Warrior Dash Recap

Hello everybody! I swear, I have not gone into hiding or assumed a fake name and left the country! It has been super-chaotic lately with work, so I have not had time (or inclination) to do anything but eat, shower, sleep, and work (not so much inclination to WORK so much as to be able to pay bills right now.....more on that later). So I have not been caught up with reading and commenting on everyone's blogs, and I feel like a BAD BLOGGY FRIEND!! Over the next few days, I hope to remedy that and find out what everyone's been up to, especially how you're all doing with running, given the weather here has been in the 90's and MUGGY AS HELL for the past week or so!

But I will start with the recap of The Warrior Dash, which I ran in on Saturday June 4th, in the 9:30am heat....can I just say SO MUCH FUN!! IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE THIS, YOU SO NEED TO!! To start, my mom came down on Friday night to hang out and go with me to be part of my cheering squad. We walked the dogs, ate souped-up frozen pizza, and talked until we crashed at about 11pm. We got up at 6am because my dogs insist on being fed when they want it, not when someone is awake, so I woke up to 75 pounds of boxer in my face, barking and hitting me in the head:

She does not take NO for an answer, that's for sure!! So we got up and around, and got ahold of my cheering squad, and headed for the 20 minute drive up to the race.....Some sights once we got there:

 I started getting my stuff together and lined up at the starting line:

My friend Charlotte liked hearing about my sign from the Pet Promise Rescue Run, and decided to make me a sign for this one:

Yeah, she's a comedian! And my family (mom, dad, stepmom) and friends (Jeremy, Amanda, and Charlotte) that were there all signed it--again, I think I may have been the only one there (at least that I saw) with a sign!

The race started, and IT WAS AMAZING! We had lots of obstacles, like leaping over junked cars, high-stepping through tires, swimming across a small lake, trail running on INSANE INCLINES, climbing a huge cargo net, running through a creek, crawling in the dark, and crawling through mud under barbed wires, to name a few (by no means is that a full list either!!)....So more pictures of me on various parts of the course:

I'm just coming over the top (black tanktop)

Crawling through and getting stuck (for a second) in the mud

I HAVE A LOT MORE PICTURES THAT I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO ACCESS RIGHT NOW, SO THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL TO THIS POST THAT HAS ALL OF THOSE!!

Some other random photos:

Three guys competed in wedding dresses!!!!

They hosed us off at the end with fire hoses, and let me tell you it was COLD!!

I mean, seriously, I could'a cut glass, lol

more of the mud pit and barbed wire

and even more 

This is one of the ending obstacles:

Yeah, I'm getting ready to jump the SECOND fire!

I yelled to the person stoking the fire "Am I gonna burn my ass?" He yelled back "Just go for it!!" and so I did! (There are better pics than this, will be in the sequel too!). At the end, you could donate your shoes to be cleaned up and given to people in need and/or somehow utilized by the local food bank (didn't quite understand that one, but hey, if people wanna eat running shoes, so be it...I kept my shoes, washed them up, and they're still good!)

So in the big GRAND FINALE PICS, here is me looking pretty badass, if I do say so myself, wearing the warrior hat I got as part of the race 'swag.'

I know, I can be scary, right!!

Overall, I completed the 3.1 miles with obstacles in 49:47 (only 9:30 longer than the 5k the week before without obstacles)....I am so proud of myself, and had one of the best days of my life--SO MUCH FUN! I plan to go ahead and sign up for next year's race this month, since they already have the dates out. If anyone wants to come do a fun mud run in the hills of southeastern Ohio in early June 2012, let me know!

I look forward to catching up on what everyone's been up to, and will post the rest of the pictures in the next few days!!

--Marge