Maddy wearing the Warrior helmet we got from the race.
Stephanie and I at the start line. If only we'd known what we were getting into our smiles might not have been so big.
Aaron jumping over fire.
Ben and Aaron right after the race. Mud men.
Me crawling through the barbed wire mud pit.We are only two days into May and we are already rolling along at the speed of a race car. One more week and school is essentially over. Finals end for both of us on May 12th I believe. So we have both been overwhelmed with writing papers, grading papers, etc.
Yesterday we did the long anticipated Warrior Dash. It is an approximately three mile race/obstacle course. We did the race with our friends Ben and Stephanie. I didn't really know what to expect from this race since it was so different from anything we'd ever done. I don't know what it was about this event, but it brought out some strange folks. For some reason about half the participants showed up in costume. Some were warrior type costumes. Others wore things like a green bodysuit that totally covered him, even his face, Tarzan costumes, cavemen, nerd runners with headbands and wrist bands, chainmail, daisy duke cuttoffs (on men), the list of strange get ups is endless. Real weapons were obviously not allowed but many had created cardboard swords to carry as they ran. In my heat there were two guys running with Ironman underwear on the outside of their clothes, a guy with a Budwisier box cut out like a helmet and taped to his head, a guy dressed as a beer can, a blue girl, and a guy who was wearing a khaki skirt.
The race was interesting. Most of the obstacles were not that bad. There was a lot of running through mud and water pits, running through a creek, sliding down a mudslide (that was the funnest one), running through a wind tunnel at hurricane force winds, climbing over straw bales, over spools, and over a cargo net. The obstacle that was even worse than I'd imagined was the log obstacle. They had four big logs in the creek and you had to go in the water and then go over the logs. Those of you who know me well know that that 1. I am a very poor swimmer (basically I can't swim) and 2. I am scared of the water because of number 1. So on the first logs a few people came up and worked with me and we got over it together. Somehow I managed to get over logs two and three after several tries at each. Then came log 4. Where I was at my feet were barely touching the bottom of the creek and I was getting really tired. I couldn't get myself pulled up far enough to get over. Every time I got halfway on, two or three huge guys would come up and jump on and roll the log over and I would roll backwards, back into the water. I was starting to think that I was just going to have to climb out somehow and skip that log. I kept thinking about water moccasins and how I would be the one they attacked because they could see I was easy prey. Finally I noticed a girl go more by the edge and that there was a bank there. So I worked my way over to that but by that time I was so tired I still couldn't get myself pulled up onto the log. A very kind lady came behind me and offered me a boost. Probably just to get me out of her way, but she saved me on that one. Then you had to kind of swim a little ways to get to the shore of the creek to continue the course. My feet could barely touch the bottom on that part and as I said I'm a terrible swimmer but it was much faster to try to swim a little than to try to wade through neck deep water. That obstacle really killed me. I was wiped out after it and it was at about the half way point on the course. The last two obstacles coming into the finish were jumping over fire and crawling under barbed wire through a mud pit. The crowd wanted everyone to dive into the mud pit but Aaron told me that he dived and got mud all in his eyes and I didn't want that to happen to me so I slid in and then started crawling. The crowd booed me for that one, but I didn't care. I finish my races my way. :) So finally it was done. I wish I had a picture of how muddy I was but Tricia has that one so I'll have to wait to get it from her. They had hose trucks and after I got gatorade and got my picture I went over and got a very cold shower from the hose trucks. It was a pretty cold day but I was freezing from this point on until I got some dry clothes on. A very interesting experience to say the least.
For those of you who aren't on facebook, here is a video of Maddy rolling that I posted last week. I am so proud of her! We have been working on this for a long long time.
This afternoon we will head up to Norman so Aaron can go to Matt's dissertation presentation tomorrow morning. Really looking forward to getting to see Matt and Brittany!
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