Dashing Warriors

So I ran the first race I ever signed up for the other day. This was the one that got me to start actually trying to run this spring, and then I ran that other 5K in June – which was the first race I’d ever run. But the race today was the first one I ever signed up for.

But this wasn’t just any race, it was the Warrior Dash.

And this is what the Warrior Dash is: Warrior Dash is a mud-crawling, fire-leaping, extreme run from hell. This fierce running series is held on the most challenging and rugged terrain across the globe. Warriors conquer extreme obstacles, push their limits and celebrate with kick-ass music, beer and warrior helmets.

Biggie (aka Jen) and her husband put the challenge out and apparently Rick & I were the only ones dumb enough to accept.

It didn’t help that I’d only run about 3 miles total since the race in early June. But whatevs. The obstacles would break up the running enough so it wouldn’t feel like a real running race, right?

Well, sort of.

(As an aside – I made us cute shirts using my new Silhouette machine [cut out our hockey numbers with heat transfer material and then ironed them on to white shirts].)

(And another aside – Rick & I wore video cameras on our heads for the race…so stay tuned for that video.)

But, back to the race.

There were twelve obstacles scattered throughout our 3.1 mile race. We (not necessarily in this order):

1. ran through tires and over busted up cars
2. waded through waist-high water (and crawled over the log obstacles),
3. climbed over wood walls and under barbed wire
4. crawled on our bellies through a 30’ long structure covered with black plastic
5. navigated through “spider web” (rubber bands criss-crossed across the path)
6. crawled across rope netting
7. crossed a nasty muddy stream/river and then up the other side that was slippery clay-ish mud (followed by about 10 “moguls” of the same slippery mud)
8. climbed up a tall wall using a rope and then down the other side that had ladder-like rungs
9. climbed up a tall wall using little hand holds (like rock climbing), and then down the other side with a rope that had knots on it (this is where I almost lost it)
10. climbed a huge tall wall with rope netting
11. jumped over fire
12. and lastly – we ended up in a chest high pit of muddy water and crawled on our belly under barbed wire.

People have asked “did you love it?” and “wasn’t it great?”.

Um, not really.

The obstacles – while gross and/or a little hard – weren’t the hard part. The running part sucked. A lot.

I had to stop and walk a few times, which didn’t really hold us up because we still had waits at almost every obstacle.

But I finished and didn’t get hurt, which are two things I’m pretty proud of!

I’ll say that wearing a helmet cam on your head for 3.1 miles + obstacles is hard, along with wearing old shoes because you don’t want to ruin your good shoes in the mud and yuck – so I am literally sore from head to toe. I’m comforting myself with Oreos.

After the race we hung around for a  bit and ate and waited for the beer tent to open. Our timing chip was good for a free beer (I guess that’s one way to get folks to turn in those chips!) so we drank a beer and headed home. I’ve never been happier to shower in my life, and even after my shower, and spending an hour at the pool, I still feel grimy and yucky.

Everyone is talking about doing it again next year (my dad even wants to do it next year…but I think that was the Scotch talking) – and we’ll have to see about me. As my mom put it – after I told her about all the obstacles and stuff – “and you PAID to do this?”.

Here are the before & after pictures from the race. I’ll be sure to post Rick’s helmet cam videos as soon as he has it put together!

PS – After the race I started to panic because I couldn’t find Rick or Jen or Rich because I was looking for our bright white shirts and everyone looked the same after that last obstacle!!