My first Warrior Dash - East Texas 2012

smpreston

Warrior Dash East Texas

I ran my first ever 5k in the form of a monster obstacle course on Saturday. I had five weeks to prepare, but a leg strain, sinus infection and general procrastination meant I got no running training in for the event. I had targeted 45:00 as my time goal since it was the median time for my age group in last year's event. I couldn't get any friends to run with me, so I did it by myself. I just picked out guys or girls running at my pace and kept up with them.

We got about 4-5 inches of rain last weekend, so I think part of the course was flooded. Much of the water was up past my waist and even to my chest in spots. It's just impossible to "run" in that stuff. Also, there was a lot of sticky mud. People were losing shoes constantly. Plus, one wrong step sent your leg flying. Not exactly safe conditions for a good running time.

The first real obstacle (other than the mud and water pits) was the Barricade Breakdown. It involved alternating between climbing over 3 or so ft high walls and crawling under boards that were maybe two feet off the ground. You did this probably five times each. Other obstacles included a trench were you had to crawl under some 2x4's. I was turning everything into a P90X move. Crawling in the trench was like those damn Chaturanga runs. My knees never touched the bottom of the trench. You had a wall at a 60 degree angle with a knotted rope that you had to climb up, then climb down a ladder of boards. There was a floating dock across water. I had big two foot steps that led to a fireman's pole to slide down. You also had a water slide of wet tarp down a nice slope into water. There was a 15-20' tall wall you had to climb up with a knotted rope. There were cleats to get toe holds on, so it wasn't as scary as it looked. I also got o jump over fire and crawl in muddy water under real barbed wire. A final mud hill was the last obstacle before the finish line.

I ended up at 45:03, about three seconds short of my goal. Just a few less feet of walking and more jogging would have gotten me there. I finished 103 out of 364 in my age group and 1,413 out of 7,200 overall. Not bad for a 40 year old on his first time out and not doing any actual running training. Had I run the whole thing, I could have cut five minutes off easy.

Here are a few pics the wife took while I was running:


Me at the start of the race



The Cargo Net



The Slippery Slope



Me jumping over the fire



Look! I'm running!



Avoiding the barbed wire



I am a Warrior!


I had a lot of fun at the race. I will have a group going next year for sure. It looks to be a lot of fun with a group of friends. I would not have even though about doing something like this last year. But thanks to P90X, TurboFire and now P90X2, I'm down almost 50 lbs and looking to do crazy athletic stuff like this all the time. I wore my HRM to time myself and see how my heart was doing. It averaged 190 with a max of 200 something. Next year I'll have a GoPro Hero camera on my head to record the whole thing.

smpreston

I did the lower case img too...

Ok, links all fixed.

imakimm

WTG!! You did great!! Sounds like you had a blast! I'm doing the one in May with my husband and some of my friends. I can't wait!

csm1342

Awesome! I did it last year in Georgia and am doing it again in May. It was a blast.

LilSomethin

Way to go!! I'm doing the Rugged Maniac in September and can't wait!!! Congrats on a great race

DorothyR87

I am actually participating in something similar to this called the Mud Ninja Extreme Challenge in July. I'm glad to hear you had a good time with it. Any tips for a first timer?

EvEboEvie

They have the Tough Mudder coming up near my area in October. I think Insanity, weight lifting and running will get me ready!

smpreston

I am actually participating in something similar to this called the Mud Ninja Extreme Challenge in July. I'm glad to hear you had a good time with it. Any tips for a first timer?

Run, run and run some more. Develop upper body strength to pull yourself over the obstacles. My biggest regret was that I couldn't run more and had to walk.

EvEboEvie

They have the Tough Mudder coming up near my area in October. I think Insanity, weight lifting and running will get me ready!

Scratch that. As a first timer I'll start with the Ohio Warrior Dash... maybe I'll build up to the TM... anyway, Great job!! Thabks for sharingv:-)

smpreston

I've never been a runner. A mile is about all I could ever do, even back in high school plying soccer. The Tough Mudder is 12-14k. That is way too far for me. I'll stick to the 5k stuff. I will do a C25k program though as I do want to get into running so my heart rate won't get so high while running.