Louisiana Warrior Dash

I am so awesome, people!

Seriously. I don't even know how to tell you how awesome I truly am.

I did the Louisiana Warrior Dash with Niki and her family. And I was pretty sure I would
#1: die
or
#2: not finish.

But I did neither! I made all of the obstacles, finished in an hour and a half, and LOVED it! I was pretty nervous the week before. See, up until 3 weeks out I had no idea there were obstacles... or fire...or barbed wire... I thought it was a nice, fun, stroll through the mud. And I love mud! Nope- it has 12 obstacles and is described as 3 miles of pure hell on the website. I am a clumsy oaf, folks. I was scared!

And then they send the release form, which informs you that you must have insurance, the obstacles are extremely dangerous, there will be fire, barbed wire and other forms of torture (my words, not theirs), you have to swim through water of unknown sources, there may be harmful plants and bugs... and, of course, they are responsible for nothing that may befall you. It was a good read...

Let's review:
It started off as about a mile of trekking through knee to ankle deep, slippery, sliding, mud or muddy water. That alone was quite an accomplishment. Then there were 12 obstacles and more running (walking in our case) through sand and mud:

Capsized Catamaran:
We had to jump into muddy water, swim up to, and climb on some floating plastic "stuff". Then you balance your way across and climb down.

Teetering Traverse:
This was my first big challenge. It was a (muddy) balance beam about 8 feet off the ground. Sounds easy, but I am afraid of heights. Almost barfed, but I made it. This nice girl named Kathryn held my hand. :)

Trenches:
A crawl through a dug-out trench with barbed wire. The bad part was you were crawling over pebbles. My knees have scars to prove it!

These nice people got hay to crawl on!

Warrior Wall:

I dreaded this all week! I have zero upper body strength and I am petrified of climbing and heights. But I wanted to at least try. The guy in front of me saw me quaking in fear and told me to use my arms only to hold on, and push myself up with my legs. I made it!! I was ridiculously proud and Niki and I hugged and jumped in circles after we both made it. 

The little "steps" are not even half an inch deep! And our wall was taller than this. 

Storming Normandy:

This was more under barbed-wire and net crawling. 

Barricade Breakdown:

This obstacle was under/over hurdles. Which doesn't sounds too hard until you remember you have been going for a while and your legs really don't want to push you over!

Hard Rain:

A wall to climb up with water pouring down on you the entire way. The worst part for me was having to jump 10 feet down on the other side. I almost crawled back down and walked around.

Tipsy Tightrope:

This is two ropes, one about your head and one under your feet. You have to shimmy along the rope to the other side. 

Cargo Climb:

This one was fun! Climb up, over and down a cargo net. There was a camera projecting to the finish and waiting area so I took the opportunity to wiggle my mud covered booty at everyone!

Junkyard Jump:

Run through tires and climb over junk heap cars. This is pretty fun because, really, when else do you get to jump up and down on the top of a car?

Warrior Roast:

Poor Niki almost didn't go for this one- you jump over fire. We held hands and screamed the entire way. Luckily, there were photographers at this one so I'll be sure to post those lovely shots when available. 

Muddy Mayhem:

You have to scramble/swim through muddy water under even more barbed wire. These people loved their barbed wire. 

This is our post race victory photo!

The Pink Warriors: Niki, Ashley, Mama Ruth and Staci (team captain)

I have never done any kind of a race (and seeing as I hate running, I don't plan to)- but this was an absolute ball! It's a great thing to do with friends and go it together for some laughs. I was a little sore the next day, and I think it was three showers later before I got all of the mud, leaves and grass off- but it was completely worth it! 

As one lady behind us commented: "This is just an excuse for adults to play in the mud."

Yep!