5K Foam Fest-Nashville Race Recap

*DISCLAIMER* The majority of my opinion of the event in general had to do with the weather. I know that we can't control the weather but you can control some things.

5K Foam Fest-Nashville

This took place right outside of Nashville on a Cowboy ranch/farm event location. I did the race with 3 of my friends. One of my friends husband came and took pictures of us. Bless Steve's heart because it was miserable!

Pros:
-Glad we had an earlier start time (8:40)
-Glad my SUV had 4 wheel drive
-Glad I have great friends that stick together
-The first couple bouncy/foam obstacles were so fun!
-The lodge that had the fireplace burning
-We got medals for this race and a cool shirt.

Cons:
-It was 44 degrees and raining. After the race, my hands were so cold, I couldn't move my fingers to open my granola bar. :(
-The trails we had to "run" on were impossible to run. Way too muddy. Way too steep in some areas, thought we were going to wipe out and hurt ourselves.
-Lack of race personale/medics on the course. Saw several people, including my friend, who had to stop and we didn't want to leave her incase she needed someone.
-Long lines for some of the obstacles in the middle of the race.
-The water obstacle lines (inner tubes specifically) were crowded and people wouldn't keep moving.
-We skipped some of the obstacles because we were freezing and exhausted. We wanted to save our energy to climb the big death drop slide at the end of the race. (Skipped the double 8 foot wall climb, the cargo net, the electrical belly craw, the second inflatable slip n slide, and unfortunately the death drop slide)
-When we finally got to the death drop slide, a race attendant was waiting telling everyone that the first slide was closed due to 3 people breaking their ankles and the second slide was a "go at your own risk" because they didn't have enough water to make the slide slippery enough. We opted out because we didn't want to risk.
-We had to park across the street in a huge field. Luckily, I had 4 wheel drive but LOTS of people were getting stuck in the mud and they only had 1 tractor to pull people out.
-We didn't have any way to rinse off any mud and then because we parked so far from the actual race and had to walk back to our cars, we had to hold towels up for each other to change in the cold out of our cold, wet clothes.
-Not many photographers on the course and not many places where our friend could get to, to take pictures of us on all the obstacles.


It seemed like the Foam Fest race company didn't consider the amount of rain and cooler weather Nashville was predicting for Saturday. I know they said it was a rain or shine event but I feel like more people would've enjoyed it if they would've post poned it. Next time it would be better to plan for it in June, July or August.

Honestly though, I'm not quite sure I'm a mud runner. I enjoyed the foam bouncy houses but all the mud and water/mud pits, not a huge fan. Regardless of the weather and such, I did complete the 5K Foam Fest and can mark it off my list!

I'll leave you with some pictures!

Heather, Me, Nicole, and Emily (Freezing but not realizing what we got ourselves into)

Walking the plank over to the starting line. I'm pretty sure that we had more flooding during this race than they anticipated.)

Fun FOAM!

Let the race begin. 

First obstacle: don't let the balls hit you in the face.

This was one of my favorites!

Slip n slide that wasn't as wet as it needed to be.

A picture of the slides in the distance that we didn't get to go down :( 

One of the many GIANT, muddy hills we had to climb. 

Em went first! 

Then Nicole and then me!

Completely wet and frozen. 

Not amused. 

Is this over yet? 

Poor friend Heather wasn't feeling well and she still managed to finish in this miserable weather.

Eh, we did one slip n slide, we don't need to get even more wet and do another. 

Coming upon the slide where we opted out and walked around it to the finish. 

In line for the snacks, shirts, and medals. 

Warming up by the fire after the race. 

Happy Tuesday!