Warrior Dash was on August 17th. I was a nervous wreck about it. I knew I would not be ready for it physically. The Wednesday before the dash (August 14th) I was talking to my friend Lori who was also doing the Dash (it was actually her idea to sign up for it), and I mentioned how I was not ready for it. She immediately said that we were going to go to Crawfordsville for the event, we were going to have fun, and we already know that there will be some obstacles that we cannot do, but that is okay. We were just going to do what we could. That immediately made me feel better.
Then Friday, August 16th hit - Warrior Dash Eve. I had printed out the waiver form and was filling it out. I started to get nervous again. I was basically signing a form that said I could die tomorrow doing Warrior Dash, and they would not be liable. Uh, okay...I didn't sign up for a suicide mission. Then I started looking at the pictures of previous events, and I was getting even more nervous. While looking at these pictures, I realized that everyone was incredibly fit and athletic. Well, crazy girl that I am thought to myself wait a minute, can fat people even do the Warrior Dash? I am not going to lie. I googled it. Yes, that is right. You read that correctly. I googled "Can Fat People Do Warrior Dash". I found some articles or blogs that other people had written about Warrior Dash, and it calmed my nerves a little. It turns out that other overweight people have completed Warrior Dash so I hopefully could also be one of them.
Surprisingly, I slept pretty well that evening knowing that there was a good chance I was going to die the next day. I woke up, got my gear ready, and headed to my friend's house.
Warrior Dash Gear List:
extra pair of clothes
garbage bags
extra shoes
bottles of water (which turns out you cannot take in - I snuck them in, though...rebel!)
shorts that have drawstring to secure around waist
comfortable sports bra
towel
under shirt
extra t-shirt (I think I had four t-shirts total)
cute hair style (one where hair is secure, out of my face, but is not so high that it would get caught in the barbed wire obstacles)
halo
waiver
driver's license
I got to my friend's house and changed into my Warrior t-shirt. We had Virgin Warrior t-shirts made (hence the halos). Once all four of us were there, we loaded up in the car and headed to Crawfordsville. The drive went much faster than I thought it would. Before I knew it, we were parking in a field and making our way to the gates of the Warrior Dash.
We went into the event and went to packet pick-up where I was given my official Warrior Dash t-shirt, my timing chip, my viking hat, and my bib number. We found a table in front of the band that was playing and got ready by adding our timing chip to our shoes, putting our bib numbers on, tightening the laces on our running shoes, and I added duct tape to my running shoes to keep them secure. We then checked our bags and walked around taking in the atmosphere. There were different costumes everywhere you looked. People were talking and laughing and having a great time. We saw people that had just returned from their course, and we watched as one heat took off on the Dash.
When I started this blog, I promised complete honesty. Confession: I spent the first part of my time at WD checking out other people and seeing if I was the only fat person there and/or if I was the fattest person at the event. Sick, right? When I realized what I was doing it became a mental battle for me. Why am I comparing myself to all of these people? They were not in the place that I was six months ago.
We watched as people jumped over the fire. We noticed that an official photographer was stationed by the fire so we decided then that we all needed to jump over the fire together and smile pretty for our official picture.
Before we took off, we had a stranger take our before picture:
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| Before the Warrior Dash |
I am not sure if it was before we started or pretty soon after we started the dash that I was reminded of this verse in Philippians 4:13:
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| This verse was on repeat in my head the entire time. |
Another obstacle I remember coming to was a ravine that we had to literally sit on our butts and slide down and then scale the other side to get up. There were lots of steep hills that we climbed up and slid down. My quads were screaming!
We came to some walls, and I climbed up the first wall and jumped down from it. The next wall you climbed under which I was able to do. There were other walls that I ended up walking around because they were slightly bigger, and I could not pull myself up. I was a little discouraged about not being able to do that one better, but then I reminded myself that I did just pull myself over a wall, and I haven't ever really done that before.
