Warrior Dash Ohio 2: Carrollton

"The craziest freaking day of my life" turned into one of the most painful as well. Yesterday, I completed my second Warrior Dash in 4 months, and let me just tell you....This one was tough! I have done a lot of things in my life, but this was one of the hardest. Don't get me wrong, running 5k isn't that hard to do. Quite honestly, it is not hard at all. But running 5k, in all mud, up many many hills, over obstacles, more hills, more mud, more muddy hills, and a masses of muddy falling people, and you get the idea. Let me be clear, I didn't really train for this by doing anything other than bike and drink, but still this one kicked my ass much more than the last one. As a matter of fact, the overall fastest time was 9 full minutes slower than the last one I ran. Personally, my time was 17 minutes slower than the last. Mostly because of the mud and hills, but also because of start time. Instead of running with the faster runners, I was lumped with the masses and I spent half the time maneuvering around people who were struggling miserably in the mud and on the obstacles. I guess I should have seen that coming, since I also spent almost two hours in traffic just to go 2 miles. Note to self....if I run again, it will be back in early heat again! The course itself was similar to the last one, but it definitely had more hills! The start was on a downhill, followed by a half lap around the lake. A short chest high wade across the lake with floating logs (caught a couple logs to the chin) and out the other side for another uphill, muddy run. After a painful uphill, a sloppy muddy run through the woods, back up more hills, then started hitting the obstacles. A series of wooden hurdles followed by crawl under barbed wire, then off to another hill! More mud, and then a few more obstacles to complete. A cargo net climb, a wooden wall climb, balance beam, run through the tires , dumpster obstacle (medics were working on some woman here), horizontal rope crossing (too many people at one time on this), another wooden wall climb (especially hard for short people), a steep steep hill climb leading to fire crossing, then the mud crawl for the finish. All of this done while running through more freaking mud! Good Times! Click here for results

More Warrior Dash Pictures- Sickness

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?

One Friggin Crazy day- Warrior Dash Ohio

The big day has finally arrived. I am now within 12 hours of my start time for my heat tomorrow morning for this race. I have been training for months since I saw this advertised last winter and decided it was a good thing to. In case you were wondering, my training workout consists of some very aggressive routines.

• -Drink beer. Over and over again. 
• -Occasional bike ride, followed by more beer 
• -I ran 2 miles once, followed by a couple beers 
• -I ran the steps one night, you guessed it, more beer 
• -Chased my son through mud puddles,most likely I was drinking beer 
•  -I fell down my steps once, probably because of too much beer
I have to tell you, I could be the best conditioned beer drinker there tomorrow!

Steps and Mud Training

Since I am running in some type of ridiculous race next weekend (Warrior Dash), I thought it would be appropriate to do a little mud running and step training. Since I cannot ride anyhow due to the fact that everything is so damn muddy, I thought I could take advantage of the mud and get a little workout in. After gearing up, (headphones and bandana), I made the trip over to Alum Creek, did a little stretching, and then started out on a little jaunt around the trails. Let's just say, running in mud is not much easier than riding in it. Keeping your footing through muddy ruts, roots, and hills just isn't a lot of fun. After a couple of miles, I bailed on the run, got back to the truck and made the trek over to the Dam to run the steps. Have I ever mentioned I hate running the steps? I do! Anyhow, I hit the hill and did 8 sets of up and downs and even through in a backwards run up the hill. Yeah, I know, sounds tough. It is! Imagine running backwards like a defensive  back, now add a hill, and oh yeah, wet grass! Painful, but awesome for the legs! Unfortunately, it was a little tough to get out of bed the next day, and going down a flight of steps in my house was a bear, but it WILL be worth it. I WILL finish the race next weekend! And I WILL have fun. Now if only I could find a cargo net to climb over......

The Big Race...Warrior Dash

So many of you know about my recent decision to run the great "Warrior Dash" coming up this summer. If you don't know what it is, please check the link in this post, or the link below to check it out. Basically, it is a 3 mile run, with a twist. During the run, the warriors will be challenged with a series of obstacles to test our manhood, stamina, strength, agility, stupidity, and alcohol tolerance! I can't wait. I am especially looking forward to the barb wire crawl, the mud swim and the fire jump. Ok, I lied a little. I am really looking forward to the beer drinking that we will be doing after words. The race is in June, so I have some time to train. I thought I would start first with a six pack a day every other day, then up to daily. Then I realized, I would probably be cutting back, so I decided not to train, and just be me!(gulp) (makers mark) Ok, back o the post....


 If you happen to be near Columbus Ohio in early June, stop on by and see us run. I am sure you will have the "best freakin' day of your life" or so they claim. To be honest, I don't know what the hell I am doing this for, but why not. It will be something different. Since we are in the 8 am time slot, I think we may go throw down 15 miles loop at Lake Hope afterwards, then come back and throw a few beers down with the rest of our warrior buddies. Anyone looking for double the pleasure, let us know!