Warrior Dash Fall 2010

A couple of weeks ago, Trey and I, my dad, Mike and my two best friends, Jessica and Courtney participated in the Central Texas Warrior Dash. Trey and I had a "kind-of" been preparing by running a few times a week, but I had definitely not run 3.1 miles yet so I was very nervous going into it.

The day before the race, I got hit with a major cold. After taking every drug I could, nothing would get rid of it and I was dreading running the next day. I absolutely did not want to miss out on the race and knew I would regret it if I did. So I mustered up the strength and decided to conquer it running with tissues in my hands the whole time.

The race itself was Cuh-Razy! I just wish I had a camera during the race to capture all the obstacles. I will post pictures throughout this although most are pre and post race.
Here is a link to a map of the course:
http://www.warriordash.com/register2010_central_texas.php

I knew that everyone was in better shape/health to be running than I was so I decided not to push it from the very beginning. After the first two obstacles of jumping through a junkyard of cars, and hurdling over some wooden walls, I was left in the dust by everyone I knew. No one was in sight, and soon I heard screams yelling "Medic." I freaked out, and started praying, please don't let it be anyone I know. Luckily it was not, but unfortunately for this lady she fell going down a rocky hill, and definitely broke her wrist. I am not a doctor but when you see a bone sticking out I am sure that means it was broken. Eek.

All throughout the course there were hills, which after running in Houston, I was definitely not prepared for. Note to self, practice on hills for next race. The next obstacle was tires, and then following that was running through a creek. Going into this I though pssh, no big deal, a creek, that should be easy. HAH. This creek was COLD, and extremely muddy. Running through it up to your knees, your feet just sunk in the cold mud.
Thank goodness, I had caught up to Courtney and was running/hopping in her tracks behind her. Seriously, Court, thanks for waiting for me. That was a lifesaver. It is such a bummer running by yourself and I know you are one of the reasons I got through the rest of the race.

Anyways, after the creek we came up to a steep ravine that we would use a rope and some boards to get up. It is hard to describe. We waited in line at least 10 minutes to get up it because there was only two ways up and the people around us were getting extrememely frustrated. They finally let people go around if they really were that irritated but Court and I stuck it out and made it to the top.

Once you got to the top though, there was only one way down. A slick, muddy mess. The easiest way was to just slide on your butt in the mud. It may have been the messiest but it was definitely the easiest.

Next was, in my opinion, the hardest obstacle. Ugh. It makes me hurt just thinking about it. It was basically horizontal cargo nets that you had to crawl across that were probably 5 feet about the ground. It was a lot harder than it sounds I promise.

Then we made our way through the tangled spider web ropes and I knew we were almost there. FINALLY!

We had a tower of hay bales and the finish line was in sight!

From this point on, our family and friends (Mom, Caitlin and Cindy) could see us coming. We mauevered our way up a cargo net and Courtney jetted off to finish the race.

I had now come to point that I was dreading, the fire jumps. This was a point where I can say I did not slow down, I wanted over that fire as fast as possible. It surprised me how much heat it put out but it was over in the blink of an eye.

Finally, we had the mud crawl. Before the race, some other women that ran in tutus warned us to take them off before we got in the mud because they said it weighs you down. Of course, we blew them off and said nahhhh, we can do it. Boy, were we wrong.

Not only does it feel like you are lugging and extra ten pounds but my tutu got caught on the barbed wire. Not cool.

But, I made it through. Whew. And I am so so so glad that I participated. It proved to me what I am capable of and I am so proud of myself. Mike kicked butt and ran it in 23 min, and my dad was close behind. I am also so proud of my husband and friends. Trey finished right behind Jessica, and his time was about 37 min. For not training really, that's pretty impressive!

After the race, we had the fun task of getting clean. This took longer than the race did I think!
Once we were clean, we got to enjoy our free beers and were able to people watch for a bit. Hunger got the best of us, and we decided to head to Austin to eat at Shady Grove. Overall it was a GREAT day!

I am looking forward to the next Warrior Dash and I challenge anyone to do it with me!There were all levels and I won't lie, I walked A LOT. It was so much fun and it is a great way to prove to yourself that anything is possible!