This call is for a Warrior

Let's be totally upfront and honest about two things:

1. I've sucked at updating this blog lately.  I owe a whole chronicle of Disney World, but I haven't even done it for my own journal, much less this blog!
2. I've not done as awesome with my health stuff this year.  Don't get me wrong, I've maintained my weight loss.  And I'm still running, but nowhere near the pace I wanted, and I haven't lost much this year.

So, on Saturday, I got an opportunity to push my fitness to a new level.  When I'd planned to do Tough Mudder this year, I decided to pass on Warrior Dash, which is a 3.02 mile obstacle course and, while it's the "biggest running series on the planet", is thought of as a much milder version of Tough Mudder.  I didn't pass on it because I didn't want to do it, but I just figured to focus on TM, plus Shannon was out of town that weekend too.  But Bill was doing it and convinced me to sign up anyway, and just get Kelly or my parents to help with the kids.  The Maryland WD is held on a motocross track, so plenty of hills to go through, and it's nestled by a nice wooded area for the trail runs.

I didn't really train for WD.  I got some running done, but lately I've had some persistent runner's knee, so I've had to skip a lot on the runs.  I started taking glucosamine which seems to have helped, but anyway, I just sort've winged it to see how I'd do...

So, for the 4pm run, we had a couple that are friends of Bill and Kelly's join us, with some of their friends too.  We got there a bit late, so we literally were lining up right at the countdown to start.  And with a blast of flames, we were off!....to wait in a big line.  There was a HUGE logjam at the beginning, which lasted for the first 0.5 mile of the course really.  Combination of trail narrowing and really wussy runners avoiding a mud puddle about 100 feet in.  Bill and I of course just blew through it once we saw an opening...I mean, spoiler alert, the end is a huge pool of mud you have to swim across, who really cares about some mud in the beginning?  So once the logjam opened up, we tried to make up some time.  It was very different running a muddy trail, required a lot more stutter stepping.  But I was blasting through...until we got to the knee high puddle...I knew it was coming, so I was prepared, but some jerk in front of me stumbled in it, so he grabbed a tree branch on the side of the trail for balance, and brought it down right into my face.  I didn't feel it much, but it cut up my cheek enough that I had blood on my shirt halfway through the race when I wiped at my cheek.  After about 1 mile, came the first stretch of obstacles...

First up, a series of chest-high walls to climb over intertwined with barbed wire to duck under right after.  And the duck spot was right into a mud pit :-).  That was a bit on my arms, but nothing much.  Shortly after was the huge cargo net.  Crawl up it, over the top, and down the other side.  Had to wait awhile for a few people who had breakdowns at the top, but we got over and trekked to the next one...Giant Cliffhanger, which was a big incline you used a rope to help you scale, then over the top and a ladder on the back.  Short run to the Deadman's Drop, which was a ladder climb up, over the top, and the way down was either a big slide (if you faced outward) or a hang and drop (if you faced the object, which I did).  Then, a big longer run, up the first of many hills.  Around this time, I started getting pretty fatigued.  I guess it was a combination of the heat and doing those obstacles, but I was struggling to make it up the hill.  Got to the "halfway point" water station, chugged a cup and kept on.  After a small downhill, it was army crawl time under the barbed wire field.  Did suprisingly well there compared to others crawling at the time who were going pretty slow.  Gets a little hazy after that, I think it was more hills and trying to run but barely being able to do it, so we walked for a bit.  After more hills and toughing it, we got to the fun obstacle...a huge hill turned into a water slide.  That was fun, but the speed you pick up on it ends up spraying water back into your face, so I had a flood up my nose.  After that, a couple more big hills, where we caught up with Bill's friends Matt and Beth.  After another water station, it was Trench Crawls under tree trunks, then a horizontal cargo net.  That one injured me too, because I had the bright idea to try walking across it and ended up rolling off the rope and falling into it.  That was the suckiest obstacle for me, easily.  After that, it was Teetering Traverse, which was basically a plank walking obstacle, then a shed sized object you had to climb up the side of, over the top of, and then down the other side of.  About 0.5 mile more of running and we got to the warrior fires to jump over, followed by the mud pit to swim through, and finally the finish!  My time was 52:59, which sounds pretty bad for a 5K, but was probably the median time for all runners.

So what was my takeaways:

#1 - That was a HELL of a lot of fun.  I loved the feeling of accomplishing a big challenge and knowing I could do it.  I am ready to do it again next year
#2 - I really need to work on strength training.  Tough Mudder is 12 MILES, not 3.  Plus tougher obstacles.  My quads and arms were sore until today, so I know I'll need better strength to make a go at those obstacles
#3 - I need to get the running back on track.  I was so dissapointed in the amount of walking I had to do.
#4 - Do not take shoes you want to wear ever again.  They literally had a mountain of shoes in the end which people were recycling

It was a ton of fun and I'd reccomend it to anyone.  Even if you feel like you can't do it now...set your goal and make it happen.  Next year, we hope to put a team together, because if you do St. Jude's Warriors and raise $250, you get use of private showers at the event (I had to use the public firehose truck, which really just gets you clean enough to not be dripping mud as you walk around).