The Warrior Dash this past weekend in North Texas involved some running, some obsticles and lots of picture taking. You know me! :) I ran in the last wave on Sunday at 4:00 pm. I had scouted the website and thought I knew some of what to expect, but turnes out the website wasn't updated until the day before the dash. So, every obsticale was like a surprise to me.
Everyone lined up at the start line and listened to some last minute inspirational announcements, comments and funny instructions. GET READY, SET, GO! Before I knew it, I was running. And about five seconds later, I saw a sign saying "Warning: Obsticle ahead". There it was...chest high river that we had to run/swim through. Since it was about 85 degrees outside and not windy at all, the water definitely felt great! However, the muddy mess that was a steep hill ahead, wasn't as pleasant. People were slipping and sliding everywhere. Some even tried crawling up the hill. Like I said, it was a mess.
After a little more conventional trail, a trailor park called "Terror Town" (where we had to scale our way in and out of the run down trailors), we got to the first serious challenge - a scrap yard of rusted wreckage. This was by far one of the most exciting obsticles on the course. First, we had to run through about 40 yards of tires, then over the rusted cars, then through another 40 yards of tires. Surprisingly, that didn't wear us out as much as we thought it would.
Next up was a "Barricade Breakdown", where we had to hurdle over barricades and crawl under barbed wire. This was probably the most tiring obsticle. After hurdeling and crawling we got to run a good .25 miles to the "Great Warrior Wall". The wall was at least 15 feet tall and 40 feet long. There were about 6 ropes hanging down for the short folks and a completely empty middle with steps for those that didn't see it as a challenge. Guess which I chose haha.
Then we got a chance to make up for lost time, running around the perimeter of a green forest. I was sure happy that most of the course was in a shade. I feel like the sun would've killed us otherwise. Next up was a steep wooden foot bridge, at an angle pitched somewhere between a ladder and a staircase. I didn't even concider it a true obsticle. All we had to do is teeter through a soaring track. This was all about the balance. And heck if you fell off (which none of us did), you would fall 2 feet to the ground. Neither scary nor difficult.
Then we got to a short series of spider webs of rope. Worst case scenario: Getting completely and utterly tangled up in the ropes like a scene in the best spider thriller ever made, “Arachnophobia” (the actual name of the obsticle). But after carefully crawling under the first layer of ropes, I realized that you could easily just pull them apart at step through them. I made quick work of the rest of the challenge, and set off down the trail again.
Up next was an obsticle called "Blackout". All we had to do there was bear crawl through a dark trench. Even though we didn't consider this a hard obsticle, we still decided to take a picture to show what it looked like.
Next three obsticles were fairly easy, so I will sum them up in one paragraph. First we had to climb over the tangled nets, then hustle up and over giant straw bales, and finally maneuver over the cargo nets. All in all the obsticles were fun. Here is a hay picture of the three bootcamp babes ;)
Next up was another water obsticle, where we had to trudge over the logs in waist deep water. In actuality, the water was kind of cold due to the picked up wind, but the prospect of negotiating the logs was enough distraction to take my mind off the chill. And although one log rolled me back the way I’d come, once I got the hang of it I was able to roll forward efficiently, while taking pictures of Whitney and Haley. After getting passed by a few more warriors, I stumbled out of the lake and set off down the trail dripping algae.
After running through muddy trail, we finally got to the last few yards of the course. First we had to conquor the fire then crawl through a mud bath. The "Warrior Roast" was some real flames that you had to jump over. The idea was much more intense than what it really was. The final obstacle before you crossed the finish line, was the "Mud Pit". Here you had to crawl under some barb wires where it guaranteed you to get muddy. It was exactly like the muddy buddy race. There were rocks and pebbles underneath to scrape your knees and hands. Having the spirit of a warrior, I decided to dive into the mud pit with the girls. That was a pretty fun way to finish the race.
Now the fun part was getting cleaned off. There were 2 guys with hoses spraying into the crowd. Everyone stood there shivering, to get sprayed over and over to finally get a third of the mud off. After realizing our goose bumps were exploding, we headed out of the madness.
After the 'shower' we all went to get our beers. Sadly, they stopped serving alcohol at 5pm. How rude! Oh well, nothing we could do at this point. We watched most of the costume competition and headed out. After changing into flip flops and donating our shoes, we finally got to sit down (for the first time after the race). Felt great. Overall this race was fun and we all agree that we will be doing it again in September!
