SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- More than 100 individuals participated in the Rough and Tough Scramble July 17 at the Schriever Fitness Center.
The mud run obstacle course was part of the Schriever Week celebration, which honored 65 years of "Mastering Space." The week's events included an opening ceremony and a base picnic.
Michael Benson, 1st Space Operations Squadron, and Micky Sederburg, 2nd Space Operations Squadron, were part of the Schriever Week Committee and coordinated the race.
Other base agencies including the 50th Force Support Squadron, 50th Civil Engineer Squadron, Schriever Fire Department, 50th Space Wing Safety office and 21st Medical Squadron also played a role in making the event a muddy but safe reality.
The 2.25 mile course included a low crawl through a mud pit, a swim through a muddy pond, tire flips, burpees, lunges, pushups and more. Racers competed either individually or as part of a team. The teams completed each obstacle together and received a time score based on the last member to cross the finish line.
"It took about two months to plan and I think it was a huge success, given the amount of participation, positive feedback and happy but dirty faces," said Benson.
Thomas Taylor, 3rd Space Operations Squadron, competed as part of 3 SOP's Tommy T. House of Pain team. He said the race was a great team building event.
"My favorite part of the course was the burpees in the mud pit, but having the walking lunges directly after was the most challenging part," said Taylor as he stood covered in mud and dripping with murky water from the course.
He said they weren't trying to win but he thought his team did very well overall.
"It was just for fun and I will definitely participate if we have another event like this in the future," he said.
Winners for the event were John Zincone, Air Force Space Command, for the male category with a time of 19:05 and Cherrilee Sederburg, 302nd Airlift Wing, for the female category with a time of 22:10. The team winner was the 50th Operations Group Standarization and Evaluation Division. The winner of the best costume was the "Ultimate Warriors" team, which was voted by the volunteers.
Benson said building the course was absolutely messy given it was a mud run. He and Sederburg spent nearly an hour on building one part of the course alone. Ultimately it took them three days to build the entire course from start to finish. Luckily the storm prior to the race provided the perfect amount of water for the mud, he said.
"The fire department originally was going to provide water to create the mud but they didn't have to because of all the rain," said Benson.
He added that next year Team Schriever can look forward to a bigger, better and messier run.
Benson wanted to thank everyone who helped make the event possible.
"I am extremely grateful to all the volunteers who came together to put this event on and make it a tremendous success," he said. "I hope that the success of this event will ensure this is not the last of its kind."
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