The Warrior Within
So about 5 months ago my step dad approached me with a crazy idea placed into his head by some of his fellow Crossfit crazies (hehe) to do this thing called "Warrior Dash". Its a 3.11 mile obstacle course run complete with climbing walls, barbed wire crawls, rope walks, fire pits and a mud finish. Its the worlds largest running event and it was going to be starting its first event in New Mexico. I was hesitant at first seeing as how close it was to my HIM in Boise, but then my step dad said the magic words "There is beer and viking helmets" and I was in.
I am not going to lie..I was scared. I have 1) a great fear of heights 2) a strong respect for fire and 3) a somewhat dislike of muddy situations. I figured I would be able to dash through the run portion and then tackle the obstacles slowly and try not to freeze on top of something high. I kept having flashbacks to a cargo net situation at a ropes course back in college where I completely froze and had to be coaxed down by allowing one of my sorority sisters to belet me safely down 10 ft. Yes 10 ft...my arms were dead and I was scared of being up 10 ft. So when I heard there would be a 15 ft cargo net...I knew there could be some problems.
So I show up to this crazy event with a bazillion people hoping to just finish in under and hour...not injure myself and get through all obstacles...cargo net be damned! It was a really windy day, and there wasn't any mention of what the run course itself was like (hills, elevation gain etc.) so I really went into it blind. I was nervous at the start but figured this was just for fun, and it wasn't about competition. So I was pretty amazed with myself as I hit each obstacle and overcame it easily. Height and all I just kept focusing on get over it, under it, through it and then continue. The last obstacle before jumping over fire then directly into an army crawl through a mud pit was the dreaded cargo net. I saw it...it saw me...and I said...you know what cargo net...you ain't got nothing on me. Up, and over, back down and I had done it. Faced my fear head on (after failing it once before) then hurdled through fire and into the mud...which was muddy...REALLY muddy. It wasn't even wet watery mud...no no...THICK nasty sticky pulls you down like quicksand mud. I am actually glad that the mud was the last part of the event because trying to run in that would have been absolutely miserable.
I finished in 40:20 with an over all placing of 2005 out of 8396 competitors. I also placed 232 in my age group so not too shabby at all. It was fun, I don't think I would ever do that event again since it was just too big for my liking, but I had a good time, got free beer, and a finishers medal, viking helmet, and t-shirt to take home. Most importantly though I proved to myself that I can face things that scare me, and overcome them, not to mention that I have way more upper body strength than I thought, which is pretty exciting!
With that I leave you with the after photo :)
I am not going to lie..I was scared. I have 1) a great fear of heights 2) a strong respect for fire and 3) a somewhat dislike of muddy situations. I figured I would be able to dash through the run portion and then tackle the obstacles slowly and try not to freeze on top of something high. I kept having flashbacks to a cargo net situation at a ropes course back in college where I completely froze and had to be coaxed down by allowing one of my sorority sisters to belet me safely down 10 ft. Yes 10 ft...my arms were dead and I was scared of being up 10 ft. So when I heard there would be a 15 ft cargo net...I knew there could be some problems.
So I show up to this crazy event with a bazillion people hoping to just finish in under and hour...not injure myself and get through all obstacles...cargo net be damned! It was a really windy day, and there wasn't any mention of what the run course itself was like (hills, elevation gain etc.) so I really went into it blind. I was nervous at the start but figured this was just for fun, and it wasn't about competition. So I was pretty amazed with myself as I hit each obstacle and overcame it easily. Height and all I just kept focusing on get over it, under it, through it and then continue. The last obstacle before jumping over fire then directly into an army crawl through a mud pit was the dreaded cargo net. I saw it...it saw me...and I said...you know what cargo net...you ain't got nothing on me. Up, and over, back down and I had done it. Faced my fear head on (after failing it once before) then hurdled through fire and into the mud...which was muddy...REALLY muddy. It wasn't even wet watery mud...no no...THICK nasty sticky pulls you down like quicksand mud. I am actually glad that the mud was the last part of the event because trying to run in that would have been absolutely miserable.
I finished in 40:20 with an over all placing of 2005 out of 8396 competitors. I also placed 232 in my age group so not too shabby at all. It was fun, I don't think I would ever do that event again since it was just too big for my liking, but I had a good time, got free beer, and a finishers medal, viking helmet, and t-shirt to take home. Most importantly though I proved to myself that I can face things that scare me, and overcome them, not to mention that I have way more upper body strength than I thought, which is pretty exciting!
With that I leave you with the after photo :)
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