Today on campus you might see some strange sights such as four ninja turtles carrying a pumpkin while jumping over hay bales. Halloween starts early this year as the NC State University Recreation Center hosts its second-ever Monster Dash today.
The Monster Dash is a Halloween-themed obstacle course race where teams of four race around NC State’s Centennial Campus and the Raleigh area. Teams will start at the Centennial Recreation Field where they are expected to complete a secret puzzle to start the race. Once the puzzle is solved, teams will then run up the greenway to Lake Raleigh. There, teams must canoe out into Lake Raleigh, go through a checkpoint and canoe back to land. Teams will then run back up the greenway about a quarter of a mile to pick up their fifth member: a pumpkin.
“If a team doesn’t finish with the pumpkin then they can’t win,” said Will Craig, a strength and conditioning coordinator at NC State’s Rec Center and one of the committee chairs for the event. “They must carry the pumpkin with them for the rest of the race.”
With their pumpkin, teams are expected to then race back down the greenway again, go under a tunnel at Main Campus Drive and then run along the sidewalk to the Oval. At the Oval, teams have to complete a hay bale obstacle course. Following that is an event called the heavy carry, where teams must carry two 250-pound barbells up between their four members around the Oval.
“They [the teams] can put the pumpkin down for this part but then they have to pick it up again,” Craig said. “The pumpkin might feel a little heavier after that.”
Pumpkins in hand, teams have one final run down Oval Drive to Centennial Campus’ lower field where their last challenge awaits them: a 75-yard low crawl under a rope net.
“It’s a lot of fun watching people in costume try and do a bear crawl,” said Amanda Averett, a senior studying animal science who volunteered to help with Monster Dash last year and is helping again this year. “It’s really easy for costumes to get caught on the net.”
“With all of the obstacles, [Monster Dash] ends up being a 5K run,” said Brittany Guerin, a committee chair for Monster Dash and a Fitness Coordinator for University Rec. “It’s an event that gets people out and moving, and it’s a teamwork event that builds community.”
The first team to complete this year’s Monster Dash will receive an Adidas University Recreation gym bag.
Craig said the best places to watch the Monster Dash are Lake Raleigh, the Oval and the finish line at Centennial’s lower fields because those are where all of the obstacle course portions of the race take place.
Monster Dash also features a costume contest before the race. The winner of the costume contest receives University Rec merchandise.
Craig and Guerin said that at last year’s event they saw a team of teenage mutant ninja turtles, a Despicable Me-themed minion team, a pirate team and a team of cannibals dressed to look like they were eating each other, which both Craig and Guerin agreed was their favorite.
While the deadline for team registration has already passed, those interested in the Monster Dash can come out from 6-7:30 p.m. to watch.
