I wrote about my training for the Warrior Dash in an earlier post. Well here’s how that went.
What training?
I had big plans for training, as you may have read before. That all dissolved quickly and turned into me going on 1-2 mile runs with our 10 month old puppy Layla every day. That kept me in decent enough shape to feel ready to run this race. As it turns out, that’s way more ready than I needed to be. (Gratuitous cute puppy photo below.)
Race Day
Caroline and Layla were kind enough to come along with me to Connecticut for the race. Caroline had to sit with Layla for the whole time, so she probably had the hardest job that day. I wandered around the muddy Camp Laurelwood grounds that had been taken over by Warrior Dash. Registration came with a free beer, which I decided not to use — partly because the line to get your id checked was like a mile long, and partly because beer didn’t sound good before a 5k. (Although that’s never stopped me before. See: http://brewtobrew.com/ )
The Race
My biggest problem with the race was all the waiting. I thought they had staggered the starts so that hold ups didn’t happen at the obstacles. Not the case. Everyone stops and slowly wades into the water in the very first obstacle. Then we’re all slipping in the mud coming out of the pond, pretty much forcing you to just walk with little baby steps.
Seven minutes in, I come to a large mud pit full of people. I slowly wade through, being careful until I think I’ve gotten out and am walking on solid ground, when my right leg sinks 3 feet into the mud like its quick sand and I nail my shin against a rock. It stings and as I pull my leg out and continue penguin walking over the slippery mud; the area around the wound starts to buzz and I feel my body numbing it. The wound was covered in mud, so I couldn’t see anything and my body was doing a hell of a job of shutting out the pain — all I could do was hope it was just a small superficial wound and continue on.
So I went through the rest of the race, and had to wait at about half of the obstacles for my turn. The worst part was that I was usually waiting just to crawl (under barbed wire, through rope nets, up dirt mounds)! I don’t like crawling to begin with, but doing it on a bloody shin/knee is even worse.
Alas, I continued. I jumped over flames and leaped across creek beds. I climbed wooden things and went down sharp bumpy metal slides to victory.
In Summary
It took me 47 minutes to do the whole thing. I’d say 17 of those were spent waiting or getting stuck behind slow people on the thin trails. The little preparation I did was probably about right for this event. I got a medal at the end, but this wound is the real medal.
a[Paul]ing thoughts 