Let’s Do It!
That’s how this challenge began… unfortunately I have to admit that I started it. I saw an ad on Facebook. “Are you a Warrior?” I clicked the link and read “Welcome to America’s most insane race.” Hah! I’ve got her now… post the link to Mickey’s facebook page and snicker, thinking that she would never go for this one – not in a million years! Guaranteed win for me… Then I noticed her comment back on FB “Let’s Do It!”… uh oh, now what’d I get myself into. Mickey registered, I had no choice – I HAD TO! I already lost the leg shaving contest, I wasn’t going to lose the race challenge contest.
So back to the Warrior Dash website. Look at the regions listed – hmm, Northeast or Mid-Atlantic…. the following e-mail chat followed:
Me: “Hey - wich one did you register for, Northeast or Mid-Atlantic?”
Mickey: “Northeast, why?”
Me: “Mid-Atlantic would have been closer.” Then I complete my registration to the Northeast race.
Mickey: “Oops. Sorry, just registered for the Mid-Atlantic Race.”
Me: “NO!!!”
Mickey: “What?”
Me: “I just registered for Northeast!”
My dilema – Mickey had registered for 2 races. Now I had to register for 2 or face the agony of defeat. Back to the website, registered for Mid-Atlantic. After that was done, we both promptly put these two races out of our minds for the next 8 months.
Time flies. Our marathon training and race were over as well as the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon. I ran the Broad Street Run with my daughter Kristy. I ran a few 5K’s. Then the passion for running somehow slipped. Summer came. Summer went.
The Windham, NY date was suddenly here. We planned on leaving Saturday morning, drive to NY, run and come home that evening. Then I looked at the drive time. 4 hours, 45 minutes with traffick. OK, do the math in my head… guessing we would be done the race and after race festivities by around 5 pm. Look closer at the details of the race.
“Warrior Dash is the ultimate event for thrill-seeking athletes. This running series is held on some of the nation’s most demanding and unique terrain. Participants will conquer extreme obstacles and celebrate their feat with music, beer, warrior helmets and muddy shorts.”
I read on…
“There’s certainly risk involved in Warrior Dash, but we take every precaution possible to get you to the finish line safely. There will be paramedics and an ambulance on site in case of an emergency. You enter Warrior Dash at your own risk.”
…and on:
How do I train for Warrior Dash?
1. Day one: run as far as you can. Go home. Day two: do the same thing. (Not a problem as I wasn’t running too seriously for the last couple months.)
2. Find the dirtiest pond in your neighborhood and snorkel in it – in your slippers, without goggles.
3. Practice your climbing and crawling skills at your local jungle gym. Ignore the small children and parental glares.
4. Do not shower or shave for weeks in order to obtain a true Warrior look. (The shaving part was Mickey’s specialty.)
OK, so then I started thinking that maybe we better find someplace to stay overnight and take Mickey’s 2 dogs along or have Mickey face up to 2 dogs that exploded because their bladders just couldn’t take anymore. Made the suggestion to Mickey, looked around for a hotel in the area that accepted dogs (so glad they don’t have standards for cleanliness) and made the reservation.
10 PM Friday, September 17, 2010
Climbed in bed for the night and set the alarm to wake up at 5:30, shower, dress, gas up the car, purchased and filled windshield washer fluid, went to McD’s and picked up breakfast and pick up Mickey at 7:00 a.m. Slept for about 3 hours, tossed turned, watched a movie and repeated “what am I doing” 6,245,890 times. Never figured out an answer. Gave up trying to sleep at 5:15 and began packing and gathering some food, drink for the drive to and from the race.
Friday, September 18, 2010
Picked up Mickey and proceeded to drive the 4:45 to Windham NY. We had just got off route 287 when I asked “are those mountains?”. They appeared out of nowhere. Mickey looked and confirmed my suspicion, then said “this race isn’t on a hill is it?” After I stopped laughing, I responded with “it’s on a ski resort, there BETTER be a hill!” Priceless – the expression on Mickey’s face was priceless. (I believe Mickey will be taking a closer look at the details of the next Warrior Dash we will be running in October.)
We found the Windham Resort and found a nice shady place to park so the dogs wouldn’t be too hot while waiting for us to finish the race. We decided to eat lunch, then go up to the registration. We walked up to the registration area passing a few soggy, somewhat dirty people on the way. Then we saw a growing pile of sneakers and the registration tents. Found the table to fill out the waver and proceeded to pick up our packets. We headed back down to the car to return the dogs and make the final wardrobe adjustments. Put the dogs in the car and headed back to wait for our wave to start. Talk about a festive race! People in every kind of costume, men wearing skirts, music playing, tents to purchase Warrior apparel and food. Mickey and I scoped the area and waited for the 2:00 wave to begin forming. This had to be one of the most jovial group of runners that I have ever seen at the starting line. The announcer did a great job raising the enthusiasm level of the runners and the crowd. Time after time the “Warrior Wave” went down the row of participants, then our wave was off. As we approached the start, a blast of heat hit us as we crossed the line. Two 10 foot flames shot out above our heads to send us off…. and UP a mountain. The first half of the race was straight up the mountain. Fortunately for us it was the Bunny Slope. Unfortunately, the Bunny Slope at Ski Windham is nothing close to the “advanced” slopes of any of the hills in or around our hometown. For approximately 20 minutes we walked, huffed and puffed to the top of the Bunny Slope. Finally we saw the sign “Obsticle Ahead”. Woot – this is what we were here for!!! Our first obticle was Knee High Hell. Tires. Tires that you needed to strategically determine where you were going to place feet. I went first, they nearly brought me to my knees. I completed the tires and turned to film Mickey’s process. I heard a slight yell and watched Mickey go down to her knees and quickly pop back up to her feet. So far, both of us survived.
