Saturday, November 2nd was a long day, starting at 6:30am when we left our house to drive to Tuscaloosa. Husband drove my mom, our friend Jennifer, and I down so the three of us (Hubs not included) could do the Warrior Dash. It was cold. A high of only about 63 degrees or so.
Here are a few before pictures as we were getting our time chips and race bibs on.
I tried not to smile, But I failed.
I wasn't ready, and Mom isn't good with cameras.
Jennifer ready to tear it up!
As we prepared for our race time to start, the three of us decided to stretch. We mostly stood around holding random limbs in ways that could resemble stretching.
The following photos are us completing obstacles. Note, there aren't many pictures of me because my mom isn't good with cameras.
Jennifer, top right.
I'm scaling this straight board like it's nobody's business.
See Jennifer two people to my right.
Jennifer and I starting the descent downward on the other side.
Mom beginning the climb at one of the last obstacles.
I would say the two hardest obstacles for me (and possibly for Jennifer as well) were the Mud Mounds and the Diesel Dome.
Picture this: a nice, calf-deep vat of gritty red mud. To get out, you need to climb over a mound of mud that has been slicked down by the sliding bodies of the hundreds who have gone before you in this event. The mound is at least 10-15 feet high, measuring from the bottom of the mud vat. Jennifer and I tried to help each other, so I rested my foot on her thigh and stood, trying to inch myself closer to the top- to no avail, so lost her footing, and we came tumbling down. Then some guy who was helping his girlfriend helped us out! Yay! But then.. once you get to the top, you have to slide back down. ..Into another vat of mud. This one a touch deeper. Repeat. I ended up just slamming my hands and the tips of my fingers into the mud mound to get some kind of leverage! I'm glad I cut my nails Friday night! Then after getting to the top of that mound, you have to do it one more time before getting to move on to the next obstacle.
The Diesel Dome. It's essentially a jungle gym, made of wood (thankfully!). The planks were so far apart though, and it was so muddy and slippery because it came right after the Mud Mounds! Apparently, according to the Warrior Dash volunteer, no one had fallen yet, but I think she may have been lying. I've never been afraid of heights, but when I'm muddy and wet, and balancing on my hands and feet on a board that can't be more than 4" wide, I got a little flustered. Both Jennifer and I made it to the other side successfully!
After completing the actual course (hopefully I'll have more pictures when I see the professional ones), we looked like this:
Mom stayed relatively mud-free.
Easily, the most difficult part of the race was the hose down afterward to get the mud off. There were literally about 30 hoses and just a line of people ready to hose themselves off. The three of us took turns hosing one another off, for maximum cleanliness. Here's the after picture, of us "clean" and most certainly freezing:
I can't lie, one of the most satisfying things I've done this year was
having the opportunity to hose my warm-natured mother off with
cold water from a hose, in 60-degree weather standing in 4 inches of
mud, surrounded by 50+ other people.
We got relatively clean, then went to collect our beers and donate our shoes.
We decided then that it was about time to head back to the car to get changed and start the journey back home. When we got back to the car, we banished Hubs from the surrounding area, so that Jennifer, mom and I could take turns holding up towels around one another to change out of the "clean" wet clothes, into dry clothes. I'll tell you what, peeling those soaking wet, cold, still-somewhat-muddy pants off my body was such a wonderful feeling. Pulling on warm (from sitting in the sun in the car) shorts was great, too.
After we changed, we Dexter'd up the back seats with plastic drop cloths and towels, and headed on our way. ...To a parking lot where we broke down. After getting the car back up and running, we ventured onto I-20 east and this happened:
There were some serious up-sides and down-sides to this event. On the downside, there were 4 of us in the car, and only enough room for 2 people in the tow truck. On the upside, the tow truck driver isn't allowed to leave people stranded on the side of the road, so he drove my mom and Jennifer to the rest stop a few miles ahead, leaving Hubs and I with strict instructions to try to move the car a little more onto the shoulder (and less in the grass). Well, one of the two things happened. Mom and Jennifer did get to the rest stop. But that dang Impala would just not cooperate.
Mr. Tow Truck came back and got the Impala all settled on the truck, and dropped me off at the rest stop with Mom and Jennifer, where we were planning to wait for some family who lives in Tuscaloosa to pick us up and bring us to Birmingham, where we'd meet up with Hubs and his dad, Tom.
After about an hour at the rest stop, the family member called me back and said he couldn't get anyone to pick us up. He felt terrible, but I explained that we'd be OK. (If you knew these people, you would know that they would literally drop EVERYTHING at a moment's notice for you, so the fact that they couldn't get us, or find someone to get us, meant that everyone was very seriously doing something that they couldn't get away from.) So Hubs went on Birmingham with the car and waited there, meandering around Barnes & Noble for Tom to pick him up. And the three of us girls waited at the rest stop off I-20 for 3.5 hours for Tom to pick up Hubs, then come get us.
All in all, we were quite lucky. The rest stop had an indoor area, which shielded us from the cold and wind, and, of course, there were restrooms. Jennifer origami'd some fun for us in the form of a dodecahedron ball, with which we played basketball and a number of other random, made-up games.
Hubs and Tom came and picked us up, and we all made it home safely around 11pm. Many, many thanks to Tom for saving the day!
Things we know: Jennifer will probably never EVER ride with us anywhere ever again.
Side note: check out the fanny pack ;)
In addition, I'm still loving this camera. How great is it that after an event like the Warrior Dash, I can come home and do this:
Yes, that's right. That's my digital camera soaking in the sink
to clean out any external grit, grime, and mud. Love it.
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