Warrior Dash

Ran the Warrior Dash on Saturday. It was a fun event, different from a traditional race in that it is run on trails with many obstacles, both natural and man-made.

The race starts with a wave of about 500 people with fire shooting out the top of the starting gate. My brother-in-law and I were about halfway back in the group when the race began. Unfortunately, the course was pretty narrow and there was nowhere to move. We went at a slow jog pace for nearly a mile until the first intentional obstacle. While I wasn't overly concerned about getting a great finishing time, next time I will get as close to the front as possible.

We ran up and down good sized, fairly steep hills and through a little stream several times. Intentional or not, the obstacles seemed to be placed in more or less increasing difficulty. Many of them required considerable effort, though none were impossible. The 20 ft tall cargo net climb was probably the hardest and the scariest, besides the mud.

The mud pit was right at the end and required one to jump into about a 4 ft pit of watery mud, then crawl through about 60 feet of more shallow mud below barbed wire. After I jumped in, my shoes got stuck in the mud and it took considerable effort not to lose them. I probably had about 5 pounds of mud on me as I got out of the pit and shuffled to the finish line.

Overall, it was a fun event, though much different than a traditional 5k. The finishing time doesn't really mean too much, this race was more about the experience. I finished with a time of 39:24, which was 183/592 in my age group and 1674/6726 overall. I would consider dong this race again next year.

I ran 6 miles this morning as well, as I wasn't feeling too many effects from the Warrior Dash. Nothing remarkable about the run, though it may be the coolest it has been on a run in weeks (still humid though).