Race Report: Warrior Dash 2012!

 

An abstract of my life since Sept 2011 in less than 200 words:

School is busy, but going as scheduled. Life is even busier, but the negative energy which filled 2011 is finally clearing out. 2012 is off to a way better start than 2011 finished. I started a new hobby which is not triathlon related, and may share more on that later. JC and I celebrated our one year anniversary (yay for new relationships!), and I am just crazy about her. I took some time away from triathlon and training and am back and feeling great, I’ve got a good year of racing ahead! Instead of promising that I’m going to update my blog regularly, I’m going to post race reports throughout the years with tidbit updates on my life. Also, I’m not going to post my races before I do them, I’m working on keeping myself accountable and am taking a new approach to scheduling my races – aka don’t bite off more than I can chew. And with that, I give you my first race of the year: Warrior Dash!

 

Pre-Race:

This year, four of our friends decided to take the challenge and run with us. JC and I were the only ones returning from last year so we were the veterans in charge of preparing our squad. So, with lots of encouragement given throughout January and February, we all arrived at the race site pumped and ready to go! The only thing we failed to do was coordinate outfits…oh well, next year!

Me and JC pre-race

All of us while we were still clean!

The Dash:

Well, simply put, this was much more challenging than last year. The race was at a different site with different obstacles. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was the buckets and buckets of rain we have been getting in the area in the last few weeks. Rain + dirt course = mud…lots of mud.

The first mile or so there weren’t any formal obstacles, but there were informal obstacles, like lots of mud, and about a quarter mile of waist high water to wade through (no joke!).  Needless to say, this slowed us down! By the time we finally got to any of the obstacles, we were totally worn out! But finally the obstacles came and we conquered!

We were running team style, no man left behind and I was playing sweeper, and the teamwork proved to be effective, we got all 6 of us over all the obstacles expect one (climbing a rope up a slanted wall). Some of the obstacles included climbing a rope up a vertical wall, sliding down a fire pole, rope bridge, floating water bridges, mud pit with barbwire, jumping over fire, and horizontal cargo net crossing.

After over an hour of running (yes, it took us that long) we finally crossed the finish line…as Warriors!

We started with six and finished with six!

Post Race:

The race provided changing tents and ‘showers’ which consisted of firefighters hosing us down. We cleaned off a bit, hung out, had some beer before heading home and passing out. While I didn’t feel like I got a normal workout, like how I feel after running 5 miles, but I was exhausted! No soreness the next day for me or JC which meant we were properly prepared! I had such a great time with great friends who were all encouraging. I loved running this race for the experience and fun rather than for time. Luckily I’ve got more of those races coming up this year with my new running buddies!

Back home, feeling human but tired.

Next up: Sugarland Half Marathon this weekend! I’ll be back next week with that race report!

Happy Training!