Sew-n-Sew Runs: Warrior Dash 06.05.11

Seeing as how this was my second Warrior Dash, I was totally prepared this time. Totally.

Yeah, right.

This race came three weeks after the Rite Aid Cleveland Half-Marathon and I hadn't run at all during those three weeks. I could barely walk, let alone run!

I met TK & SM at TK's house and we carpooled from there. It was a little over three hours south of here, so ROADTRIP! Polar Pops in hand, we hit the road and made it in good time. Found a great place to park (right next to the bus pickup/dropoff location) and hopped on the bus. The Warrior Dash was held in a park... if you could say that. More like a nature preserve or something. The mud smelled so bad - it was sulfur mud and it was like standing around in a barrel of rotten eggs. Ugh. The weather cooperated - it was overcast and maybe 80F, so not too hot, not too sunny. We were scheduled to run in the 530pm Sunday wave - which means the course had been torn up sufficiently, and, due to the torrential downpour the night before, was muddier than all get out. Which, while fun, wasn't the easiest to find purchase when trying to climb the hills...

Before we got muddy:

When it was our turn to hit the track, we shot off at a good clip. This wasn't a race for time, it was a race for fun. Even though I had the advantage of having done the Dash before, I knew it was much more fun to do it WITH someone, so we kept together. The first mile or so of the course was pretty much all straight up hill - straight up mud, too. Slipping and sliding for everyone. But me... I was wearing my Vibram Five Fingers and was able to bend my foot sufficiently to grab roots and stuff with my toes! Woot! Mud, mud, slide down the hill, more mud, run as fast as you can down the hill to avoid falling, swim through the log lake, climb over the cars, run through the tires, more cars, climb another hill, go through the spider web, go down more mudslides, go thru the tunnel (which I didn't do - claustrophobia got the best of me), slide down the hill some more, traverse the creek, climb the cargo net, climb the 12-foot wall, cross the plank, cross a horizontal cargo net, more running and then the finale...