The horn sounded and flames shot out from atop the start line! Took off running down hill then up hill. It was hot and humid! Pant, pant, pant. And I have 11 obstacles to do! Run, run, run...



1. Planks - Had to balance walk on planks (16 in wide) that were suspended just beneath the surface of the water. Good thing I do yoga and have good balance! Made it without falling in.

2. Tires - Had to run through hundreds of tires. I started off stepping inside the tires, but later found it easier to step on the tires where they were tied together. I was not "tired" yet. Get it? Ha!



3. Walls - There were three walls in succession in mud that were maybe 3 1/2 feet tall. (And I was worried there was going to be a 6 ft wall!) I lifted myself up (good weight training) while swinging legs over the wall to the right. A lot of people were straddling the wall then liftng their second leg over in front. So far, so good... I did not "hit the wall."



4. Water Wade - Had to run into the muddy riverbed which was knee to waist deep. The bottom was SO mucky it about sucked your shoes off of your feet. I tried to swim but it wasn't really deep enough in some areas and it is HARD to swim with mud-filled running shoes on anyway. Seemed just as quick to walk fast through the muck. But running in those mud-filled shoes for the rest of the race was a challenge!

5. Wall climb w/ rope - Had to pull ourselves up the side of a tall wall (maybe 20 ft?) using a rope. Again, my strength training pays off! (flexing biceps)

6. Cargo net - Up one side, down the other. Got it!

7. Junk Yard Cars - Had to climp over a bunch of rusty junk cars. Glad I've had a recent tetnus shot! Ouch!

8. Tunnel - Had to get down and crawl through a tunnel. But I'm little enough that I did not have to get down on my knees. I was able to spider crawl through the tunnel. Look out, coming through!

9. Mud Pit - This was a muddy slope that ended in a pit of mud. To make matters worse, they were up top with a hose running water down to slope to make it muddier and slipperier. Some people were sliding down on their bottoms while others ran down. I managed to run down but then had to dive into the mudpit because they had REAL BARBED WIRE strung across the top! So we had to belly crawl in the mud under the barbed wire to the other side. This is where my previous military training paid off!



10. Log Roll - Jump back in the river and climb over several log rolls to the other side. I'm sure this was also strategically placed so that we would be good a wet for the last obstacle.



11. Fire Jump! - Wow, was I surprised when I saw the FIRE! I was expecting some wimpy little flames maybe coming from gas pipes. But no, this was like a marshmellow roasting (athlete roasting) bon fire! They had plats and plats of Duroflame logs they were throwing on this fire! It was about 1 1/2 ft wide at the base and the flames were nearly 2 ft tall. I was like, "you've gotta be kidding me!" These voluteers should have been wearing devil costumes and stoking up the fire with pitch forks. That would have been a funny sight! But the finish line (and the beer!) were on the other side of those flames, and I was not going to stop or pause! So I LEAP through the flames to the finish line!



I AM A WARRIOR!!!




Having never done this before, I had no idea what to expect. I could have pushed harder, but the heat and humidity slowed me down as did the line of people ahead of me.

It crossed my mind to remove my timing chip and bandit the race for a second trip around, but I was so covered in mud at the time that it would have been obvious. We did not find the wash off place until later. But if we do this next year, it would be fun to go back around a second time just for fun! Pete and I could have stayed together the second time and had a mud fight in the mud pit and dunk each other... lol.

Beer and Turkey legs! Then more beer. Then looked at results. The course was obviously short. I have no idea how far it really was, but it most certainly was not 3.22 miles as advertised. The race pace results reflect 2.45 miles, but not sure if that is even right.



We found the spectators area for the mud slide and the fire jump, so that entertained us for awhile. Then we found a place in the dirty river where we could wade to wash some of the mud off; that felt good.

Then, sluggish from the heat, we plopped down in the grassy yard amongst the other hundreds and hundreds or warriors (after getting another beer of course) and I nearly fell asleep. We laid there and watched all of the drunken warriors making fools of themselves posing for pictures and doing some sort of tribal dance around the festival grounds. There was a live band playing and the grassy area was circled with food and vendors.

On our way out of the festival which was crowded with MANY hundreds of people, we got stopped by a guy and his wife who actually recognized us from a Sprint Tri last Halloween in Savannah, GA! We never actually met these folks, but they remembered us from the sprint because they remembered our costumes that we wore that day (we were not wearing costumes today). I have NO idea how they recognized us, but we must have made quite an impression at the Savannah Sprint... lol.

On the way back to the campsite, we stopped at a scenic lookout and went down to a river near a bridge. Next thing I knew, I was in the water again! I couldn't help but to jump right in - like a water dog does anytimes it sees water.... gotta get in it! We splashed around and tried to get the remaining dirt, twigs, and muck out of our drawers, then got back in the truck and headed on.

The heat and the beer got to me, so after a much needed shower, I took a nap in the tent. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

The next day I donned my Warrior tank as we did a bit of waterfall sight seeing.






Somewhat the heat, but moreso the crowd. There were times we had to stop and wait for others to go first through obstacles where it got bottle-necked. And at one point we were running through the woods on a VERY dense narrow path with no room to pass and everyone started walking in front of me. I was like, "so much for racing!"


This was was VERY well put together. The pre-race and post-race activities, food, music, vendors, were all a total blast. Everything was very well organized with lots of volunteers. The only complaint I have is that the course was shorted. I may never know how long it really was.