Bailey's Blog!! -- Documenting a Weight Loss Journey: Warrior Dash Arkansas 2014

YESSSSS.

I have been so pumped to recap this!

No one ever gets in-depth on races like this it seems. I may be the only person over here scouring through Warrior Dash hashtags on Instagram && looking up YouTube clips of different Warrior Dash obstacles from the past.

I'll be posting this recap in 3 sections: the before, the during, and the after - because obviously, I'm a genius.

Before:

The Warrior Dash is daunting. Not only to those that are physically fit and have been their entire life, but also to those that are fairly new to being physical (hey-o!).

The past few years I have been at concerts when Warrior Dash has came to AR, and even if all the stars were aligned perfect for it, the truth is- I would not have done it.

I was worried about not being able to do any of the obstacles and getting hurt.
The first worry I had a few years ago was about the distance of 3 miles!

This year, it was lined up perfect and my mom, Spencer, and I had been training pretty hard at the gym and with running. We thought if ever there was a year to do it, this would be the year to do it as a team. I also just privately thought that I was being a ninny, and I needed to kick fears behind me and just jump out there and do it. Especially since I'm all about making adventures. How was I not a part of something so awesome?!

So, we signed up probably 3 months in advance and just did it. My aunt decided to do it too so we signed her up and now it was us 4, just waiting to bust this thing out.

I think we were all a little nervous. Pretty much we all had some of the same fears: not being able to do something or getting hurt.

A couple of days before we packed up on sports jelly beans, race day clothes, etc.

The night before I began cutting up my race day outfit- because that's the look I was going for.

In the morning, I had a pbj & choc. milk, and was ready in no time. I was nervous and excited to meet up with my aunt and Spencer!

We headed out and there was a hugeeeee amount of people there. The bus shuttled us to the start and our wave time was at 11:15 am. We got there about an hour and a half before, and that was perfect. We got our packet pickup done in no time, did the gear check, snapped a quick pic, and went and looked at the course (what we could see from the sidelines).

During:

So here we are. Perusing the sights. We realize we have about 15 minutes to get to the starting line before our wave took off. We made our way down to the corral and got somewhere in the middle. Typically, we are in the back, so I'm not sure how we found ourselves there.

A guy looking like he just stepped out of a 70s porn was on his mic, getting us pumped up to go. The fire blasted and we were off. Spencer and I were in front of Mom and Vicki, and we actually got swept us in the crowd. We literally couldn't stop if we wanted to.
I felt like Simba on the Lion King in the middle of the stampede.

Yes.... this is a perfect analogy.

Granted, pace wise, I could handle this. But we wanted to stay as a team.
Finally a break in the trail allowed Spencer & I to step to the side and catch up with Vicki and Mom.
The next part of the race was a fairly big hill.
We sort of ran/walked that to the first obstacle.
Afterwards, it was so slippery and muddy on the trail that we decided to treat this as a fun run and just walk.
We weren't here to compete or get hurt.
We were here to have fun and finish all obstacles.

The following pictures I had to google, but they are accurate!

Obstacle 1: Mud Mounds

The Mud Mounds were 1 of my 3 hardest things. This picture is from the internet. The mounds were a lot deeper, with no ledges, and holy smokes it was rough. Poor Spencer, first thing, jumped straight down into it and got stuck. Apparently, I've heard to jump out a little. I'm not actually sure how at ours we would have made it any easier. There were about 3 or 4 of these mounds to climb.

Obstacle 2: Trenches

Now, this was a super easy thing for me. In good ol' AR though, we had been warned of some snakes hanging out in these trenches. WHAT. You have to be freaking kidding me. I looked for the trench I could see all the way down, looked on top of the brush, and decided to barrel through that mess ASAP. Like a dummy, I managed to go too fast and not see a limb. Ran my face right into it!! Luckily, I wasn't hurt or passed out in a snake den lol. For future Trench goers, this obstacle is your friend. Super quick and easy.

Obstacle 3: Cargo Crawl

OMG our knees on this! We went with a wave of people, and again, did not want to get hurt/fall through the holes, so we crawled across. Not next year. I think the most useful tip would be to stay downward dog through this- we will see haha!

Obstacle 4: Storming Normandy

No big deal here. Again, some knee pads/pants could be handy- but other than that we just barreled through this!

Obstacle 5: Hard Rain

This was an easy obstacle, the cold water was much appreciated!

