A few weeks ago I ran the Warrior Dash in North Bend, Washington with JJ and his friend Alisha (JJ’s girlfriend Meghan and his friend Tyler joined us to take pictures and hang out). In case you haven’t heard about Warrior Dash (or it’s counterpart Tough Mudder which is longer and looks considerably tougher and thus cooler) it’s a run combined with obstacles.
We arrived in plenty of time to check in to the race and watch the first finishers come across the line. When it was finally our turn to run, we got into the race chute with a couple hundred of our fellow “warriors.” The Dash has start times staggered every half hour with up to 300 participants per wave. Once the race started and we were off and running it quickly became apparent to me that 150 runners every 15 minutes would probably be a lot nicer. For a run that advertises mud, there seemed to be a lot of reticence to run through the mud rather than waiting to run around it.
At about a mile, JJ slowed down some and I headed off with my goal to not let anyone beat me through an obstacle, one at which I mostly succeeded. I averaged 10:54 min/miles which considering how slow we all started the race and the giant mud pit thing at the end, I suppose it wasn’t that bad. I felt slow even though in the 20-29 women’s bracket I finished 56/970 participants.
After I emerged from the mud hole obstacle at the end of the race, I really wanted my turkey leg and promised beer. We got hosed off the best we could and headed to the food area.
It was a fun race but not near as much fun as I was expecting. I would hope for more obstacles per mile and for fewer people per wave. It did remind me that running in races is quite a lot of fun though!
I love the turkey leg ending! Worth it just for that, no?
Go you!
It’s SO much fun.