Warrior Dash

I am what you would call "indoorsy." I hate camping. I hate bugs. When I was 16, I was secretly thrilled when I found out my jaw surgery would prevent me from being able to go to Girls' Camp. So on Saturday night, after mentioning that we had run Warrior Dash that morning and my friend looked shocked and asked, "And you LIKED it?" I didn't know what to say.

My sisters' experiences convinced me we needed to try it. We gathered up some friends, registered months ago, and were ready to go. I knew I could handle the distance (about a 5K), but with obstacles involving heights? I was a little worried. Plus, we had a 10 am start time. It gets hot early here, and I try to finish running by 8 am or it's miserable. And as Hurricane Irene slammed into the Outer Banks, we didn't get any rain, just lots and lots more humidity. Blech.

We think we're tough.

We got there in plenty of time to park, get our packets, take some pictures, and people watch. I saw a few people who had finished earlier waves, and I was a little disappointed that they weren't that dirty. I knew they hosed off, but still...

I can't tell if Dave's giving the stink eye
or trying to read something far away.

We lined up with our group, waited for the start flame-throwers (because start guns are for wusses), and were off. For the next 3 miles, we ran, jumped over hurdles, crawled under barbed wire, jumped in and out of tires, climbed in and jumped out of several (clean) dumpsters, scaled a 16 foot wall, ran through forests, crawled through a completely dark tunnel, balanced on high wooden beams, crawled over cargo nets, climbed up a ladder and down a fireman's pole, trudged through a waist-deep pond (while jumping over floating logs), had 2 more climbing obstacles, leaped over fire, and then ended with the mud pit.

After. Not pictured: the blood trickling down Dave's leg.

I'll admit: initially, I wanted to run at my own pace. But we decided not to rush it and just have fun. I'm so glad we did. The pond was by far the most difficult thing for me. I was ready for mud, but I don't know what I was expecting here. A man-made pond? A big puddle? An inflatable pool? This was a real pond. Swamp. Covered in green. And it smelled terrible. But we did it together, it cooled us off, and I can't remember what we were saying to each other, but it was hilarious. And gross. We finished climbing, jumped over the fire, and cannonballed into the mud (more or less) together. And since the crowd loves a mess, we barrel-rolled through the mud under the barbed wire. Added bonus: I think we got scraped up less that way.

Totally dirty, but for a good cause.
(Which would be proving our awesomeness.)

Sadly, Dave lost his shoe. The mud was THICK. After jumping in, it took me a while to get unstuck and keep moving through the pit. Dave didn't realize until he was almost out, so he went back to look for it. He found 4 shoes that weren't his, and there was a pile of about 10 on the side. When the tractor came to dump more red dirt in, he knew it was time to give up.

Rinsing our clothes. My driveway
is still orange-ish.

We went to get hosed off, but with 2 hoses and lots of people, we didn't get a thorough shower. Plus that red clay sticks. We watched a little more, then headed back to the van to change and get food. We stopped at a Cook Out that didn't have a dining room or outside tables. The weather was perfect and we just sat on the sidewalk eating our burgers and shakes, talking and laughing.

No, that's not a nice tan. That's a layer of dirt.

So camping isn't my thing, but this totally was. It's the part of me that wore a dress every day of 1st grade, but tore up more than one running and climbing around. I think it has to do with getting dirty on my terms--I knew about the mud pit, but I knew I'd go to bed clean. And I knew I had a burger and shake waiting for me at the end. I loved the obstacles, and I'm trying to figure out a way to get the city to put up climbing walls, 3 ft hurdles, cargo nets, and maybe a small fire to jump over along the greenway. A girl can dream, right?

We had a great time and are thankful for great friends that not only humor us when we decide to do stuff like this, but swear they had a blast too and will stay friends with us. And we're incredibly grateful to Dave's mom, who left other family members during the hurricane to come watch our kids not only for Warrior Dash, but for Saturday night and Sunday morning Stake Conference.