Virgen’s View: Liquid Run is fun, challenging

Maybe it was just a little too symbolic as I quickly prepared for my first time in the Liquid Run at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort Saturday morning.

I took off my Superman T-shirt to slip on my life-vest. It soon became a realization that the quarter-mile slippery obstacle course would become my Kryptonite. I was no where near a superhero as I went through each part, slipping and sliding, huffing and puffing and wanting the race to end.

Less than halfway through the race, I was thinking, “What did I get myself into?”

I had already felt self-conscious that with my shirt off my pot belly was exposed, like some sort of silly balloon puppet squeezed out of my tight life-vest. But there was no one there judging me, especially my competitors. We all wanted to complete the race. We did our best not to fall in the water.

Many encouraged me to keep going, don’t quit. A nice couple, Piper Paris and Jimmy Choi, helped me back onto the course after I had fallen into the water.

For those wanting to attempt this “fun” Liquid Run, do your best to not slip and fall off the course. It is very difficult to climb back on the course. Climbing the plastic walls with only small, roped crevices as support proved to be the most challenging.

“I would always take shortcuts you know you can take,” 10-year-old Connor Trist offered as advice.

He finished the course first, but he did take a few shortcuts, like avoiding the monkey bars to cross onto the next part of the course. Those same monkey bars put me into the water, as I missed the final bar.

Trist and his mother, Min, from Rancho Santa Margarita, volunteered at the Liquid Run and helped set up the course on Tuesday. They practiced then and were ready for Saturday, when Min also finished first.

However, Morris Anderson, 29, of Victorville officially completed the obstacle course first, as he went through every part, including the monkey bars and the trapeze bar to cross onto another section. No shortcuts. I took one shortcut when I fell into the water another time and I had to swim to another portion to get back into contention.

Anderson never fell in the water.

“I really liked the concept,” Anderson said of the Liquid Run, a two-day event that sold out and is set to return next summer for the third straight year. “It’s a short course. It’s a lot tougher than it looks. It was slippery and it did present a challenge. You’re trying to go as fast as you can but you want to go steady. You’re going to fall. You don’t want to slip around. You don’t want to fall in the water. You have to be careful and try to go all out.”

After the run, racers were encouraged to take part in other inflatable slides and climbing areas on the water. At times it felt like an adult summer camp.

Various vendors were set up along the sand. There was also a bar, booths for merchandise, and even a pop-up, flip-flop shop called Vionic Beach.

I preferred to run barefoot. I was proud to have completed the course and will cherish my Liquid Run medal.

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Twitter: @SteveVirgen