Are You a Warrior?

I enjoy running. Although I don't get to do it as often as I would like, I get out when I can. I've always imagined it would be great to run with Pete, maybe even do a race together, and be one of those couples who can chat through the entire thing or run along the lake while pushing their kid in a stroller. Can you picture it? Lovely.

I had almost given in to the reality that Pete just doesn't like to run and would probably never run with me when I came across an ad on Facebook (you know, the annoying ones on the side of the page that try to target you). The ad was for the Warrior Dash. This was way last fall or early winter. After reading that the race was 3 miles up & down on a ski hill and included 10 crazy obstacles, I immediately sent Pete a link. And just like that, he was hooked. What can I say? I know my man. He just can't resist a hardcore challenge like this one. So we registered and trained together. Then, on July 24, we dropped little Ella off at Miss Shauna's so she could play with Bella, and headed south of the Cities to see if we could meet the challenge.

We were pumped waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to the ski hill.


Once we were at the hill, we met up with Jen & Mike and Jen's sister & brother. All these pics came from Jen. So glad she has a sweet camera! Keep this pic in mind. You'll see it again later.


Jen & I had to practice our warrior faces.


Mike & Pete were ready to take on the competition.


This was not my warrior face.



The obstacles were sweet. We climbed over junk cars and hopped over tires, jumped over walls and crawled over cargo nets. Just before the end, we slid down a huge hill with water and leaped over fire. That's Pete in the black. Nice air.



Then we reached the mud. This was the part I was most looking forward to. We crawled through it with strands of barbed wire overhead.




We are warriors.


And warriors eat turkey legs.




Remember this from the beginning?


Tons of people donated their shoes. An organization collects them, washes em up, and sends them to third world countries. Love it.


In the end, we celebrated with the other 24,000 warriors over the two days of the event. I seriously recommend this race. They take it all over the country. Check out warriordash.com for info.


Ah, the end to a perfect day. Friends, turkey legs, beer, and mud. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Thanks, Jen, for the pictures!