However with all of this business, running has taken a backseat again. During maternity leave I did get back out running by about 4 weeks pp. Yay me! I was up to 3-4 times a week at about 3 miles. Not too bad at all considering. Then I decided I needed a race in my life to liven things up. So, when my sis said she was doing Warrior Dash, I thought what the heck? A fun goofy race to start me back! Mind you this was the last weekend before my return to work, so it was perfect! Um, yeah I completely underestimated this race.
I thought, oh a 5k with some fun obstacles thrown in, should be fun/relatively easy. Yeah, so the run was easy..the obstacles...not so much. But, lets rewind a little. I was supposed to do this race originally with my sis and a friend of hers....but she ended up with strep so that didn't happen. But, luckily a dear friend of mine, her husband and another friend of hers were doing it as well. So, I glommed onto their group instead. :)
And my husband being the supportive guy he is wanted to watch and bring the kids....awesome! I was stoked! Having never done one of these types of races before I really didn't know what to expect....but it is definitely not kid friendly! This place was nothing but dust and dirt and NO shade on a VERY sunny day. In addition there was REALLY LOUD music(which is awesome for racing, but not for little ones' ears), and people drinking everywhere.....yup, drunks at a race...go figure. So, needless to say one we arrived and found our friends, the hubs took the kiddos to a friend's house where we met up after. Good plan!
So, that just left me with a race to do! Our group of 4 got to the corral and got ready to go about 30 min ahead of time I'd guess.There were waves about every 30 minutes and everyone was assigned to a specific wave, but if you missed yours it didn't seem to be a big deal to get into another one. They certainly didn't check.
After few minutes the race horn blew and fireballs flew into the air to mark the start of our wave. The first 1 mile or so was uneventful. Mostly dirt or pavement and pretty flat. Then we got to the first obstacle where there was..wait for it...a LINE! yup, literally stopped and had to wait your turn to do it. ummm...hello...isn't this a race I thought? But, I am glad to have had a little time to size this thing up. It was a large wooden structure you climb up, have to maneuver over and then on the other side just let go and drop. I'd say this was maybe 15-20 feet tall. Eeek! We all made it over and then were off again. About another 1/10th of a mile and the next obstacle was upon us. A cool one where you had to pull yourself over wooden fences about 4-5 feet tall and then crawl under barbed wire alternately about 4-5 times. FUN! We stopped for a quick photo op on the course and then continued. WE barely got to a job again and the next obstacle was in our way. This was a horizontal cargo net about 4-5 feet in the air your had to bear-walk over(hands and feet). A little trickier than you'd think but not too bad. Also, it turns out I can run faster than I can do obstacles....I was the last one in our group done on almost every one except a couple. eesh. need to work on that.
Anyway, we ran maybe a quarter mile more and we made it to the first water obstacle. This one sucked! The water was over your head in most places and you had to haul your self out of the water onto these floating plastic containers strung together in a line......there were about 4 rows of these with space in between.Did I mention I have NO upper body strength. Thank goodness for team members. WE helped each other over these stupid things and others behind us as well. We all made it but geez. I think this was the toughest one of all!
That was kind of how it went though...a little running(read: less than 1/4 mile) then an obstacle and repeat. Besides the water ones(there were two), the hardest thing for me was a giant wall you had to scale with a knotted rope to hang onto and little more that foot holds on the way up. Oh yeah and it was about 30 ft. high I think. I never knew I was really afraid of heights until this obstacle. I made it, but yeah, pretty sure I don't like heights. Also, real barbed wire was used a lot through this whole course like a fun decorating(but could hurt you). It all ended with a leap over fire and a crawl through mud. Blech! But we all made it, the whole team!At the end we got a free beer (though not really free since its an expensive race fee). And of course a medal. All in all it was a good time, but don't expect to make good time and just have fun is how I chalked it up. I also decided I think I'm more of a road race kind of girl. Not sure if I'll really do another one, but I'm glad to have done something fun with friends and try something new! :)
And oh yeah, almost forgot....this race was back in mid-September...talk about not keeping up on the 'ole blog! lol! Better late than never right?
Cheers!
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