I’ve been considering running an obstacle/mud run for probably a year, now. At last, I’ve signed up for one nearby — the Rugged Maniac run in Asheboro, NC, on April 20th. A 5k (3.1 miles) run with 20+ obstacles sounds like it’ll be a ton of fun. My family will be going with me to cheer me on.

But I find the signing up process a bit . . . underhanded.

The price to sign up increases as the date nears the race day, and that makes sense. It’s cheaper to sign up early. No problem with me there. But once you go through the signing up process, you come to a point where you have to buy insurance ($9) to participate. This is a mandatory “option” — you have to check the box for this charge to complete the sign up.

If this charge is mandatory, why isn’t it just included in the price of the registration? Registration is $78. Why not just make it $87 with this insurance included if there’s no choice in the matter? Doing it the way they do, (“forcing” you to click it during the registration process), seems cheating.

And then once the registration is complete, and it’s time to accept the charge to my credit card, I see in the line item list, a “processing fee” of $11.64. What the hell?

Excuse me. At this point in writing this post, (at 9:15p.m.), I just had to respond to a cry out from Calfgrit8. He threw up in his bed. So I had to console him and help him clean up. I then had to change his sheets and blanket, clean up the bed frame and the floor and his trashcan. He’s now back in his newly cleaned bed, hopefully to sleep through the night, (though I doubt the night will pass without another incident.) Parenting — it’s a messy job. I expect to take him to the doctor in the morning.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, a processing fee. A processing fee? Basically a charge to take my registration payment? Really? What was originally listed as $78 turned out to be almost $99.

The only thing that kept me from saying, “Kiss my ass,” and not finishing the registration was that I had already spent a couple of weeks, (if not a year), psyching myself up for doing this run. This little underhanded gimmick, this addition to the registration process is straight-up dishonest bullshit. Yes, I paid it. I’ll admit to being a sucker for working myself up to accepting this. But I’ll also announce this surprise in the registration process to anyone thinking about signing up for a Rugged Maniac run. And unless this experience is just over-the-top fantastic, I’ll not do another RM run. They’ve turned me a bit sour to their organization with those surprise fees. So they have a much higher bar to leap to make me happy about the end product, (the obstacle run experience).

Bullgrit

We just got back from our third-annual mini vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge. We needed this. The boys needed the chance to swim and slide and play and get a lot of “track out” energy spent off.

And Wifegrit and I needed some peace and relaxation and alone time, (while the boys played without our complete attention every minute). It was a chance for all of us to spend some time together away from home responsibilities and distractions. We were all able to reconnect a bit as a close family.

Unfortunately, the outdoor temps were lower than the previous years we went there, so the pool water wasn’t quite as comfortable as we, (we = Wifegrit and I), wanted and hoped. So we parents did little swimming and sliding, (although we had to do the Howlin’ Tornado once). The temp didn’t matter at all to the boys.

As this was our third time at the resort, we got a free upgrade for our room. In previous years, (and planned for this year), our room, though very big, was one open area. We had two queen size beds, (plus a pull out sofa that we never pulled out). But our upgraded room actually had a separate “master” bedroom with a [lockable] door. Very nice :-) It was great that Wifegrit and I didn’t have to lay still and quiet after putting the boys to bed at 8:00. Plus, having the extra bedroom meant it was an extra bed, so each boy had his own queen size bed to himself, while we adults got a king size bed.

All in all, this was a very pleasant and relaxing few days out of town. It was good for recharging our physical batteries and rejuvenating our mental stability. Tomorrow the boys go back to school for their last quarter before grading up in the summer. It looks like spring is going to be a good new start for everyone.

Bullgrit

I love this car!

Bullgrit

This is why most bags aren’t see-through.

Bullgrit