That’s right, it took G and me a little over 74 minutes to get through the 3.11 mile Warrior Dash course on Sunday.  The crazy part?  It felt like 30 minutes, which is amazing!

So we were all ready to go in the back of the pack.

The horn sounded and we headed into the forest:

The trail is pretty narrow so if you’re not at the front it’s pretty hard to run because there are so many people.  Fortunately, we were already planning on walking the whole thing so this just gave us an excuse.  Oh and the course gets pretty steep at times.

I would have been scared because it was kind of a “The Hills Have Eyes” setting, but I made sure to stay near George…because we all know the black guy dies first in the movies.  I figure I can just use him as bait and then run away.

Anyway, the course is pretty steep and a lot of people stood to the side to catch their breath (or wait for friends) along the way.

After about a mile of hills, we got to the first obstacle.  This is an obstacle in a large pond.  You have to get yourself over floating obstacles in the water.  It’s muddy and there are a lot people.  Last year, the water was very deep and some people couldn’t touch the bottom of the pond.  These short girls were prepared this year:

That picture (and the next few) are pretty blurry because I was taking pictures with the camera in a ziplock bag.  Let’s just call that a “filter”.

The first obstacle is a bit scary because there are so many people.  The group moves everyone forward into the muddy water and you don’t have a lot of time to prepare yourself.  G wanted me to get a picture of him getting in the water.  This was difficult because, at the same time, people were moving me into the water.  Needless to say, it was not easy to stand there like an idiot taking pictures.

So G took his first step into the mud:

As you can see, G doesn’t look very stable.  Well, right after I took that picture he fell into the poor girl with the orange floaties on…and almost drowned her.  I was dying.  Just dying!

See how G is all wet?  We hadn’t even reached the part where you have to crawl over floating things.  I think there were a total of 2 floating things to get over.  The first one was high enough that you could throw a leg over and slide off the other side.  I had to go over the second one head first, but I was able to keep my head above water.  G, however, was not.  When I pulled him over, it was like he was trying to touch the bottom of the gross pond.  He was completely submerged.  And I thought of the time we went aqua jogging and he almost sunk to the bottom of the pool.

Anyway, he came up from the bottom and we made it through the obstacle!

The next obstacle was one where you had to climb over a wall that was chest-high and then crawl under a log.  I think there were about 4 sets of those.  And I think that’s why my shoulders are a bit sore.

After that we headed to the bridge.

People kind of bunch together here, but it’s fun because people start saying some really funny sh*t.

When G and I were about half way up that thing, we had to wait to go further.  Someone standing on the ground yelled “if you fall, we will try to catch you”…I thought that was hilarious.

And when you’re on the bridge, there’s time to stare at the people just arriving at the Dash.

I also had time to take a picture of G’s muddy butt.

And no, I did not let G take a picture of my @ss, but thanks for asking.

It was steep going down the other side, but totally easy.

My favorite obstacle was next:

Last year, this was the obstacle that I was most scared of…because I have no upper body strength.  But to my surprise, I CAN DO IT!  So I love it now.

I scrambled up the wall first and balanced at the top:

No, that is not me.  And again, thank you for asking.

I got ready to take pictures of G starting to climb.

And he made it!

And then he took a picture of me!

But I just look like I’m sitting in front of a tree. #fail

Then G crawled down.

Next, we went through some tires:

And G posed with a sign:

My least favorite obstacles are the ones where you have to roll on the ground, so I was not very excited to see this one:

G wanted to show me how it’s done.

I’m not sure if he’s getting ready to take a nap or going through the obstacle.

There were a couple of smaller obstacles on our way to this monster:

I think that one’s the most difficult.  Because everyone’s climbing at once, the net is always moving and balancing is hard.

But we made it over that mess and into the trenches!

At this point, there were about 5 people stacked up behind George.  Did he care?  No.  Did he pose?  Of course.

All right, this damn post is getting too long.  I’ll be back tomorrow with the last obstacles and only a billion more pictures!