Katie H.
Mid-Atlantic Warrior Dash Race Report :)
Oct 14, 2010
Oh wow…the Warrior Dash was AWESOME!!!
I was a little worried about it…it was my first sleep-away race. It was in Quarryville, PA and my roommate was supposed to go with me as she’d registered to do it too, but she backed out last minute (even though she’s known about it since we signed up 8 months ago..grrr..). I drove down on Friday, a nice little 6 hour drive to the middle of Amish Country in Pennsylvania.
I woke up early because, like I said it was my first sleep-away race and I was nervous. It was cold when I started out for the race, but it ended up being about 70 degrees midday…awesome weather!! This wasn’t just a run, which I could handle…there were obstacles involved! I got there a little after 8 and the first wave was set to go off at 9 – I was in the 11am wave. There were waves of up to 500 going off every half hour until 5pm….and that was just on Saturday; Sunday was every half hour 9 till about 2 (I believe). It was awesome…the first wave went off and I made my way over to the finish area to watch them come in….you couldn’t really see any of the obstacles from the main area – it was smack in the middle of a Yogi Bear Campground and a paintball course. The finish area consisted of a gigantic mud pit that had barbed wire strung across it…so there was no walking through the mud, you HAD to crawl. Then you ran and jumped over two flaming piles of wood to the finish chute. Watching that first wave come in made me nervous…they were sooooo spaced out finishing, made me wonder if I had any sense in my head at all signing up for this. Oh well…I did some stretching and walked around…hit the port-o-potties about three times, checked my bag and was off to the starting line area for my wave. I put myself toward the back…I wanted to pace myself. I had three goals…do ALL the obstacles, don’t die and finish. Okay, I had four…I didn’t want to come out of it with a cast either.
We started and there were gigantic flames coming straight up out of the starting line sign…awesome – I love fire!! For the first five to ten minutes it was hurry up and wait…I walked because there were so many people and we couldn’t go anywhere. People spaced out as we got running and to the first obstacle…the dark tunnels! You crawled through on your hands and knees came out and continued running through the hay field. The second obstacle was part of the paint ball course…we had to climb up and over five or six small buildings about 6-7 feet off the ground. There was a window cut into the side you could use and a rope hanging off the top…not so bad going up. I’m scared of heights….and the 5-6 foot drop on the other side scared the crap out of me! By the last one I was good to go!! The next obstacle was 5 or 6 gigantic piles of dirt, rocks and metal pipes you had to scramble over…kind of slippery going down, but no injuries here!! Next was the haybale pyramid…as a farm girl this was cake! Up one side, down the other...and off to the cargo net climb!! I was nervous about this one, you could see if from the parking lot. I instantly had flashbacks to when I was a kid, a very fat kid, and couldn’t get up the cargo net at the playground…yikes. Dude, who knew that losing 200+lbs and working out would make that damn cargo net so easy!!
From there we had a nice ½ mile straight run…kind of down hill to a water tent. Grabbed some water and off I went! There was a nice trail run through the campground, over giant trees and into the SPIDER WEBS!! Actually it was just tons of rope strung between the trees you had to get through…without falling on your face…again..success!! More trail run, then there was the balance beam over a culvert..cake!! More trail run…then you come to what they called the “blackout” where you go under on these tarp covered structures in the dark…probably should have listened to the guy and done the bear walk because I have a crap load of bruises and cuts on my knees today…oh well…Warrior scars! Then more trail run, and as you rounded the corner there was the water. The ICE COLD water…covered with nasty green sludge/slime. The water was just below my chest and you had to go over 6 logs….logs 1-3 – no problem. Logs 4 & 5…kicked my ass. I went COMPLETELY under water…thought my heart was going to stop, it was SOOO cold!! Log 6…no problem. Getting out of that nasty slimy mess was another issue…it was just a mud slicked hill…awesome! J I made it up and back down the other side without falling…and off I went to the next obstacle. There were about 8 walls, all about 3 ½-4 feet high that we had to get ourselves over…not bad, as I’m 5’10”. The guys staffing that obstacle did tell us to be extremely careful as they were just finishing loading up two guys to be taken away to the medic tent…knee and shoulder injuries….yikes, glad it wasn’t me though!!
Off to the next one…it was a pit of nasty brown watery mud that seriously smelled like poop. The guy I was running with at that point totally cannon-balled into it, so I figured it couldn’t be that bad. Made it out of that one and I was headed up the hill….of pure mud. It was awesome…and I didn’t fall!! Then there was one more hill, no mud, but also lots of stumps trying to trip us up…I didn’t succumb!! At the top of that hill was the finish…the infamous mud and barbed wire pit. Which as the day wore on got muddier thanks to the volunteers who were continuously throwing on more dirt and water…awesome!! I crawled through the pit and was absolutely covered from my chest down…and made my way to the fire. Leapt over both sets of flaming logs and into the finish chute!!!
It seriously was the craziest race I’d ever done, but it was also by far the most fun I’d ever had in a race. I don’t even know what my time was…I’m sure they’ll post them eventually. It was a special race for me because this week was my two year mark for my RNY…the Warrior Dash was my present to myself…which I did, and I rocked it!! I’m definitely signing up for next year….perhaps multiple dates?!? J I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone out there….the run is cake, it’s only a 5k and there’s lots of start/stopping…so no worries!! Anyone want in??? They’ve already got dates up on the website for next year – www.warriordash.com
