As I've been saying, I have loved racing obstacle races. I love the physicality of testing my strength (the guns need firing after all!) and fitness as well as my speed. My first Warrior Dash for the year was in Lebanon, KY. What was great about this race was that I was doing it with some friends. The obstacles were your normal fare of climbing walls (ho hum) and barbed wire-hard dirt-belly crawls (crawling sucks!) along with the WD signature fire jumps (Booyah!) and mud pit. The real challenge of this race was the course itself (Wicked hard, bro). The course directors made fine use of the rough and hilly terrain in KY as runners had to navigate several winding cut-backs and single lane trails. More than once, I was facing a morale-busting (like getting punched in the junk, chief) uphill climb after crossing an obstacle. When we did have a downhill avenue, it was either through a rocky dried gully bed or down a slick single lane trail congested with traffic. For instance (story time!), one time I had finished climbing a wall and crested a hill, when I caught up to a group of young ladies walking ahead of me trying to make it down a series of cut-backs. The trail was slick with mud from runners' shoes and there were large roots and stumps protruding up dangerously in the middle of the trail. I couldn't go around them even though they were moving single file or I would have likely caused an accident sending them or myself tumbling down the hill. Granted I needed the break, but I was irritated that I had to stop running. I realized that I was right though, when I had to gently catch (Watch the hands, chief!) the young lady in front of me when she slipped. If she had fallen, she would most likely be in the hospital today picking out the wood splinters from her back as there was jagged stump right underneath her (Ouch!). Still I had a good race and ended up finishing 34th out of 421 in my age group with a time of 33:39.05, 9:49/mi.
Now, I'm not sure what everyone was drinking that day, but there were a lot of wrecks around the race area and it made getting to and from the race more than difficult at times (read: backed up for hours). Since I was in hurry to get home (my lovely wife had a ladies night planned), I decided to hoof it back to the car (tack on another 4.5 miles) instead of waiting for the shuttle buses which were taking forever. Heading back to the parking area, I saw the reason why. Several ambulances were blocking the road to the race site because a tractor pulling a trailer had flipped leaving several people in need of emergency care. It was a nightmare. Lucky for me that after a mile, I was picked up by a nice gentleman that was taking other runners back to the parking area. It was a crazy day.
Early on in the race, feeling good, running with my boy, Albert.
Near the end, feeling spent, Albert ditched me about a mile and 1/2 ago. Bastard.
Crawling out of the mud to the finish. I'm cooked and covered in mud. I may be too old for this stuff. Dumbass.
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