Warrior Dash 2010

So Alana and I decided to do this super cool race last weekend. One that involved tons of obstacles on a 3.27 mile course.

When we signed up for it .. my thoughts were EASY and FUN.

First we had to come up with costumes. So many to choose from ... wonder woman ... spongebob .. good and evil ...

BUT the perfect choice was ...

CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS!! Shopping for the event was almost as much fun as dressing up for it. Trying on boy's underwear in the middle of the isle at Target was memorable. Alana and her awesome sewing talent made us the red capes... vintage tube socks completed the outfit.

The race itself?

Here's the play by play ...

Started off jumping over junk cars (apparently the guy behind me got impatient with my super hero flying ability and picked me up and put me over the edge)


Next were walls that you had to climb up with a rope. *getting tired, but still able to give my all

A huge pile of hay bales followed that. *tripped over a cord here .. super graceful

Then we jumped through several old tires. *managed to not fall once on this one

Okay .. and here's where my super human powers left me. The almost straight run up to the summit. We were at Copper Mountain. Elevation around 10,000 feet. Basically this means there was no oxygen coming into my body. I felt it. Every micro second. Every step. My body felt like it was carrying an extra 1,000 lbs. I kept pushing ... but half way up this monster hill my body couldn't continue and I told Alana to leave me. Never in any race have I had to stop and WALK. I felt completely defeated and angry with myself.

this pic is an example of what I felt like ... and this was towards the base just going up. I was contemplating crawling.

It was then that a vision in white came up beside me (no, not an angel but a guy that was part of the 80's tennis team .. dressed all in white with white sweatbands and uber cool aviator sunglasses). As I was breathing heavily but able to spit out "holy SHIT" every other breath .. he encouraged me to pick it up and keep going. "catch up to your partner, girl!" It was the last I saw him .. he turned around to wait for the rest of his tennis team.

I continued and by the grace of God was able to get to the top ... and that's when I caught my breath and started down the hill. I seriously ran with all I had (but not enough to catch up to Alana ... her red cape flying behind was all I got to see of her during the race) ...










Towards the bottom of this hill ..I met the mud pit. I realized at this point that I WAS actually going to get muddy. Was skeptical before the race ... but we literally had to get in this mud to go under barbed wire. Needless to say when I was on my hands and knees trying to pull myself through this stuff, I could feel all these tiny rocks mixed in the mud and at the bottom where my knees where hitting. Wasn't comfy. As I began to run again ... the mud dripping off of me felt like thousands of extra pounds. It was like I was running in slow motion.




Next there were tunnels .. going uphill ... full of leftover mud ... *for the first time ever I was grateful to be short. I realized I could bend over but stay on my feet and hands. Not so bad.

I came out to see a few tall wood walls calling my name. I remember saying out loud "really??". Now I could curse being short because it was hard getting myself over those things. Exhaustion doesn't even come close to what I was feeling at that point. On the very last wall ... I hoisted myself over and didn't even have the strength to catch myself on the other side. I fell on my hands and knees. Pain. Blood. Instant bruises.


A few more feet came the cargo nets. Before the race .. there were pictures of these obstacles and I remember thinking how cool ... and fun ... and easy this was going to be. I approached the cargo nets talking myself up and over. Mostly that went "don't you fall again Alana .. you're body can't afford any extra beatings". There were volunteers at each station but at this point I could care LESS what was coming out of my mouth or who was listening.


Crossed some planks (the easiest by far of the obstacles) and then on to climbing a wall down into a stream .. calf high ... crossed that to another wall on the other side to climb up. The sweetest little lady was on the other side of that saying "good job .. now catch up to your partner .. you aren't far behind". Pretty sure I told her to shut up.

If you look closely at this picture .. you can tell I'm still talking to myself.

What I found fascinating was after I got to the top of the summit .. I was alone for the rest of the race. No one behind and no one in front of me. This discouraged me .. because I thought I was the loser at the very end ...

After coming out of the water and sweetly encouraged by the old lady and then hearing someone from the crowd say there was "ONLY 1/4 of a mile left" (really? really? ONLY??) .... I again ran with all I had. Weighed down by mud and now shoes full of water. The tube socks were holding on to a lot and I was thinking at that point they weren't such a great idea.



As I came around the last bend .. there were people cheering and I was getting ALL excited because clearly the finish line was within sight. UNTIL I saw the fire. I knew that we were going to have to jump over fire. But when I saw the fire first hand (and not one jump but TWO jumps) I could feel my body wanted to come to a dead halt. I got closer and fear was setting in. The predominant thought was "uh .. what if I can't get my almost dead body that weighs an extra 2,000 lbs .. over that fire". It was WAY higher than I had ever expected. But what choice did I have? You couldn't go around it .. and I certainly didn't want to go THROUGH it. I used the very last of my energy to get myself over those jumps.

And I didn't even get burned....

Yes, this is the face of pure terror..

Then I crossed the finish line.

Utterly, completely spent. I can't say I've given more of myself than I did in this race. It was exhausting .. physically and mentally. At some point in that race .. it really was my mind that kept me going. My body was screaming to give up ... but my inner voice wouldn't let me..

Alana came in before me. Beating me by about a minute. Good thing she's younger than I am. Because it gave me the chance to place 2nd in my age group. Actually .. what's cool is that we BOTH placed second in our age groups. I think she was the 6th to cross the finish line in our wave (of about 350 people) and I crossed 12th. Not last as I was thinking.

We truly kicked ass during that run. ...exhausting .. hard ... but such a blast ...

And .. I'll do it again next year...