We came to some mud pits that you had to walk through and then climb up on a huge pile of mud and go back into a pit. You repeated this two times. I did the first walk through, but I was too self conscious to climb up (or try to climb up) the first mud hill so I got out and walked around the mud hills. I was also worried about slipping and sliding too much. The next obstacle was one where you went up and down beams of wood and pulled yourself over some walls with water falling down on you. If you fell off one of the beams, you landed in muddy water. Again, I did not feel ready for this one so I went around it. While I was waiting for my friends to complete this obstacle, I had one man try to place his muddy hands on me in a joking kind of way. Not even ten minutes later, I had another stranger come up and give me a huge bear hug. I guess these people didn't think I was muddy enough yet.
There was another obstacle that was a 12 foot wall you climbed up with a rope and then scaled down the other side. I knew I was not doing this one. I have no upper body strength and the wall was really muddy. I watched as people who were really physically fit get to the top and then fall down to the ground below. Everyone that witnessed it felt those people's pain.
I remember a steep gravel hill that we had to go up and then down. I remember a rope that you had to walk across a ravine. This particular obstacle was the one where I encountered one of the rudest people ever. I was on the obstacle, and it was incredibly wobbly. I didn't want to fall because I was going to land on hard ground, and it was going to hurt. I was going slowly to be careful, but I was still moving forward. I realized someone else was on the obstacle with me because the rope was moving a lot more, and the rope handles were moving in and out. It was making it difficult for me to balance and get across. I was almost to the end, and this man must have been super impatient because he jumped down off the obstacle, again almost causing me to fall, and ran around me. I was in shock at his rudeness! I made it across without falling despite this man, and I was super excited that I completed this obstacle.
What we thought was the final obstacle was jumping over fire. We completed the two jumps over the two different fires and made it past the official photographer. We turned the corner thinking we were at the finish line when we saw it. A pool of mud we had to crawl through. We jumped right in and started making our way through this mud pit. The barbed wire was lower to the pit than the previous one so we literally had to crawl through the mud. I even saw some poor woman get her hair caught in the barbed wire but someone helped her get it out. I was behind a friend of mine that could not reach the bottom of the mud pit with her hands and knees so she was literally swimming through the pool of mud. I was right behind her at the beginning and didn't realize she had to swim and ended up with some mud on my face and in my mouth. I realized what was going on and stayed back a little so she could get through and I wouldn't get anymore mud in my mouth or hair. Getting to the end of the pool, someone helped me out. However, I was so wet and muddy that I could not keep my footing. I literally slipped and slid my way across the finish line.
The most amazing feeling was crossing that finish line and having someone place that medal around my neck and tell me congratulations. I did it. I finished my first Warrior Dash.
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| This is not my actual medal, but this is what it looks like! |
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| After the Warrior Dash |
When we finished, we waded into the lake to get some of the mud off. Then we got our belongings from where they were checked, and we donated our used, muddy shoes and went to find the car. I didn't realize how tired I was until we went in search of the car. We couldn't find it! We set off in different directions to find it, and finally, we found it. This was a picture I took of myself when we got back to the car:
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| Muddy Selfie |
It has now been nine days since Warrior Dash, and I can honestly say that I am looking forward to doing it again in 2014! Besides the one impatient man I told you about earlier, everyone was AMAZING to be around. Big strong men would stay at obstacles and would help people get up and get over. People cheered for complete strangers. People helped each other up when they fell and encouraged people to keep going. It was truly a great thing to witness.
I will prepare myself better for next year. I will be at a healthier weight next year. I will do more upper body strength training so I can complete more obstacles. I will not wear duct tape on my shoes because I think that is one reason I was slipping and sliding so much. I will sign up with my friends again and encourage anyone else who wants to do it to participate.
Warrior Dash 2013 was exactly what I needed. I am so thankful to my friend Lori for inviting me to do it with her. This experience gave me a chance to reflect back on all of the changes I have been making these past six months. It reminded me of where I have come from and how much stronger I am than what I used to be. It also reset me and helped get me back on track. Who would have thought I would have done something as crazy as the Warrior Dash? Bring on WD 2014!
