Warrior Dash!

Leslie asked me to write my own post about an event I participated in called the Warrior Dash. It's a 5 kilometer run through a hilly area where many parts of the course are muddy. In addition it has about a dozen obstacles strewn through it, such as mud pits, cargo net or rope climb walls, or lines of fire to jump. I'd been wanting to do one of these mud run / obstacle race events for a while now, and this one was perfect because it occurs very close to where I live. It's held at Horning's Hideout, a place I've taken Joshua and Daniel fishing and disc golfing before.

It was amazing! I loved every moment of it! Part of it was being there with friends, part was having a new experience, and part was just the sheer joy of running through mud and climbing over obstacles -- the kind of fun children have and adults have forgotten.

It rained heavily for two days before the event (the first Saturday in September), but the weather that day was perfect, sunny skies and not too hot or cold. However, the rain meant that the entire trail was muddy, which is a bit more than they intended. I actually enjoyed it, because the mud and the crowds of people meant you couldn't run a whole lot of it. It was more of a Warrior "Lope" which is a pace I enjoy and I'm actually pretty good at picking out my steps where the footing is unsure. That's probably why I wasn't as muddy as most people even after going over and through a set of three mud hills and pits:

Those were right after the first obstacle, a large pond we had to wade through where the bottom was clingy mud and you never knew if your next step would be two feet deep or five. When I trained for this I didn't think ahead enough to realize I'd be running most of the way with soaking wet shoes that got even heavier after those mud pits. I felt like a Clydesdale with all that extra weight on my feet, but it didn't end up giving me trouble. I just learned to take really long strides so I didn't pick my feet up any more than I had to. And I was really glad for the calf raises I'd done, which helped a lot when I was pulling my feet out of the mud.

One of the obstacles that really held people up was a 20 foot wall you had to use a rope to climb, with the occasional 2x4 to get some footing. It was challenging enough going up, but then people at the top realized they had to go back down the other side the same way, only no 2x4's, just the rope. It was great!

One thing I enjoyed was that almost everyone was super friendly and easy to talk to. Also, many people went out of their way to help others who were having a hard time. I love the cooperation and camaraderie people express here. Fortunately, none was needed for one of the Warrior Dash's more popular obstacles:

When I first told my kids I would be jumping over fire they thought I was awesome, possibly for the first time ;). Then they saw some video of the fire obstacle on the Warrior Dash site and they were much less impressed. "Even a grandma could jump over that!" Joshua told me. How about it, Grandma?

With my kids in mind, I did choose the tallest flames to leap over. You don't do this sort of thing unless you enjoy pushing yourself, and I've got to say I would have done much better on the hurdles in high school P.E.'s track & field season if they'd been ON FIRE!

The last two obstacles were a giant mud pit with barbed wire over it so you had to get muddy in a big way and a long steep mud slide to the finish line. I think most people were more muddy than I was at the end. Obviously I did something wrong:

I'll just have to try even harder next year. I'm already registered!