Warrior Dash (Part 1)

10 months of anticipation.  10 months of beard growing.  10 months of training.

Yes, I survived the Warrior Dash!!  I have run a few 5k races in the past, so I thought I could handle one with a few obstacles.  Toughest 55 minutes of my life!

I started the day in a cabin about 30 minutes southwest of the race site.  Waking up, my first thought was "where is the aspirin??"  It seems we focused a bit too much on the beer portion of the training the night before.  Something about that campground, the beautiful weather and the lack of responsibility (no wife or kids) made that 12-pack of PBR disappear in a matter of hours.  A handful of ibuprofen, another 1/2 of sleep, a heart bacon and eggs breakfast and a gallon of water had me feeling somewhat normal by noon.

The day was starting to warm up.  Our wave was not until 5pm, so we hung around the campsite and played some mini-golf (worst course ever!).  I had a few more waters then indulged in an ice cream bar and Diet Pepsi. Then we got into costume and headed to the Dash.

After parking at the nearby fairgrounds, we hopped a shuttle to the event.  Waves had been running every half hour since 7am that day and the seats of the old school bus were covered in mud.  Nobody seemed to mind.  We all knew what was ahead.

We got off the bus and walked to the wide open field.  Combatants were all around.  Some painted with mud, others drenched from the hose-off, and the rest anxiously awaiting their start time.  It was the best people watching I have done in a long time.  You had the athletic types in their running gear, ready to cement their names at the top of the results.  There were groups of people who collaborated on their costumes: Smurfs, super heroes, men in dresses, wrestlers, and many many viking/spartan looks.  Our group had decided on the "business man left in the wilderness" motif.  Cut-off dress shirts and pants, suspenders, and ties.

After checking in, we stood at the finish line and watched the non-stop flow of runners (and walkers and crawlers...) as they battled the final two obstacles: jumping over two walls of fire (probably 3'Wx2'H each), and crawling under barbed wire through a mud pit.  Ever person crawling out of that pit had a huge smile on their face, and we could have stood there all day watching.

As 5:00 approached, we checked our bags and headed to the starting gate.  At this point we were able to observe two more obstacles.  The cargo net wall and the elevated planks.  It was amazing to watch men and women of every age tackle these, and it gave me a sense of relief knowing that I should have no problems at this point.  We lined up and waited for the countdown...