I am the WARRIOR!

Waaaaay back, months and months ago, I registered for the Warrior Dash, planning of course to spend the intervening time working out like mad so I'd be able to kick ass.  Cue me realizing it's one week from the race, and I hadn't done more than rock climb a bunch and run a mile or two every now and then.  I quickly decided to go run a 5k to see how I might fare, but developed wicked blisters from my new shoe inserts after about 1.5 miles, so I walked home...

Then before I knew it, it was Saturday morning and I was at Afton Alps about an hour south of the cities, watching the first wave finish in the huge mud hole shown above.  All I could really do at this point was stretch, so I made DAMN sure I was the most limber person on that course, and headed to the start for my wave, the 4th wave of the entire event.  I'd decided to wear my Vibram FiveFingers to help deal with the wet, and since my running shoes+inserts had proven themselves to cause blisters.

The before shot

Right off the bat they hit us with the biggest hill at Afton Alps.  I don't exadgerrate when I say that at least 90% of people were walking before we even finished it!  I know I was!  Once we were at the top we had to climb over a bunch of cars and tires, then run through an ice-cold, fan-blown monsoon, and I figured that was the worst of the hills, and it would be largely downhill or level from here on out.  NOT SO!  The sadistic bastards that had laid out the course drove us up and down ski-runs over and over, throwing a mix of cargo net-based and other obstacles in front of us.  I ended up walking a good deal of most hills, as did many others, but really made up time on the various obstacles, blowing by large groups of people there.  As we came to what I knew to be the last couple obstacles (a big waterslide I could see from the start, as well as the flaming logs and mud, I poured on the speed and hit the slide headfirst, rocketing down the hill and into a pile of haybales.

After that it was on to the flames, where the course photographers snapped this slightly blurry shot of me, then the mud.  Oh the mud.  I'd seen the leaders of wave 1 hit it, and it was far easier and faster to dive in.  People that ran in tended to bog down immediately and sink in up to their thighs, and many lost shoes.  As I ran towards the pit, I heard the crow chanting, "dive, dive, dive!" and decided, why the hell not!  I superman dove into the mud, barely falling short of the first strand of barbed wire, then hauled myself through the thick soup to the other side, where they caught this lovely shot of me looking like the swamp thing.

Another 50 feet or so brought me to the finish and my kick-ass warrior dash medal!  I'd done it, but I had no clue how long it had taken since a storm had forced them to shut down the time displays.  I used about a dozen cups of water to clear my face and hands, got my camera and had someone take an after photo for me.

It ended up taking me another hour or so to get through the wash station and clean enough to drive home, where I showered and went straight to work!  I found out later that I'd done the course in about 44 minutes, not bad at all for my lack of training, and much faster than I'd expected.  Even more exciting was that I was actually in the top 1/3 or so of all people to do the event that weekend!

I'll definitely be running the event next year, it's already on my calendar!  I'd also planned to do the Mud Run, a 10k, much more intense event this coming weekend, but obviously the broken ankle put the kibosh on that.  Next year!