I started my day with a 5-mile run and then picked up my sis-in-law Jaime to make the 1.5 hour drive to Mt. Morris, MI. (I didn't quite realize how far away it was when I signed up!) Thankfully it was mostly expressways and we didn't hit any traffic backups. Parking was easy and we didn't have to wait in any lines for packet pick-up, gear check, or port-a-potties.
This was Jaime's first mud/obstacle race experience so it was exciting to be doing it together. She was nervous, though! I tried to calm her nerves by singing "Don't Stop Believing" when we were waiting at the start line. I don't know if it helped at all but it may at least have been entertaining for the other people in our wave. Or really annoying. We were actually slotted for a 4:30 start but because no one checks we were able to get into the 1:15 wave. Yay! In fact, there were people who were clearly running for a second time. Seems that anything goes at Warrior Dash!
The obstacles at were fun but not exactly challenging. Well, with the exception of the Deadweight Drifter, maybe. With that you had to pull yourself out of the water onto some blocks that were floating. It was all upper body strength and I did it in the most awkward manner possible. Jaime looked way cooler than I did! There was another one that was a tube of cargo nets to crawl through that was a little tricky. Other than that it was a lot of climbing up and down walls. There were some tires to jump through, fire to jump over, some mud to wade and swim through, and a balance beam. Like I said, fun but not challenging.
I have to give Warrior Dash huge props for the running portions. The terrain was great! After doing Tough Mudder at MIS in June and having nothing but flat grass and pavement, I didn't expect a whole lot out of this. Instead, Warrior Dash was all sandy/dirt roads and trails in the woods. It was beautiful! There were actually hills to run up and down, trees to run around, and logs and branches to jump over. I also heard that you mostly only ran the first mile but there was also another good stretch of running later in the race. So even though it is still only 3.25 miles I got some decent running out of it after all.
Silly us forgot to put our timing chips on our shoes so we don't have official times but unofficially it took us 45 minutes. Not that we cared about time anyway. How can you for this? We had fun and that's all that matters!
At the end Jaime and I hosed off and donated our shoes. She and I had both worn pairs that I'd taken to GLR and they were trashed even before the mud. (What WAS that smell??) We got into dry clothes and headed home. The long drive home.
I definitely had a lot of fun doing Warrior Dash and would think about it again next year. It was great to do a non-competitive, down and dirty fun run. I think we all need something like that every once in a while to level us out.
And LOOK! I got my fuzzy warrior horns!
Did you do Warrior Dash this weekend? Tell me about it!
Good for you soles and you soul...
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