Warrior Dash: Mud, Sweat, Blood and Beer! Lotsa pics.

If you've read pretty much anything I've written, you'd know one thing, because I never shut up about it. I started exercising six months ago all because of a friend at a party showed a very, very, very drunk me some photos of the Warrior Dash on her phone. It was a lightbulb moment. Most incredibly, I remembered that lightbulb moment the next day. That was December 11th, and exactly six months later, on June 11th, we ran the Pocono Mountain Warrior Dash.

The past few days have been a blur of awesomeness. On Thursday, my 39th birthday, I reached my goal weight, detailed here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/261282-mission-thin-possible-6-months-of-weekly-pizza

Then Saturday, up before dawn to join my brother, his daughter, her new husband and their friends for the Dash. My husband came along as photographer. A fractured heel and torn Achilles a few months back sidelined any plans for joining us. He had the most emotionally charged day. While we were running around the woods being nuts, he was standing around waiting for an hour, watching people getting carted off by medics, convinced his wife was lying in a ditch somewhere.

Before the Dash:



Front: My brother Jay. Back: Me, my niece's husband Ed, my niece Sarah, and friends Jess and Mike. It looks so sunny and bright in the picture, but it was raining like mad. It let up just before we started running, but still very soggy.



I channeled the spirits of my Highland ancestors, and decked myself out in furs, kilt and woad.



Keep in mind that six months ago, I was incredibly self-conscious of my back fat rolls. I felt like the Michelin Man. Now I'm prancing around in a fur-trimmed, belly baring halter top.

The running part was a snap for me. The obstacles (and bottlenecks resulting in a whole lotta people hitting the obstacles at once) broke things up nicely. Granted, running on wooded paths with felled trees was a little different for me, but I grew up running around those very woods. My family has a little cabin just two miles away.

There were tarps that we had to crawl under. I was mostly worried about someone stepping on my fingers, and got behind Ed, who crawls amazingly fast.

The "walk the plank" obstacle, up and down 2x6 ramps, would have been a breeze if it wasn't wet wood. And it was a little disconcerting seeing them adding reinforcements as we were going over.

I skipped some of the 4 ft walls. I went over one, and my foot slid way out from under me on top of the wall, and I didn't want to pull something that early on in the race and not be able to finish.

The rope climb wall was genuinely scary. I'd say it was about 12-15 feet high, with 1x4s nailed to the wall for foothold and a knotted rope for climbing. I tackled that sucker, though! I read some scary stories on the Warrior Dash Facebook wall, though. One girl had an open compound fracture and needed to be air lifted to a hospital, getting a steel rod in her leg. Her friend reports she's doing well and wants to do it again next year!

More running in the woods, more mud, then wading through a pond. No obstacles there, other than uneven footing with rocks underfoot. The water was amazingly warm, though. Felt great!

Then some more running in the woods, and that's when I fell. I swear a tree root grabbed my ankle and pulled me down. I haven't trusted trees not to do something like that since seeing Poltergeist when I was 10 years old. Landed on my right knee, cutting it pretty good, but I didn't know that at the time, with a fallen tree across my left ankle/shin, which I did know at the time. Got right back up and kept going.

Somewhere in there was the spider web... cords strung across the path that you had to crawl under. Being short, that was easy for me, but some taller folks had to belly crawl.

Then was a creek with some trees fallen across that you had to climb over. That water was COLD, but felt great on my boo-boo ankle. Then more woods. I overheard people complaining about their calves and hammies on "these hills" but it didn't feel like an incline at all to me. Then the tunnels... crawled through some, was able to duck-walk through others.

The last four obstacles were visible to spectators. The cargo net, "road rage" (junker cars and tires), the fire, and the mud pit. I had no idea my husband was taking our pictures until we got in the mud, which might be for the best, since I was just focused on staying alive, not hamming it up for the camera.

The first runner to finish, going over the cargo net, just to give some perspective on how high that sucker was.



Me going over. This one was fairly easy, compared to the rope wall.



And I'm down! I like this picture. Very William Wallace. :happy:



Fierce determination crawling up on the junker cars. Everything was very wet, and those cars looked slippery!



"Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall..."



Since I thought my husband was taking pictures by the fire and mud, I hurried my *kitten* up to get there as soon as possible, and ran too fast for him to catch up to me going over the fire!



And into the mud. This was horrible. There wasn't enough water in the mix at the time, and it was literally wet concrete. If anyone is familiar with Pocono dirt, it's not soil. It's clay. We could literally not move. I had to ask the big burly guy who got in behind me if he could lift my right leg so I could get it loose! (Bless him!) Once we got the message that the going was easier at the sides, we were able to motor.



Sarah, Ed, Jay and I. On the bright side, the slow going in the mud gave my hubs a chance to catch up and snap more photos.



You can see how thick the mud is on Jay's hand!



Yay, us!



The family reunites: Ed, Jay, me and Sarah.



Jess and Mike catch up a minute later.



Then the hosing!



Some folks complained about it being too cold. I didn't feel it. I was too worried about losing a contact!



All rinsed off and ready to party!



Towering in gallant fame,
Scotland my mountain hame,
High may your proud standards gloriously wave,
Land of my high endeavour,
Land of the shining river,
Land of my heart for ever,
Scotland the brave.



Saying farewell to my shoes...



The *other* hosing we got was when we saw how small the free beer was! :laugh: Ok, so 12 oz wasn't much, and $4 for another 12 oz was kind of steep, but otherwise, the food was decently priced. Turkey drumsticks were $6. We got chicken breast sandwiches for $5 each, and since they didn't have roast beef at the time, they gave us free chips. Monster was giving out free energy drinks (oh, hell yeah!) and Bear Naked was giving out granola trail mix. We ate well for $10.

The music was surprisingly good. I didn't watch, so I don't know if it was all one band, or several, or even if some of it was recorded, but what we heard was a good mix. I do recall hearing Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" while running. I thought I was hallucinating, since that's one of the silliest songs I run to.

Craziest part? The bus that shuttled us between the race site and parking. There was a NASCAR race in the Poconos the same weekend, and think our driver belonged there. Insane! I think I got a few more grey hairs.

The parking situation was bad. Only one road in and out, and as we were leaving while folks were still coming in, it was a cluster-f-word. It took us an hour and a half to leave the parking lot. Considering we could have just parked at the family cabin and walked two miles... even more frustrating.

And lastly... my Warrior Legs as they are today. All jacked up.



If all these photos weren't enough, and you want to see more, check out my video slideshow on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/1jACcTh_Zcg