Blubber To Runner

So… Jennifer and I stepped our game up a little.  We’ve been doing 5K’s.  We did the ‘2 5K’s in 1 Day Challenge’.  However… this wasn’t just a 5K.

It was the Warrior Dash.

What is that you ask?  It’s a 5K that makes you do this:

and this:

oh, and this too:

Now normally I like to put up times, if I set a PR, how everyone else did, etc. but suffice to say that both Jennifer and and I survived… which is an accomplishment in itself.

OK… so the race itself.  First of all… who the the HELL knew you could fit a 3 mile obstacle race in Morristown?!?!  I thought they only had FroYo places and coffee shops!  Seriously though, let me clarify something REALLY quick.  There wasn’t really a ‘race’ aspect to this.  Unless you were a professional trail runner/ obstacle course runner, you couldn’t ‘run’ this course.  You simply completed it.  I was actually disappointed that I had to do so much walking, not because I was so exhausted or anything… simply because you couldn’t navigate the course without doing so because there were so many people and the course was so narrow.  It starts out and there’s maybe 500 of us starting down a course thats as wide as 2 sidewalks side-to-side.  It widens, then narrows, then widens and narrows again.  Unfortunately the narrow parts forced you to to walk because the amount of people bottlenecked the path.  Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but just something I wasn’t expecting.

The obstacles are a bit of everything; from climbing to crawling to swimming to jumping, and they were spread out across the 3.2 mile course unevenly – maybe 4 of the obstacles were in the 1st 2 miles, with the rest in the last 1.2 miles.  Personally I would have liked them a bit more evenly spaced, but it honestly wasn’t possible with the way the course had to be.  It was definitley the biggest physical challenge I have had since the half marathon… and I honestly can’t wait to do another one of these in the future!!!

When you finish… you get free beer.  The way they do it is actually brilliant – you get a tracking chip so they can do your time and, when you turn it in, you get your free beer!  What a great way to get most of them back… I love clever ideas, and this definitely qualifies.  Plus, I could actually put it on my shoes – well done, Warrior Dash… well done.

OK – now one of the biggest questions you hear from ANYONE is “Can I do this?”  The easy answer is YES, YOU CAN.  That’s not me being all rah-rah… it’s the truth.  It’s REALLY difficult, but they don’t FORCE you to do any of the obstacles – you can skip them if you’d like.  Clearly you signed up to do some, if not all, but if you don’t know how to swim?  Skip the swimming one.  Can’t make it up the 20-foot wall (*raises hand*)?  Walk around it.  IT’S OK.  Just go out and have a ton of fun.  I saw people of all shapes and sizes doing this – and completing it – so if you’re wondering “can I?” don’t wonder anymore… you most certainly can.

Now… before I wrap up I gotta touch on a few people:

* Jennifer, my PIC (partner-in-crime) for not only this challenge but for many others past – and future.  You know how I talked about “I am a runner“???  Well, she’s a straight-up beast… in the most loving way possible :).  Seriously, where I train to run long distances, she strength trains and literally owned all 12 obstacles on the course.  No hesitations, no indecisions, just took them all out like a Boss.  It was awesome to watch.  I, on the other hand, did not do all 12 obstacles… I could not climb over the 20 foot wall.  I wasn’t strong enough to hold my own body weight, but she was.  She’s truly an inspiration… and, by 9/30, I’m gonna whup her ass at the Merrell Down & Dirty 10K Mud Run… in the most loving way possible :).

*  Team Mancy, for giving up pretty much their entire Saturday to watch us slop around in the mud and be our own personal paparazzi getting some great action shots – and even better candids.  Thank you both SO SO much… I can’t begin to tell you how much your support means to me!


Warrior Dash?  Mission Accomplished.  Now, onto what’s next!

(If you’d like to know what’s next, here’s the schedule… if you’re in the Metro area, sign up and join us – the links are there as well!)