Sunday, June 1, 2014

Warrior Dash II - Ohio

Apparently we couldn't get enough of Warrior Dash with only one race this year so we decided on two.  We ran Warrior Dash in Georgia back in April - you can read about that race here - and decided to run it again in Ohio with Ben's sister and brother in law, and a couple friends.  Well unfortunately work schedules didn't work out for a few of the people, so Ben, me, and some friends from Virginia headed over to Columbus for the race.

We met at our hotel, the downtown Hyatt Regency, and headed out to get "an amazing burger better that Litton's" at a place called The Thurman Cafe.  While the burgers were delicious and GIANT, they were no Litton's.

From there we headed back to the hotel, we had some race prep to attend to.  So I busted out my sewing machine. Bet you didn't see that coming, I mean who pack a sewing machine to take to an obstacle run?  I get to work on the ridiculous costume we are wearing the next day.  Doug who came in town to run with us is a band director and had some old uniforms laying around.  After pulling some strings he was able to get us some to wear on the race.  Well these fit high schoolers...we are SEVERAL years removed from high school, so some seams had to be let out, some sleeves cut off.  And of course after finishing 1.5 of the jackets my needle broke.  I may have brought a sewing machine, but I sure didn't bring extra needles!  Thankfully the nice people at the Hyatt Regency didn't ask too many questions when we called down to ask for 3 sewing kits.
Doug Ben and Jenn trying on our overlays



Me and Susan began feverishly hand sewing these overlays as we played Cards Against Humanity.  If you haven't played this game you need to, it's hysterical!  Now don't play this with grandma at Christmas...one of you will be very embarrassed.  For the 4 of us in that hotel room, it was absolutely hilarious.

Ben's Flat Warrior Ready to Go!

We finally finished up for the night and laid out our flat warriors and passed out.  The next morning, we got up early and started making the hour drive to the race site in Millfield, OH.  We parked the car - note it's our brand new (to us) Honda Element - on this giant hill stacked in with all these other cars.

Susan all set up to watch our bags while we run!
This is where Warrior Dash dropped the ball...MAJORLY!  We got in line to get our bibs/hats/shirt, it took almost 45 minutes, we couldn't believe it.  Usually there's NO ONE there that early, then we finally made it to the front of the line and were told all 3 of us were on the "master list" and we had to check with information.  We walked over to the information tent, where we found a line 2 times as long, and only 2 people working it.  After waiting there for another 45 minutes we finally had our gear to go run.  We got all suited up and headed off.


Conquering the Mud Mounds!
Conquering the Mud Mounds

The first basically mile had 1 Warrior Dash obstacle, and the rest was God's obstacle.  I'm not kidding when I say it was hilly.  They have it listed as "slightly hilly", I don't ever want to know what anything about slightly is.  There were parts where no one would have blamed you for getting on all fours it was that steep.

The Great Warrior Roast!
We had Stormin Normandy, the only obstacle where Ben uses his knee pads.  I didn't wear any, and now have cut up knees. The Mud Mounds, which absolutely destroyed me.  After running/walking those hills at the beginning I was already getting exhausted.  We had the trenches, which I've never done before, so that was awesome.  Apparently I was the only one to crawl through them, Ben and Doug just walked then ducked under the slats. Dead Man's Drop, where I was able to complete it this time (with a little help from Ben).  It wasn't slanted back like it was in Georgia so it was much more manageable.  Then we had the Warrior Wall, which I chickened out on, we were so muddy from the trenches and mounds that I didn't think I was strong enough to hold me on the slick ropes.  I did however conquer the Warrior Peak (A-frame) and I didn't use the wussy 2x4s they had nailed into one side!  We had the shock top obstacle, the barn, , and those horrible cargo tubes to climb through.  Those, as Ben said, are deceivingly difficult!  Goliath - which didn't have the GIGANTIC line like in Georgia so I completed it all, the Warrior Roast, and the Muddy Mayhem.

Goliath!
 I'm not sure exactly what happened at the end, Ben started playing and rolling all over me, I couldn't get my balance, somehow I twisted the holy crap out of my ankle.  Again!  I did the same thing in 2012.  So I limped probably the last .01 miles to the finish line.

At the Finish Line!

Warriors!

It was a great race course, if they could figure out the new system for registration it would have been perfect!

One thing I'm not sure if I mentioned in the other Warrior Dash post from Georgia in April, Warrior Dash has decided to offer FREE, yes FREE professional pictures of the race!  So far, we've had tremendous pictures, of course I keep an eye out for the photogs so I ham it up for them.  But this is another reason to run this race, most races set you up with marathonfoto.com which is NOT cheap!

We headed back to the hotel, cleaned up, and headed out to Schmitz for some German food with Ben's parents, sister and brother and law, and Doug and Susan.  After that, we were wiped out.  We've gotten to be so boring in our old age.........

Schmidt's!

Ben's Parents!

The whole crew for the sausage fest!
We headed back to Tennessee on Sunday morning, but not without stopping to fill up the car with various beers that aren't sold in Tennessee due to the ridiculous tax laws.  Hello Fat Head Bumbleberry!

The next day I begin the great task of cleaning out the warrior clothes.  Everyone has their own technique.  I prefer to let them stay in a garbage bag until I get home.  Keeping them wet if possible.  Some people prefer to dry them out then shake out the extra mud.  I bring all that sweet sweet mud home and lay everything out on the lawn chairs and spray it with the hose pipe.  Once I get as much as I can out, I wash it in the washing machine twice then dry it and usually that gets everything out. Most of the time the mud comes out of everything except whites.

It don't matter if you're black or white

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