Warrior Dash- Ohio

All I can say is wow! What a freaking unbelievable day! My first Warrior Dash is now complete! Believe it or not, I didn't actually do to bad. Although I didn't set any records for time, I did finish in what appears to be the top 10% of all participants. There are still people on the course today with heats running until 4, but it probably safe to assume time rank will stay consistent!

Me and the boy

The race it self was 3.1 miles long. Not long for most runners, but the real difficulty was the obstacles and the hills. Right out of the gate, tings got difficult. A brutal hill basically separated people quickly and there were many walkers. After what seemed like a mile climb through the woods, there was a slight downhill to our first obstacle, dangling tires. After dodging the swinging tires, we ran some more level ground than another brutal hill. A couple hurdles were up next, followed by some crawl unders. Ran some more, than had to cross a waist high body of water and navigate across floating logs. Out of the water and then on to the junk cars and tire. Up and over the first car, and ride down into the tire maze. This wasn't too bad, bud it did slow people down a bit.

Me and Man Mountain

Balance beam that almost got me!

This guy refused to get hosed down

Scaring little kids!

Cargo Net Climb

The next obstacle was the dark tunnel, crawling on hands and knees in total darkness. Not bad, I made up a lot of time here. Another obstacle we faced was to walk/run/crawl through a series of bungee bands stretched across the trail at various heights and angles. Not difficult, but caused us to slow down. I chose to roll under these a bit, it seemed to go quicker. Next hand to climb a wall with a rope then down other side (easiest obstacle) then crawl over a crossover made by netted rope. This was tough for me to do, I just wasn't sure of the best method. Next big obstacle to climb over was a high cargo net wall (tough and high), followed by balance beam. Almost fell of the balance beam, but regained balance and soldiered on. We ran some more than had to run down a stream about thigh high. Not to bad, but had to watch out for hidden rocks in the water. Out of the creek and a hew hundred feet, then we had to jump over two fire hurdles. The bark was definitely worse than the bite on this one.

I better get down

Got a little tough

At the finish

After all of this, including 3.1 miles of actual running, the big finish presented itself in the form of a mud pit about 75 feet long, and about 2 feet deep! Oh, by the way they had barbed wire strung across so you had to make sure you stayed down in the crawl. Not only was it disgusting, but it was tough. After getting out of the mud, there was a brief sprint to the finish, basically holding up my mud soaked pants. A nice glass of water and a banana were waiting for me at the finish, along with a medal for completing the race! Many beers followed, by an awesome turkey leg!

Little Turkey Leg for the misses

The people were awesome and there were some great costumes! Can't wait for the next one! Who is going to join me?