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

Warrior Dash - Georiga - 2014

Finally Finally FINALLY, my favorite race and race weekend of the year.  Warrior Dash.  This is the 3rd year we've run as a group (hubs and John went in  2011).  You can read about last year's here!  If you are looking into running an obstacle race or mud run, hands down this is the one to do.  They are by far the most organized race we've done.  (I'm not including Spartan in this since our experience with that race was less than the "norm" as far as races go.  Read about it here)  Last year they had some...snafus to be nice.  Parking was a nightmare, buses to get to parking was a nightmare.  They owned up to it in a big way.  They apologized and offered all runners from that race I think at least a 50% off discount for this years race if not more.  And this race was DEFINITELY above par.  Minus a back-up at Goliath (their big and new obstacle this year) there we had zero issues.

2014 Warrior Dash - Mountain City, GA

We've had everything planned out for AT LEAST a month, probably 2 months.  Of course, the curse of the new runner hits.  I've probably talked about this before, we have a theory that if someone comes and runs with us who has never run with us before, something bad happens.  See my post on the Spartan Race where we had several new people running with us and it almost killed us!  The Tuesday before the race, so 3 days before we were heading to Mountain City, GA our cabin rental place called Ben.  They had a pipe burst 2 weeks before and "thought it would be fixed by now" so we had to cancel our reservations there and find somewhere new.  Back to the Murder Cabin!  We stayed here in 2012, it is seriously a set of a scary movie.  You know how I know it's the set of a scary movie?  It has a book case...no real hotels have book cases, if you still question it, the copy of Deliverance that we left in 2012 was still on the bookcase.

We arrived Friday evening and proceeded to get ready to properly fuel our bodies for a race, with a shrimp boil and beer. It was delicious.  After we devoured it, we chilled for a little while and went to bed.

Pre Race Crew

The next morning we got up early and headed to the race site.  It was awesome.  Completely different than the previous year as the course was basically completely reversed.  It was uphill both ways, seriously you began and ended the race going uphill.  Jerks. We had to swim through a lake that was absolutely freezing, climb over cars, jump fire, (successfully) traverse A frame walls.  It was a great race.

Warrior Roast

Goliath

Goliath

After Ben almost killed a photographer on Goliath we headed to the post race party.  Beer and Turkey Legs.  You really can't ask for a better combination.  We hung out there then decided to head back to the cabin and drink the beer we had already purchased.  Apparently we thought we were in college still because 5 of us drank nearly 40 beers...excluding the ones we threw like grenades when someone didn't describe something well enough during our game of Charades (phone app....where you put the phone to your head and you have to guess what the word is based on the other person's description).  We grilled out entirely too much steak, then of course at it all, complete with baked potatoes, watched Boondock Saints at senior citizen audio level and crashed.

Post Race!

Turkey Legs!

Post-Race Party!

2 years ago we followed up Warrior Dash with white water rafting on the Ocoee.  Why not do it again this year?  It was awesome last time.  What we didn't realize was that Warrior Dash was a month earlier this year as compared to 2012.  When I say the water was cold, that's a severe understatement, if I were to say it was freezing, also a severe understatement.  Was it awesome?  Of course.  There were only 2 boats of people, then they had about 4 or 5 boats of trainees.  It was crazy to see them in their training.  That's a tough job.  Hats off to anyone who does it.

It was an awesome weekend with amazing friends.  I get to run another Warrior Dash in Ohio this year, it's going to have some GIANT shoes to fill if it's even going to come close to the race weekend we just had.

2013 Summary!

2013 has come to an end!  And if you remember from our very first post our goal for 2013 was to run one race every month.  If we doubled up one month, we still had to run one the next month.

Unfortunately we didn't hit every month, August and October ended up being very poor and busy.  We were prioritizing and budgeting as Ben likes to call it for the Disneyland Half Marathon in August, and in October was busy with football season and getting ready for #500Strong for homecoming.

We had some awesome memories however!

From our first run at Grassmere Zoo in Nashville for the Zoo Run Run then heading over and grabbing some spiked milkshakes at Burger Republic.

Starting 2013 off Right with the Zoo Run Run at Grassmere!

Then doubling up in February and doing the Royal Family 5K followed by the Princess Half Marathon!

Royal Family 5K at EPCOT

 And, while we didn't know it at the time, we were finishing half the runDisney Coast to Coast Challenge with running the Princess Half Marathon!

Princess Half Marathon in Disney World!

 While i'm not sure if it was the best idea, we certainly tested the limits running in the elements of the 2013 Charlotte Spartan Race

Then making it a family affair in March at the Color Run!

Color Run with the Famliy!

Then we headed to Georgia for the 2nd Annual Party of the Southland Adventure Weekend for Warrior Dash!