Obstacle 6: Shocktop Unfiltered

HARDEST OBSTACLE. Honey, Honey, Listen. That wall. When originally looking at the possible obstacles I saw this and thought "No biggie, just a wall with some steps, totally doable".... DUMB. This was by far the absolute hardest obstacle there. Any of the other obstacles I could have done by myself, granted the team help was legit, but this one. No no. I basically got in the middle next to the pole and used it to help scale myself up this thing, with the help of my mom and spencer literally pushing my butt up there. I have really short legs, plus the steps were so spaced out I could barely get to them. Then they were so little and my shoes were so slick I couldn't get any traction! Thank god this like 14 year old kid saved my butt haha. He was one of those really stout kids and he came over and said "You have to keep one hand on the board to hang on then swing your foot down and just drop and catch with the other hand".... Excuse me. Basically the kid was telling me to hold my own with one hand. Sweet Jesus. Luckily, his dad or grandpa one was at the top and was all "Give me your hand". I immediately understood how people just died in movies from not grabbing on to peoples' hands. Luckily, I swung off in faith I'd be caught and was. It was one of the most challenging things I've probably done. I have bruises everywhere from where I was basically stuck on the top by basically my forearms in a hugging type position. Sweet lord lol.

Obstacle 7: Alcatraz

The same boys helped us here, but I totally had it. Basically I just flailed my body on it like a seal and wiggled my butt till I was on the other side. Fancy, I know.

Obstacle 8: Warrior Peak

Again, this was an easier thing for me, and I had thought it was going to be super hard. I just scaled up it and because I could use my legs, it was nothing.

Obstacle 9: Roast

As long as you run through it, it's easy like cake, y'all!

Obstacle 10: Balance Beam to Goliath

Well.... This slippery wood plank high above mud which covered rocks was slightly scary. I did it like a boss, but there is no way I'd run across this.

Obstacle 11: Goliath

This was a fun water slide straight to murky/muddy water, and I loved it. Fastest pace we had! :)

Obstacle 12: Muddy Mayhem

Holy crap. This was 3/3 of my hard obstacles. They threw cat litter and red clay in our mud pit in AR, and it was SOOOO heavy. The advice I heard later on was to never get your knees on the ground. I have no clue really how to do that, but next year I'm going to try something different than inchworming on my belly. There was nothing to propel yourself foward. And it had rained the day before, so it was so deep. My group probably could have laid there like slugs until someone rescued us, had our willpower to get out of the heavy mud not been more haha. It was really fun though. This was the last obstacle, and everyone was cheering us out!

After:

First thing, we went and took our glorious mud pic in front of the warrior dash sign! There wasn't a line at all, again, we just lucked into that because when I looked later, it was pretty stacked.

Afterwards we went down to the lake and washed off. I was so happy to be in that cold water getting the heavy mud off of my body. This is where it really worked out I had on bikini bottoms. I never got that cotton panty wet rash or anything. TMI, I know.

Afterwards we went to retrieve our stuff. I got a little sick feeling, very nauseated. I think it was my sunburn, and my heavy boobs and just a lot. I sit down and had some energy jelly beans, thank god, and felt a thousand times better.

Then on to the turkey legs, which is what I really came for!

Mud Run & Warrior Dash Tips:

1. MUST wear pants/capris that cover knees. Maybe even knee pads really. You are going to be crawling over rocks, even if little ones, and it will tear your knees up. My whole crew has banged up knees. Now, I wore compression capris, and it wasn't as bad as some of those that had just shorts.

2. Compression is key. I loved wearing compression capris. Baggy clothes will get caught in something or more importantly weigh you down, like a lot. My shirt became a dress by the time I was done. It was SO heavy. Now my compression capris were fabulous. I could stretch and climb, and the water slicked right off.

3. Sunscreen. Just don't forget it is summer, and although you may think you don't need it, pre-race, race, and after party is a long time to be getting blasted down by the sun.

4. Tie your shoes tight. Almost to the point of hurting. They will fall off otherwise. This was the best tip I heard, that I hadn't previously heard before. Also, it's a mud run - wear crappy clothes you can toss after.

5. Things to pack: $$, phone in ziplock, extra ziplock, drawstring bag or backpack, empty walmart sack for dirty clothes, towels to sit in car with, photo id for your check in/beer, a change of clothes for afterwards, sports/energy snacks, sunscreen (because obviously it's a big deal), and I'd say sunglasses and a hat.

6. Wear bikini bottoms under your suit so you can change in the open (our choice of areas to change was the port a potty). This is just way easier.

7. I think that if you are going at this super serious like, you may want to think about getting some weight lifting gloves to protect your hands. I think it would really help in going fast, again mainly with the crawling across rocks and preventing splinters.