Day 5... I am ALIVE!!!! I am WARRIOR!!!

Day 5... I am actually at my parents house using my mom's computer... I'm going to keep it short and hopefully have access to add my pictures and videos tomorrow.

Let's just say today ROCKED!!!! I did the Warrior Dash this evening in Forney and was 2nd OVERALL FEMALE and won my Age Group.. Let me tell you how happy and cool I think this is considering I rode my bike 100 miles yesterday and ran 6 miles this morning, Drove to Forney from Austin to start a race only 30 minutes after I got out of the car.

Also, this was the last heat of the 2 day event so the course was completely destroyed and a big mud pit... I just did what I could so, I was super excited about my finish.. It was a very cool day!!! I'll go into detail tomorrow... iSwim,iRide,iRun,iPlay...iWarrior!!!!

Now about the day.... I actually slept in a little if you call 7:20 sleeping in.. I got up and got busy cleaning the house up a bit and then I cooked breakfast.. The favorite Spooner Pancakes. Now that everyone had full bellies, I am going for a run.. 6miler with a few strides. After I am done, I get in the shower and start packing up the car. I also have a good amount of shoes going to Dallas for the shoe bank.

Before I leave town I head to Buca de Beppo to give Gustavo a Happy Birthday Hug and HI...

I am leaving straight for Dallas, Forney actually. It's 1:30 and I am about 30 minutes behind schedule. I am following the directions on my iPhone. I get to Forney at about 5pm. I can't find Cousins Paintball or the High School and keep re-routing.. At this point I start to get a bit stressed. I have 1 hour before my starting wave. At about 5:30 I see the High School which is where they have shuttle busses running to the race site.. I park and get my dry clothes bag ready. I have 4 different pairs of running shoes in my car, I have to make a decision on which pair I want to do this muddy crazy race in. I talk to 3 guys who were leaving and asked them about the course. They were covering in mud. They said the mud was crazy and very slick.

I decide to go with my New Balance 904 trail running shoes, the shoe is light, tread is low and they are pretty old, so if I lose one I won't cry. But, I do love these shoes. I pack up and get on the bus. We head over to the race venue.

These are all videos before I started the race... I was still nice and clean and had NO idea what I was in for and I was a little nervous...

This was another mound of shoes I saw as I was walking to the start..
Nice!!

Now for my start!!My start time was 6pm

First Obstacle was a Crazy wind fan that could almost blow you over. Then straight into my first mud pit... That was tough and very slick. I had my phone so I was going to try to video some of this. The only problem was some girls were in front of me and I was not gonna let that happen so, I had to focus on getting the lead at least in my wave start. They had waves of 500 people starting every hour for 2 days. that means about 19,000 people went before me on this course and it was completely destroyed and even more difficult.

After the first mud pit it was a nice run, long enought for me to take the lead and start passing people in the wave that went an hour before mine. NICE!! I have to be honest I don't remember the order of the obstacles so I will just run throuogh what I remember, my next obstacle was more mud then I had to run across a plank over a app 5 foot trench. Next was a 20 foot mud slide into another mud pit that I actually then had to run down a muddy river and climb out of which was more slick mud. I dug my hads into the side of the trench and clawed my way out.

Now back into a muddy river of sorts for about 100 yards.. That was super hard. You could hardly move your legs much less run. Next was swimming in muddy water over logs.. there were about 7 I think. and it was full on swimming. I jump on that quickly all I could think about was my phone getting ruined.. I had it in a ziplock bag in my race belt pouch. I knew it was trashed.. I thought " that's gonna suck" But, I was already in and nothing I could do about it, I was now in it to win it. I got through that part and I was all washed off but only for about 3 minutes.. another mud pit and after 19,000 people go through the same part that many times, the whole get huge and deep. I went in deep and shouted to the guys behind me to go the the right to miss the ditch. I got out and took off.

Now I had to scale a hay bale wall about 10 feet high and ... More mud pits. I was still running full speed ahead and I could hear we were close to the finish, just then I see the double fire pit we have to jump over. one then 10 feet and another one, they were about 3 feet high. got over that and there was the finish. Only problem, I had to crawl under barbwire through, you guess it, more mud.. Thick sticky mud.. I crawled on all fours, and was thankful for my size. I ran straight through the mud and into the finish... 22 minutes and 43 seconds!!!

Now this is what I call glamourous!!!! WAS AWESOME!!!!

I am getting my Mud Spa...

Now I get the hose down... Great!!! Now after the brutality of the course I get the brutality of this hose.. Whatever, just get me clean... I dry off and head to the bathrooms to change. Well, let me just say, I can go through some serios mud and dirt and whatever, but the porta potty's almost made me vomit. I was not going in there to change. I hit in the trees behind the bathrooms and stripped out of those crazy wet clothes and into some dry clothes. At this point I really didn't care but, thnkfully no one was paying any attention, and I was super quick. I came out all fresh:o)

all clean with my shirt on and my furry helmet...

At about 7pm they start awards. I'm actually just people watching and hanging out. All of a sudden I hear my name called.. I was second overall female... WHAT????

I gave this girl my phone so, this is what you get. I went on stage to get my helmet!!! WOOHOO!!!

Considering what I did Sat and Sunday morning add in the drive, yes, I was a bit shocked. I wish I would have know the winning time before I started.  Because we went in waves, you never knew who was where and this was going on all day.  SO I had absolutely no idea how fast I should or could go. 

My very cool and VERY HEAVY helmet.  Some guys stop me to congratulate me and we start talking about training and swimming.  All of a sudden, my name gets called again.  I won Age Group as well... another super cool trophy.. They guys cheer and take my picture...

Super cool.  I talked a bit more about training and went over some swim techinque with these guys.  They are training for triathlon.  If either of you read this.. your going to do great.. Let me know if you have any questions.  I am sorry I don't rmember their names. 

So now I won my Princess Warrior Helmet.. I had a smile a mile wide and I was now an official Warrior!!  Now it was 8pm and time to get the bus back to the school.  This took another 30 minutes and I was ready to go. 

I am heading to my parents for the night and the drive is sbout 45 minutes to North Dallas.  I get home and my mom and dad greet me with a hug and a huge laugh, I walked in with my helmet on my head.  They could not wait to hear all about it.  I take out all my muddy stuff to dry, I will wash it off on the morning.  My parents can hardly believe I actually did this race, much less compete and place 2nd.  I thought that was funny.. "Yes, mom and dad, your daughter is a little crazy.. and tough." I said.. they laughed.  Now it was time for me to go to bed... I hope you enjoy the pictures and video, I had a BLAST!!! and like I said...iSwim,iRide,iRun,iPlay,.. and iWarrior!!!