Monday, June 18, 2012

City Girl vs. Rustic Girl - Warrior Dash 2012

"For every minute that you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

First things first:  I may be taking a little blogging break for a week or two for personal reasons. But I'll be back!  I may still be reading yours, just not posting on mine!

Second things second:  My cousin just had a new baby today and I'm so excited for them!

Third: My nephew is still in town for a couple more weeks and we have a lot planned.  My June is extremely busy but my July and August will be slow (and boring) after he leaves!  My dad got us all tickets to a cubs/sox crosstown classic game tomorrow night and I'm so excited!  I've never been and have always wanted to!  He got extra good seats too!  Needless to say we will all be buying him beer tomorrow night!  I have the "Short Run on a Long Day 5k" on Wednesday.  And either Thursday this week or Tuesday next week, I'm planning on taking my nephew Tony and my cousin/Goddaughter Anna to Great America!!  Love amusement parks!!

WARRIOR DASH

I've wanted to do the Warrior Dash for a couple years now.  I decided I would do it this year no matter if I knew anyone or not!  Luckily, I have met many crazy runner people since then and many of them were signing up for it, so I did as well!  But who needs to train!  I figure, it's the "baby" of all the mud runs.  I could handle it.  I like to pride myself that I'm more "rustic" than "city".  After all, growing up I always went camping (in a tent on the ground, no fancy stuff), canoeing, white water rafting.  I've been skydiving and bungee jumping.  I could do a few little obstacles!

Before leaving...I called in reinforcements (city girl!)

Hello Kitty bandaid...what every warrior needs before battle
I met up with a few of my Frankfort/New Lenox Run Group to carpool there.  Thanks to Lisa decorating her van, we went in style!



We got our packets and hung around waiting for more of our friends to show up.  We were going to start in the 10:00 wave.  It's always fun to see this at a race...

Temps were a high in the 90's.  At 7:00 am it was 75.  Come run time it was mid-80's.
Before photos:



When we were waiting to start, we saw a guy (a rather large guy) wearing speedos, a black with white lace bra and wings waiting to start.  Unfortunately we didn't have our cameras since you really can't bring anything due to all the mud and water you will be going through.  Also, when we were starting, they had the temperature on a clock and it showed 85 degrees.  It was pretty hot and we just wanted to get started!

Course Terrain: Awful!  I know it's a mud-run. It's not going to be a nice flat run surface.  The ground in the first half was patchy grass and weeds and very uneven. Not good for someone with bad knees, ankles and feet!  The second half was slippery muddy mess, uneven, and at times it was like crossing a river with rocks and sticks, etc.  My friend Kathy and I took it all very slow and walked during many parts to avoid injury.

Obstacles
I was surprised when the first obstacle came around what seemed like mile 0.75.  The first obstacle was Mortimer's Crossing where you cross on a rope (holding rope handles).  As I started crossing, I realized I was completely terrified that I was going to trip or fall or something and fall to my death below, the 6 feet to the ground (city girl!)!  I managed to get across although slowly.  Kathy and I continued to the next obstacle which was the Trenches where you crawl under wood on your hands and knees in dirt and rocks.  I figured this would be hell on my knees and I was right. But the rocks and hard dirt were horrible!  I couldn't wait for this to be over!  It was hot and as Kathy and I started running after, I said to her "Who said this was going to be fun??" (city girl!)

When we came to the third obstacle, it Petrifying Plunge, it looked like the most fun.  It was like a big slip and slide and we were excited that there was water pouring from it, because we were hot!  We slid down the slide and landed in a big muddy pool.  Kathy and I were laughing!  We thought this was so much fun and we were muddy and dirty!  It also cooled us off.  Now, I don't really remember the order of all of the obstacles and they are wrong on the map, so I'm just going to go with what order I thought they were in.

I believe the 4th obstacle was Vertical Limit.  As we were running towards that one, I saw a pole that you had to slide down (like at a fire department).  I said to Kathy, "I do not like sliding down poles!" (city girl!).  The first part of that obstacle was climbing a wall on pegs, which I had no problem with (semi-rustic girl!).  But then I had to slide down a pole and I grabbed on it and freaked out!  I stepped back and let someone go ahead of me.  Kathy had already done it and I yelled to her that I didn't think I could do it!  I tried again and stepped back again.  I probably did this 4 or 5 times and let countless people go ahead of me.  I was petrified!  Totally terrified!  I've never done this even as a child at a playground! I've always been afraid of this!  I honestly was looking for another way down but there wasn't one!  I had to do it to get down!  I kept yelling at Kathy that I couldn't do it!  Random people were trying to help me and give me tips and advice to get me to go down.  Finally one said to just use your hands, grab on and just shimmy down with your hands, not to really do anything with your legs.  I finally stepped off the ledge and started walking my hands down.  After about 1/4 of the way down on the pole, I just wanted to get down so I dropped to my feet.  I think it seemed like I landed harder than I really did and several people asked if I was ok. I told them I was fine and Kathy and I ran on.