Laughing we jogged off and saw the sign “Obsticle Ahead”. Warrior Wall, as with most obticles, there was a slight wait as we waited for runners ahead of us to navigate the hurdle. This time Mickey went first and turned to wait for me to vault over the triple hurdle. Two down, two runners still going. the next section of the course was pretty level, jogging across the mountain and to the next “Obsticle Ahead” sign. Next obsticle “Tunnels of Terror” – which were a series of black PVC pipes that you needed to get down on your hands and knees to crawl through to continue. I chose to go second and watched as Mickey quickly popped up at the other end. I entered the tunnel and quickly stopped, needing to adjust my hat so the brim would stop banging on the roof of the tunnel. About halfway through, my knees were voicing their opinions – loudly objecting to being put to such use. I finally emerged from the tunnel and popped out and began running to the next ”Obsticle Ahead” sign. Black Forrest was the next challenge that really wasn’t much of one. The next “Obsticle Ahead” sign came up quickly. We submerged to the chest high icy cold waters of the Slithering Swamp. COLD!!!! This was the funniest part of the race in my opinion. My legs quickly went numb. Mickey commented on various girl parts that had shrunk. As we were climbing out of the swamp, “My testicles just retracted” was called out sending several of us into fits of laughter. Jogging alongside a fellow participant I was still smiling and laughing and he told me that “his testicles were now in his chest”. OK, thanks for sharing and off to the next “Obsticle Ahead”. We traversed the PLANK – a 2 x 8 board across a dip in the woods. Nothing exciting going on here and on to my favorite thing “STEEP HILL AHEAD”!!! Woo-hoo!!! I love the downhill and started galloping downward hearing “there she goes” from Mickey as I went.
At the bottom of the hill I waited for my cohort and we looked for the next “Obsticle Ahead” Rip Van Winkle Way was a steep climb up a series of boards to the next “Obsticle Ahead” - Rio Run was more barely a trickle! What was supposed to be a run through a creek was a step over a bit of water. Down over the next section of mountain and came upon Tutu Girl – one of the participants dressed with a pink tutu and a t-shirt with “Ballerina from Hell” printed on the back. As I caught up to her she had just begun climbing the next “Obsticle Ahead” – Cargo nets about 20 feet up, across the top and down the other side. I scaled the first part, slung my legs over the top rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself off to turn and descend the other side. I looked at Tutu girl who had just made it to the top and looked like she was barely hanging on. I went over, held out my hands and anchored myself to help her over. She made it, I went back to where I could climb down and wait for Mickey to take her turn, Mickey was up and over – climbing up and down as quick as any monkey I’ve ever seen. As she left the net, she nailed her dismount and we turned and headed for the next “Obsticle Ahead” Flagstone Stack, which was just a path through the woods over some nice sized boulders. We rounded the corner and stopped dead when we arrived at the “Obsticle Ahead” Castskill Skid. Mickey said “Cooooool!!! A water slide!!!!” we impatiently waited our turn. Not wanting to do injury to others we waited till the bodies cleared from our path. I went first, did my best softball slide down the slide. WHAM!!! My head slammed into the plastic slide and I felt my hat, my favorite hat come off. Knowing there was nothing I could do to retreive it I picked myself up and turn to watch Mickey. “WHOA!!!” and then “UH!!” were the only sounds I heard coming from Mickey. The woman following her didn’t leave enough time and went knees first into Mickey’s back.
Back on our way down to the final 2 “Obsticle Ahead”. We had both seen in the ads and pictures of the Warrior Dash that you got to run over fire. Neither of us were prepared for this “Warrior Roast”!!!! From the pictures I thought the flames were 2, maybe 3 inches high. NOT EVEN CLOSE! There were two rows of fire laying across the path to the final obsticle. These rows of fire were about 2 feet high. Now we understood why they soaked you down on the Catskill Slide – that way you wouldn’t catch fire if you didn’t jump high enough. I leaped over the 2 rows and turned and waited for Mickey. She navigated the fire safely and we stopped – here it was. The final one. The Finish Line. A 20 feet long by 2 feet deep Muddy Mayhem. Mickey dropped to her knees and began her crawl under barbed wire and through thick grainy mud. She got about 6 feet into her journey and stopped raising her arm into the air. In her hand she had something – our best guess was that someone lost their underwear. Laughing, I dropped down and began crawling on my knees, trying to keep the upper half of my body out of the mud so that Mickey’s video camera and mine wouldn’t get ruined. We crossed the finish line dripping in mud and accepted our Finisher’s Medals.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
We both grabbed a couple cups of water and started making our way over to pick up our “Free Beer” and watch more of the particpants as they dove, jumped and swam through the Muddy Mayhem. What an adventure! Can’t wait for the next Warrior Dash – now we just need to figure out what costumes we are going to wear….
