Sunday morning I got up and prepped for the Mountain Meltdown Event in Park City. The Mountain Meltdown is a 5K with 5 WOD’s (workouts) mixed into the event. It is put on by CrossFit Park City, Chris Spealler’s gym. For those in the CrossFit world that name should sound familiar. I was excited about this event as it’s sort of obstacle race, sort of running race, sort of CrossFit. Prior to the event WOD’s were sent out to all the competitors to let us practice prior to race day. The event featured two divisions, the first had an additional weight burden and the second was just you and the WOD’s.

I met a few of my fellow Ute CrossFitters and we headed up to the ski jumps and Olympic Park in Park City. I was drawn to this event for a few reasons, one trying something new and in all honesty the swag. When we arrived and checked-in we were given our swag consisting of a 5.11 tactical backpack, Skull Candy headphones, a trucker hat, beanie, tank top, some nutritional samples, and a Mountain Meltdown patch for the backpack. Some serious swag!

As we got there it was snowing and windy. Definitely some more interesting weather for the weekend! We hung out until they called us for the warmup. Chris Spealler gave us instructions and walked us down to the starting line. He instructed us on the race and the order of the WOD’s. Basically it was a run up the road to the top of the bobsled run with workouts along the way then a run down with one last workout. We brought it in for a “chump change” cheer and then we were off.

A few hundred meters into the run we reached the first WOD  – 40 dumbbell snatches. There were weights ranging from 70 pounds down to 20 pounds for all levels. Definitely feeling the effects of 20+ miles of running and no sleep for two days I opted for a lighter option going with 30 pounds. After completing the WOD I continued the run up the hill to the second WOD 20 – 15 – 10 Wall Balls and Pull-ups. This was a tough one and definitely gassed the system after the run up the hill at elevation. This workout had scaling options from jumping pull-ups to air squats instead of wall ball. As I was finishing up Hannah, one of my fellow Utes cheered me on as I finished up. I cheered her on and kept going.

After more uphill climbing and some serious vertical we reached the next WOD. This WOD was 3 rounds of 50 meter lunges holding a plate overhead and then 20 box jumps or step ups. It was here that one of the volunteers joked around that they had water or beer for us if we wanted it. I turned my head and said, “really?!”. He said, “sure if you want a beer we have PBR.” Not one to turn up beer I finished my sets, walked over to the case of PBR took one proceeded to open it and start drinking. I think I surprised the guy, but he was definitely stoked and give me a “that’s awesome” as I ran away beer in hand drinking as I ran. He said I was the first of the day to actually take him up on the offer. Soon after Mitch one of the other Ute CrossFitters grabbed a beer, together we started our own beer division.

A little more running uphill we reached the next WOD – 50 Burpees. That’s it just 50 burpees. Nothing like doing Burpees around an elevation of 8,000ft. I put down my beer, I think confusing some of the volunteers wondering why I was running with a beer. I did my 50 burpees picked up my beer finished the other half of it and tossed it in a trash can before running back down the hill to the last WOD and finish line. After the two days in Zion the beer hit the spot and as I ran down the hill I hit my stride and sweet spot. The final WOD was 5 rope climbs and 4 shuttle runs then finish. I modified my rope climbs as I knew I was tired from the weekend already and finished off my shuttles running through the finish line.

I grabbed my post race drink, and waited for the rest of those from Ute CrossFit to come in. Cheering them in as they all crossed the finish line. Afterwards we all enjoyed a post race beer and watched more finish. Overall, this event was super fun and approachable for all levels. Hopefully we will have more of them in the future. It was a great combinations of several types of events and just might be the future of some obstacle racing just adding in some walls and such along the way. No mud needed just some ass kicking challenges along the way.