Challenge yourself and be surprised!

I did it. With lots of help from my husband and friend, we all finished the darn Warrior Dash. And I had so much fun that I really want to do it again....next year.

It started out at 9 a.m, standing in blinding sunlight, 90 degree heat already and waiting in some shade we found while watching the early risers finish the race. It looked like a blast! They jumped over fire and crawled through a giant mud puddle to the finish. I'm so in!

Then I saw the starting line. Uphill. A big uphill. Ouch.

I was getting nervous. And sweaty. Not a great combination.

This is our "before" photo. Nice and clean. Jessie on the left with her Mom then it's me and Jay. Maybe me isn't the best usage, but I'm too damn tired to care.

After awhile it was our turn. We lined up with the other 300 people with our time slot and were instructed on what were about to face. Death, destruction, injury and heat rash.

Started with the uphill, which, turned out to be the easiest portion of the whole race.

Next, tires we had to run through (a very nice boy in front of me was making sure they didn't hit me), mud (you have to try hard to keep your shoes on while running through this shin-high goop), a rope climb (which took forever since there were 300 of us waiting in lines, but that was the only time we were all waiting like that), and more HILLS.

I remember jumping over some obstacles that were about chest high on me, climbing under barbed wire (not as bad as basic training though, which was a relief) and MORE HILLS.

I believe there was some climbing thing that I hiked over again, a skinny piece of wood off the ground that I walked over and then another climbing thing that was MUCH higher than I ever wanted to go. I have a HUGE fear of heights. I can't even climb tiny ladders here at home without getting the shakes.

But I did it. I was amazed by myself. Is that weird? I really didn't think I could do it, but I did. I did a huge happy dance after I was done too. Then I was blasted by giant water blowers and it felt amazing but I couldn't breathe for a few seconds.

After that was the water slide (SO MUCH FUN!) and jumping through fire (hot as shit, after running in 90+ heat for that long) then the nice cool mud bath at the end. The mud bath was gross but refreshing.

The end! Jalon, Jessie and Me. Or Myself. Or whatever. Back off.

Every challenge I came to, I wasn't sure I could actually do it. But I did them all. I seriously can't believe that I did them all. I was SO nervous at the beginning. We made the agreement, before we started the race, to do EVERY obstacle. I was in. I didn't want to skip over any of them. I wanted to complete the entire thing or what was the point of even doing it in the first place? If you are going to skip over the obstacles, probably shouldn't have spent the $68 to even do the race. I wanted to challenge myself just to prove that I can do it. And I did.

I will say that the running portion was just fine. Too many hills for my liking, but we managed. I tried to run as much as I could. It took us an hour to finish. We were hoping for 45 minutes. The best times were in the 20 minute time frame. Holy crap. That's incredible. I had guys from the heat after us, passing me. I was amazed. My goal for next year is 40 minutes.

Now I have to review all my "injuries". I have a scrape down one arm from some barbed wire. Didn't feel it, someone told me I was bleeding. It's long, but not deep at all. I have a weird bruise, lump on one arm thats a little annoying. And my sunburn. Ouchie on the sunburn. Tears of pain for the sunburn.

There are also some random bruises coming in. Not sure from what, but I beat my body up and now I'm paying the price.

The pain/soreness, in my thighs, from running those damn hills is preventing me from climbing down the stairs to do laundry in the basement.

I am still picking dirt out of places. I rinsed off  before we left, but that wasn't enough. Not even close.

When I got home to shower, I just climbed in with all my clothes on and peeled them off, one by one. My bath is sooooo gross right now. I had clumps of mud EVERYWHERE. I thought I got it all off, but I'm still picking it off my scalp and out of my ears. My eyes are having issues and are all red and goopy.

I'm so sexy right now. I can't wear a bra because my sunburn is so bad.

I have dirt under my toenails. 

So, if your wondering if this was a good idea or not, I would say go for it (wear sunscreen). I plan on doing this again. There's another race in September. Not sure if I will do it THAT soon, but I really did have a lot of fun with this. I challenged myself and was surprised at what I actually accomplished. I was also surprised that I beat my husband. Yes, by a few yards maybe, but still...I beat him. I never beat him. Ever. (happy dance again.) But he did great for not training at all. He never runs. In fact, I'm surprised he did this with me. Maybe we started a new tradition and will continue to run together and even try a bigger run next year.

Get out there and try. Trust me, it's worth it!

Now I'm going to go scrape dirt out places that it shouldn't be, wipe the goopy stuff out of my eyes and figure out what this weird growth on my arm is.

Anyone want to put aloe on my back? Please?

I told you...not taking it off. Ever.