Warrior Dash 2016

Several months ago when a co-worker asked me if I wanted to do the Warrior Dash on September 17th I thought it was a great idea.  I'd have several months to train, I'd be prepared, I'd be strong, I could do it.  Then my summer got derailed, I didn't do a single 5K or 10K, I didn't train, I wasn't strong. 

Oh well, lets do it anyway.  It will be good family and friend time even if I walked the whole way (which I did).  3.1 miles and 12 obstacles.

It was uphill from the start in the mountains of Larkspur.  This sign was the first indication of what was to come.  The terrain of the race got me more than anything.  It was uphill for a long way at the beginning of the race at a higher altitude than what I was used to.  Breathing was difficult.

Mr. Beans and Irv took off ahead of everyone else.  Mr. Beans was all worried about his time although this was an untimed race.  It wasn't long before he left his pappy behind.  I don't understand how he thought this race would be fun without your peeps with you.  Oh well, he's 15 and he doesn't really like any of us anymore.

Mary was fit and ready for the challenge.  It was awfully nice of her to hang out with her old, out of shape mom.

This was my favorite obstacle.  Why?  Because it was the easiest.

I can duck under a net any day!  This is where Irv waited for us--he knew it wouldn't be any fun without his peeps.

Extra special treat--when you're in the mountains of Colorado there's bound to be wildlife.

Here's Mary pushing ahead on one of the downhill stretches.

This is the first obstacle I skipped.  Yes, I skipped a few obstacles--you can do that when you're old because you don't care what other people think.  Mary headed on up.

There goes Irv.

Here he is on the next obstacles (which I also skipped).

Here we are doing the balance beam across a pit of water.  We made it without falling off unlike a few other people we saw.

Here comes Mary.  How do those gymnasts do what they do on the balance beam?

Here's Mary coming out of the tunnel crawl. 

I did this one even though it was hard on the knees because of all the rocks.

Here goes Irv across the nets.  I had to take pictures so I skipped this one too.

Here's the mud mounds.  Irv and Mary were going to do it as a father/daughter team, but little did Mary know that Irv tricked her into jumping into the pit then he went around the side.

Just a little mud.  This is the girl who said she was going to skip the final mud pit because she didn't want to get dirty.  I kept reminding her that we were all doing the mud pit--afterall, I did a half marathon with her earlier this year.  She owed me!

Here's Irv going through the rope tunnel. 

Mary did it with a different approach.

You'll see in the background of the above picture the big red slide.  We have no picture of that obstacle because we all did it at the same time.  That slide was a couple stories high.  We went down fast and steep into a pit of muddy water that was too deep to touch the bottom.  It was hard to swim to the edge to get out.  I did not like that at all.  Irv said he did a couple flips under water when he landed.  They had actual lifeguards there who were having to help people out.  For some reason swimming was almost impossible in that muddy water.  I yelled "help me" to my co-worker, Ricky, and he saved my life.

The final obstacle was this mud pit that was about 20 yards long.  How difficult could that be?  In the above picture I had no shame asking a random stranger for help.  There were times when I could not get my legs unstuck from the bottom.  By this time Mr. Beans had the camera and was able to take shots of our trip through the pit.

Ricky and Heidi finished next (they're way younger than us).

Here's Irv making his way through.  He started behind me and I told him to hurry up to help.  I was sure I was going to drown in that pit.

Here's Mary.  She made it through and let me behind.  Ricky is beside her and he's pulling me out (again). 

We all did it and we got amazing finisher medals!

It had been really warm before we went in that pit, but once we got out we were freezing.  Although it was cold, but we had to head over to the showers provided by Delta faucets where we showered with hundreds of strangers.  Then we changed clothes in the changing room tents and headed to the beer tent where we had some delicious Shock Top Apple Harvest beer and some pork wings.

A very challenging, but fun day.  Will I do it again? 

No way!