PartyOTS Adventure Weekend 2013

We brought a couple newcomers with us for Foam Fest in Nashville.  While it was our least favorite race of the year, the Banderas made it much better!

BANDERAS!

Then we all busted out our #Swag for the first Urban Obstacle Course by Muddy Buddy!

#SWAG

We learned at the Fourth of July 10K that after a 10K, 2 beers is my limit for re-hydration.  3 beers, and I feel terrible.

Sisters at the Fourth of July 10K

Then we missed our first Tennessee home game in 20 years to complete the runDisney Coast to Coast Challenge at the Disneyland Half Marathon!

After just running through the castle

We met some friends from college as they also completed their Coast to Coast Challenge.

The whole crew at the Disneyland Half Marathon!

Then we nearly froze to death at the BoroDash in Murfreesboro on Thanksgiving!

Ben and Jenn at the starting line!

And we finished it off with the Christmas Story 10K virtual Race!

It's a Major Award!

We look forward to repeating some races in 2014, trying some new ones, and continue to run in our drinking shoes!

Warrior Dash and Iron Warrior Dash 2013

So we have a tailgating group. A pretty big tailgating group that meets early - usually around 7 or 7:30am - for every home football game in Knoxville call Party of the Southland after the marching band at UT "Pride of the Southland" because as you recall, we are a bunch of former band nerds.

In 2011, one of the guys in the group found Warrior Dash and Ben decided to go with him to run it in Charlotte, NC.  They had an awesome time despite running the race and driving all the way back to Nashville via Bristol, TN after the race and un-showered.

Ben with his free beer in Charlotte 2011

In 2012, after hearing about it for a year they convinced 3 more people to join so we had the first ever Party of the Southland Adventure Weekend that consisted of staying in a Murder Cabin, Warrior Dash, and White Water Rafting where we damn near capsized the boat on a class 2 rapid.

The 5 of us in Mountain City, GA in 2012

After another year went by we convinced 2 more to join us in 2013.  We headed down to Douglasville, GA where they were holding Warrior Dash - roughly 3 miles, and Iron Warrior Dash - roughly 15 miles.  

Two guys in the group - Ben included - decided to go balls to the walls and run the Iron Warrior Dash.  The rest of us slept in, enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast and headed down later for the shorter race. 

There were storms the week before the race so logistically this race was a nightmare.  They had to change where you parked so you had to stand in like for roughly and hour to get to the race site from parking, then stand in a 2 hour line to get back after the race.  Fortunately, like I've said before, my friends are awesome.  Really awesome.  Sure it was hot, and we were standing in line which no one likes to do, and we were tired - especially the 2 who had run 15 miles - but we could send people out on beer runs so we just stood there and enjoyed a nice Leiney's Summer Shandy and each other's company.  If you haven't tried this Leinenkugal Summer Shandy you should. It's a FANTASTIC summer beer.

The race was awesome. I think as a whole our group enjoyed the previous location in Mountain City a little better, but this was still just as awesome as we have come to expect from Warrior Dash.  The obstacles were tough, especially a roughly 20 foot wall you had to get over with a rope, and the mud.  Usually the "mud" is just brown water.  This was mud, thick mud.  And it smelled like chili.  I felt like I was crawling through cold chili.  A lady in front of me just stopped moving.  She said "I'm stuck I can't move anymore".  I stood up, stuck my hands through the barbed wire, and helped lift this lady up to where she could get on her feet.  It was amazing how much you sunk into this mud.

I highly HIGHLY recommend this race.  They have one in Tennessee, 10 miles from where I live, but for some unknown reason they have it on a Saturday, in the fall.  Don't they know Southerners have other things going on Saturdays in the fall?!?!

After the race we headed back to the hotel and cleaned up and headed out to Dave and Busters for some games and food.  I had an alcoholic snow cone.  I love snow cones.  More that most adults, you add alcohol to it...sold.

A couple of the girls got a little too addicted to the Jurassic Park game.  To the point we all left them there.  They came in the hotel not too long after we got back and we were surprised to see them.  They said "yeah, we beat the game"  Ridiculous.

This has been my favorite race series we've done.  I want to try Spartan again with better weather, but this one is awesome.

The now 7 of us in 2013 in Douglasville, GA

The next day we headed to get some food at the Vortex.  You've probably seen this if you watch the Food Network.  It's famous for the burgers.  It's a 21+ bar, that serves ridiculous burgers. Ben and I split the "Fat Elvis" which has peanut butter, bacon and fried bananas on it, and the "Double Coronary Bypass" which has 2 fried eggs, 6 slices of cheese, 8 slices of bacon, and instead of buns....two grilled cheeses.  We also had someone get the Carnivorgasm which is a meat Heaven and a few other burgers that I can't remember through the haze of meat sweats.

After that we all headed our different directions - Knoxville and Nashville and called it a successful weekend.