“If you’re not bruised, bloody, and muddy, you’re not doing it right” – Warrior Dash, Part II

So we started running.

I forgot that Mississippi was hilly. Granted, my home is fairly hilly, too, but I try to avoid those hills. So running up and down hills is not my favorite activity. But that was the easy part.

Our first obstacle was running through tires placed on the ground. Every one else in our group did perfectly fine and left me in the dust. I’m sure they thought I could get through faster than I could.

They would be wrong. I am clumsy and uncoordinated, and it took me double the time it would take a normal individual to get through the tires. No matter, though. I run fairly fast, and I certainly run faster than some of those guys. ;)

I caught up with them around the second obstacle, which was about 30 seconds ahead of the first – more stupid tires. I thought we were going to get to climb over junker cars (as the website said), but if you’re reading this simply to get an idea of what the Warrior Dash is like, let me give you this advice: Whatever they say will be on your course, don’t believe. It can/will change.

Marla is in the blue, running through the tires.

 And, of course, there are dozens of mud pits that you cannot avoid – plus, really, why would you want to avoid them? That’s why you’re there! Granted, I saw a few people face plant in the mud, and I tried to go slowly through the mud pits (which would vary from being knee deep to waist deep in an instant and without warning), but by the fourth mud pit, I did fall down. Thankfully, I kept most of my balance and didn’t face plant, but my camera was a wreck. I had a waterproof camera, but that doesn’t necessarily mean mud proof. In fact, I only got pics for the first part of the race because by the second half, my camera and I were caked in mud – and a mud-coated camera will not take pictures until you wipe the mud off. Turns out.

See that huge mud pit? Looks shallow, right? Looks can be deceiving...

Anyway, back to the race. So we went through the tire swings, and then we had Stormin’ Normandy. What’s that? A really boring obstacle where you move underneath nets. Moving on.

See? Just go under the nets. Lame.

My dedicated husband was running in his Rick Flair robe and doing his very best to keep up, despite his lack of training. He did awesome, too. He wore the robe til about Mile 2, when a mud pit pulled it off.

With his spray-painted blond hair, it was actually hard for me to quickly spot Kyle after he lost his robe.

One of my favorite obstacles were the hurdles, which was in the first half of the race. Up over a hurdle, under barbed wire. Rinse and repeat (actually, don’t rinse).

All members of our group (except girl with red shirt). Notice Adam with the helmet cam (easier to see in the bottom pic). Gotta get the money shot. ;)

Kyle hurdles over.

By this point, all of us were coated in mud, head to toe and even a little in our mouth (yep, it gets that nasty). But after running through tires on the ground, running through tires on ropes, Stormin’ Normandy, and the hurdles, we still had nine more obstacles to go, including walking up and down thin planks. We quickly found out that I have NO balance (though I did somehow make it across) and Kyle has amazing balance. Any obstacle having to do with balance he did without blinking.

We also had a lot of fun goofing off. Our group had a motto of “No man left behind,” so if someone was going slow, the others would wait. During one of the lulls, two of our “wrestlers” got into a mud pit wrestling match, to the glee of some of the other participants. The guys also changed out the helmet cam so no one had to wear it too long. So we played around.

Quote from Chris: "Aren't we here to get muddy?"

I also need to point out that we had FIFTEEN obstacles. I thought it was fewer, but when I started counting them up, I ended up with fifteen, not including the mud pits.

The last obstacle of what I deem as the first half of the race (i.e. when my camera quit working because it was so muddy) was the cargo nets you had to climb across. Do you know how hard it is to climb across cargo nets? Me neither. ;) I actually rolled across. We had read articles about the Warrior Dash before and found that rolling was actually easier than going across it. However, it’s also a lot more painful (providing if you crawl, you don’t fall through), as my knees and elbows can attest to.

So that’s where I will leave you today, at the halfway mark. But I’ll give you a preview of the last edition of my Warrior Dash review:

Lie No. 2 that I told myself: If I’m careful, I won’t get any rope burns or splinters.

Why that’s a lie: Because, by the third to last obstacle, I realized that rope burns AND splinters were a lot better than falling twenty feet.