I am a warrior!

I'm a little late getting this up but I was waiting for the amazing (and over priced!) photos to go up from the Warrior Dash in Logan, Ohio on June 4, 2011! My husband and I both took a stab at our first obstacle course race and both did pretty well (34:07 for him and 39:19 for me), coming out in the top 25% or so for our age groups. So on to the good stuff!

We made the four hour drive out to the race site in good time! Can I just say that I LOVE my new 2011 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara! It is a blast to drive and did pretty freakin' awesome on gas for a huge 6-cylinder sport wagon (averaged almost 22MPG)!

We ate Wendy's about an hour out from arrival but thankfully that not-so-bright idea didn't backfire on us! Thinking that signing up for the 2PM wave so we could drive there and home in the same day was another story!

Once in Logan we parked at some fairgrounds that looked like they were undergoing renovations. Thankfully they had buses running constantly to shuttle us from the parking to the race. The temperature was rising quickly and was close to 90*F by the time we checked our gear and did last minute potty stops. We found the starting line in time to watch the 1:30PM wave start with fanfare and flames!

We baked in the sun for another half hour and then it was our turn! Boy were those flames hot running underneath them! The first mile or so was all uphill. I wasn't brave enough to wear my Garmin so I don't know the exact distances or elevation gains but it was brutal trail. The 300 or so runners in my wave were all bottlenecked in and it was basically a nature hike. Not so warrior in my book! BOO!

Finally, we came to the first obstacle which was just tires swinging from ropes. According to the website the first obstacle was supposed to be Tornado Alley, a wind tunnel. Guess they wanted to surprise us? I dodged the tires pretty easily and managed to break away from some of the people slowing things down.

The next obstacle was an over-under. It was under barbed wire, over a wall, under more wire, over another wall, and under one more set of wire. I flew through that pretty easily as well. Thank you CrossFit! Next I believe was the lake! And that was HARD but mostly because I had 30 or 40 other people in front of me kicking me, splashing me, and dragging me down. Going over the four rolling logs in the lake was the easy part! For some reason the girl in front of me had on a rubber glove? Not sure if she had a broken hand or what but more power to her!

Next was the junk yard. Three sets of destroyed cars to climb over or through. I chose over to save time. Next was highstepping through tires which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I passed quite a few people who seemed afraid of the cars and tires.

Soon after was a crawl through mud under a black tarp. I was amazed at the number of people that refused this obstacle saying they would have a panic attack or whatever because it was dark and confined. It was advertised as part of the course so what gives with that? And if any of those people are ahead of me in the rankings I hope they feel ashamed! ;)

Finally nearing the end was a cargo net climb. I believe it was about 25-30 feet and a lot of people froze on this. I really didn't think it was that bad overall but I guess I'm not as afraid of heights as I think I am? I managed to pass a few more people here. Almost immediately after we made a sweeping right-hand turn and had to traverse several thin, angled planks. I really thought I was going to fall off and bust an ankle at a few points. Guess I need to do more balance work!

A VERY steep downhill run/slide/jump brought us to the last few obstacles. A wall you had to use a rope to climb up and a knee-high (thigh-high on me) creek we had to run down. I hit shin first into a rock sliding down the hill into the creek but the cool water soothed the burn almost instantly.

A quick pull up some ropes to get out of the creek and I could see the finish! However, there were two fire pits and a barb-wire covered mud pit to traverse first. I leaped the fire fairly easily and was happy that my skirt didn't catch fire! *Hint: Don't wear a running skirt to an obstacle run!*

The mud pit was fine at first. I slid in and got on hands and knees. It was relatively soupy at the start but got thicker and thicker as we went along until it was hard to move at all. Finally I clambered out the other side and made a dash for the finish where I happily collected my medal.

At the end there were guys with fire hoses to clean us off. It was refreshingly, shockingly cold but got the job done. However, my shoes, along with many others', were toast. Shane and I dropped our shoes in the growing pile and headed for the car. We even wore our warrior helmets the whole way home!

All in all it was a neat experience. Not sure if we'll do it again but it was definitely worth doing once!