Extreme Field Day – April 2014

* From: Ally Pike
* Event: Extreme Field Day for Kids – Spring 2014
* Date: 2014-04-13

* Event Details
Very easy to get to, Parking was free and lots of staff there directing, walking path labeled and easy to walk the kids over, lots of vendors keeping the kids busy, loved some of the fitness challenges for the parents! Kids loved getting a metal, a tee and having a number with the logo on it, also loved some of the free snacks! Face painting line was a bit long of a wait (my oldest literally stood for a whole hour even though there were only 6 or 8 kids in front of her – maybe next time they could limit to smaller things painted on – though she stood with no complaints even when it started to rain for a bit!) Having the seafood vendor was great as the kids enjoyed some hot chowder to warm up!! Oh and my 5 year old loved potting her own basil plant!

* Race Details
The course was great, well laid out, lots of volunteers running with the kids. Only hard part was the dead ends for the parents when having to sort of run with the kids (young ones got lost on where to go in a few areas) but they had fun and kept going. Staff was at the harder obstacles guiding them on how to get over them. Liked that they made it harder for the older kids, next time will sign up for later heats when there was more mud!! All in all my kids loved it to where they can’t wait to do it there again! Some of the staff didn’t know about water hose to clean off kids hands, though we heard an announcement as we were leaving – glad we had figured something out before then! If they keep doing that location my kids will be doing it again for years to come, may have to check out one of the other locations but we liked the fact we could walk to the car instead of having to bus over!

* Rating
Excellent

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* From: Michelle Faulkner
* Event: EXTREME Field Day for Kids

* Event Details
Finding the venue was actually quite easy especially since I had never been to Sharon, MA before. As we came within about a mile of the event there were signs in the ground pointing us to the event which was wonderful. We first had to drive past the event to park so there was small teaser of what the kids would be doing. It looked like a lot of fun, you could see over/unders, tunnels, rope climb, sand bag carry, noodle wash. As you drove past the event there was a volunteer standing in the middle of the road like a crossing guard allowing foot traffic from the parking area to cross safely by stoping vehicles with his awesome stop sign, think crossing guard at a school. Then there was police presence at the parking lot and we parked in a well maintained field. There were 4 or 5 volunteers in just the parking lot area to make sure everyone was lined up and parked easily without blocking anyone in.

After parking we walked to edge of the field and there were huge foot print on the ground, the kids got a kick out of those. This sparked a conversation about big foot all the way from the parking lot to the crossing guard. Getting to the event from the parking area was simple and quick, very little hazards, the only thing you had to worry about was tripping over a tree root.

As soon as you were at the event the registration table was right there. They had goody bags, waivers, tee shirts everything for the kids to get ready for their race. The kids loved it all. I know my kids love the Clif Kid Bars so they were super stoked to each get one of those. You could also see Fire/EMS hanging out watching the course and keeping an eye on everyone.

They had disc golf, that the older kids seemed to enjoy quite a bit, Italian ice, and some other food vendors. Clif bar, The vendors were spread out nicely and not right in the middle of the everything. So if you didn’t want to visit you didn’t have too. There were picnic table set up for families to sit at and relax and watch some of the race.

* Race Details
The course, height of the obstacles and difficulty of everything was curtailed to the age of the group going. The overs had board that could be added to them so that the older kids didn’t have to jump just 2 board, they actually had to go over 4 boards, which made the level of difficulty harder. Also the course length was short for the 4-6 years old than it was for the 9-12 year olds. The fact that the course could be easily modified for the age group was wonderful. Just like adult OCR’s there were some back ups but the volunteers made sure the kids kept moving, running in place, jumping jacks, they were great! The volunteers who ran with the kids, especially the younger kids, made this race worth the cold gloomy day. I would love to see more races like this happen around the country!

My personal story about the event is this one:

“My daughter was having a melt down at the start of the race, she didn’t want to run, she was crying…I think it was cause she didn’t know anyone and was just being super shy. Then this wonderful volunteer, Rose, came over, just before I told her to get off the course if she wasn’t going to race, and ran with my daughter. My daughter had such a great time after that. I can not tell you how amazing it was to see the huge smile on her face. If it wasn’t for your volunteers our day would have turned out much differently. My daughter had a blast, did all of the obstacles and is looking forward to her next mud run. Thank you for an amazing event!”

* Rating
Excellent