The next obstacle I think was Vicious Valleys where you had to stand between two V-shaped walls on little pieces of wood and shimmy across.  I have no idea why but I was a little afraid on this one too (city girl!) and went really slow, apologizing to all the people behind me!  

There were a few obstacles that really didn't give me much trouble: Road Rage (crawling over cars), Hard Rain (where you climbed over a wall with heavy muddy rain pouring on you), Storming Normandy (where you crawled under barbed wire), Giant Cliffhanger (which was anything but! You just had a slight incline that you had to walk on), Cargo Climb (where you climbed up and down on a cargo net).

When I came to the Giant Wall, this is the one I had been most afraid to do.  I tried 3 times to climb on the rope but failed all three times.  I think I mentally gave up because I already didn't think I could do it!  I am disappointed that I couldn't muster up the mindset to get me through this obstacle but I ended up just going around it.  FAIL!  And totally city girl!

The other one that kind of gave me a little trouble at first was Chaotic Crossover.  Kathy and I had trouble figuring out how to start this one. Basically you just crawled over cargo net.  When we started, I actually fell on the cargo net (again, thinking I was going to fall to my death...city girl!).  I recovered and started using my knees and hands.  It was hurting my knees and soon when I got the hang of it, I used my feet and hands.  It became much easier but it was a lot of strength on my shoulders.

The second to last thing was the Warrior Roast where you jump over fire.  It wasn't very high but seemed much higher to me and I ran hard to took a huge leap (there were two that we had to leap over).  I bet when I see these photos, it looks like I'm trying to jump over 6 foot flames!  Haha!

The final part was Muddy Mayhem where you crawl under barbed wire through a muddy swamp.  If you stood up and just ducked under the wire, the crowd would boo you!  They wanted you to get muddy.  I kind did the doggy paddle and also used my hands to crawl through this but the water was pretty high.  Didn't matter, I like to get dirty!!  :)  (Rustic girl).  Then we came to the end of that and they had a tarp or something so when you tried to crawl out, you would slide down. I think it was worse in the middle, which is where I was trying to get out at.  I couldn't get a grip and kept sliding down. I heard the rest of my run group cheering me on (and probably laughing at me!) and I couldn't help laugh myself.  Finally, I went to one edge and noticed it was easier to get up on that side.  And I was done!  But not before I almost slipped on the way out!  (City Girl).


Muddy Mayhem
We posed for pictures.  And then Kathy and I took showers.  We were fortunate and a friend Brian was raising money for St. Jude. He raised enough to give a few of us bracelets that allowed us in their tented area.  This had food, drinks and portable showers!!  While the rest headed for beer, Kathy and I headed for showers and food (city girls!!)


 
I know...that's hot!
 
My warrior partner Kathy and I after (obviously)


F'N Runner Group After
 

The whole group after


The medal - dirty finger nails and all!
 Later my cousin was going to get a mani/pedi and wanted me to come. I was going to go to keep her company but not get one (only had 2 mani's and 1 pedi in my life).  After this warrior dash, I thought it would be a good idea.  My nails and toes were in bad shape!!!

Much better!  The nail lady had her work cut out!  She kept shaking her head in disgust! (definitely city girl)
I had a lot of fun doing this and can't wait to see the ridiculous pictures the photographers took of me during.  I may or may not do it again but if I do this one or any other one...I need to work on my upper body strength.  What I could not believe was how afraid I was to do many of the obstacles!  That was a shock and humbled me a little bit!  I guess I am a little more city than I thought I was! 
I'm also proud of myself for completely most of the obstacles even though I was terrified!  I didn't know I would feel that way!  One got to me mentally and I still would like to complete that one.  Not sure if I will do this again or not, but if I do this one or a different one...I will work on my upper body strength just a bit!

6 comments:

  1. Great job! I did Muddy Buddy one year so feel like I have the "mud" events covered. :)

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  2. I am proud of everyone who has the guts to tackle a race like Warrior Dash! I've done one obstacle race (Monster Dash in Crete last Halloween) and the obstacles weren't as challenging as this, but they were enough to make me realize this type of racing isn't for me. I'm pretty sure I would be a huge baby during Warrior Dash. Which is why I didn't sign up :)

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  3. Way to go! Proud of you for finishing it. I've never done a Warrior Dash but I definitely think I would like to give it a shot sometime!

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  4. Anonymous6/18/2012

    SO. MUCH. FUN!!!

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  5. I just did my first Dash in Ohio a few days ago. It was way too much fun. I also did a blog on it haha

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  6. I did the Ohio dash a few days ago. Way too much fun. Hated the running but loved the obstacle courses haha.

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