Warrior Dash 2011 - Ontario

Yesterday, I participated in an event that I never thought I would ever do; The Warrior Dash. On their website it is described as the following:

Warrior Dash is a mud-crawling, fire-leaping, extreme run from hell. This fierce running series is held on the most challenging and rugged terrain across the globe. Warriors conquer extreme obstacles, push their limits, and celebrate with kick-ass music, beer and warrior helmets.

Everyone is separated into "waves". This is probably the way they try to faciliate over 500 participants so there is no funnelling at the obstacles. The first wave starts as early as 8:00am. Last wave at 6:30pm. My wave was at 5:30pm.

July 9th, 2011
My morning started off at 6:30am, I couldn't sleep... so went through my checklist a few times. I printed out the maps to get to Horseshoe valley resort, the waver form, and double checked that I brought my ID. I also packed 2 sets of extra clothes instead of one. Just in case. lol. I texted my friend Lynette for advice about wearing my contacts and bringing my glasses as backup. Her suggestion: no backup needed. Just wear contacts. The chances of me losing them or crushing was much higher than having my contacts fall out. I can say now, after the race, she was dead on.

Lynette and Madeline arrived at my house promptly at 11:30am and we headed out to have lunch up in the Vaughan area; Grazie. I've never been there before, although I have always wanted to eat there. I envied what my friends ordered (although mine was good too). I couldn't have any cream sauce since my tolerance for lactose hasn't been very good. I had to make do with just a pasta with red sauce.



We finished our meal around 1:30ish and decided to drop by walmart to pick up some wetnaps and sunblock. In the same plaza, I went over to starbucks and changed into my "warrior gear". This consisted of an old black shirt and a some long black sweat pants (lululemon ones). I needed to wear long pants because I didn't want to get my IT band dirty (or lose it in the mud!)

When we started back on the road, we encountered a lot of traffic. I was really glad Lynette planned ahead and pushed to get us out there faster. We had to sacrifice shopping at Cooks town (no coach outlet!) and stopping by Costco to look at glasses.

As we neared our destination, there was some confusion on where the parking area was, (there were no specific signs that said "Warrior Dash Parking this way". Instead there was a nice white sign saying "Parking". On that assumption, we spotted a schoolbus that exited from (what I know now is Parking lot A) large parking lot with multiple shuttles. Since it was also on route based on our map, we went along with it. Shortly after, we arrived at our destination: horseshoe resort.

My friend Madeline mentioned that it seems all the crazy stuff that we seem to do starts off at the resort! Example being the 100km Oxfam trailwalker hike last year. It seems she's every bit right about that!


Once we parked (Parking Lot B), we walked to take the shuttles (the school buses). I requested my friends to help me carry my extra clothing so I could change after the race. The bus dropped us off at the starting area of the warrior dash. It was 4:00pm; we were right on time!



I made my way to the race packet pickup area, and got my "warrior" tshirt and hat, bib number, and of course, my race chip.




Looking around me, there were so many people at the event. It was really amazing. Some people wore amazing looking costumes, with war paint and all that jazz. I looked... lol like I wore all my old stuff. All is well. If I do decide to do something like this again, war paint is on! :D

We walked around, scouting to see any of the obstacles. There were three near the finish line: The mudpit that forced people to crawl through (there were chains hanging over head), some fire that people had to leap over, and cargo nets to climb.

We saw some people do belly flops into the mud. lol. The mud sloshed onto some spectators (including Mad!).

We sat (well, I sat anyway) around waiting for my wave time to start. As 5:30pm neared, I saw in the 5:00pm wave an old team mate from Team in Training! Such a small world!



5:30pm finally came, and I stood and made my way to the startline.

The eye of the tiger started playing (seems to be pre-music played for the start of each wave). I have to admit, every time I hear that song, I think of the outtake from Supernatural:



As the fire shot up, the "warrior cries" of wave 5:30pm, my dash started...we ran... and then trickled to a trot, and then a walk. There was a funnelling effect, people in front were slowing down, and some people beside me said that this was a Warrior dash, not a walk!! lol. hilarious. In a few minutes, we realized why... it was the mud pit area, .. I saw so many lost shoes in the mud. I saw some runners beside me lose their shoes. And then I nearly lost mine! I could feel the suction of the mud, pulling me down. I had to slow down. Think elf :) The faster and harder I ran, the stronger the pull. I had no intention of running barefoot!



Once I got past the muddy area, I ran for a bit until I reached the first official obstacle:

#1 The Great Warrior Wall (Conquer the Wooden Barricade).
I was thinking in my head... this wasn't on my list of obstacles was it? Anyway...I was pretty worried about this one. Pulling myself up a wall?! Turns out getting up the wall was the easy part. It was once that I was up there, that the hard part came. I have always had a fear of heights. Once up there, I could see how far up I was from the ground. There was a really nice couple behind me, that could see that I was feeling really nervous. I think his name was Craig, and he held on to the rope while I got my footing on the otherside the wooden wall. Once I got down, I was so relieved. I thanked the couple and began dashing to my next obstacle.

Turned out my dashing through the course was not going to be easy. There were so many hills. HILLS after hills after hills. Every corner I turned, there was another hill. I had only officially done one hill training in the whole time.. it was brutal. There was a girl beside me that was panting heavily, that made me worried. But she had a team with her, and they were watching out for her. I felt she was very lucky.

#2 Dive into Darkness and escape the trenches (Black out)
This one required me to get down on my hands and knees as a I crawled underneath this tent. I seriously was reliving my spelunking adventure some years back. It was pretty muddy, but there was ample room to crawl through.

Once I was out, I started running again... to more hills. horrible hills. They were not kidding about tough terrain! Then there was a steep downhill...then plateau, then uphill again. Finally, I read from afar a sign that there was an obstacle ahead.

#3 Thread through tangled ropes (Arachnophobia)
This obstacle really reminded me of jumpsie. An old school yard game I used to play in elementary school. Except its all twisted up. It was easier to get through, and with some teamwork from the other participants, it was even faster.

#4 Tires and junkyard
This one was interesting. I discovered I was in no shape to sprint through these tires. The tires were not all aligned, so that really made it difficult to even attempt it. I did my best, a little trot hop and step. And then it lead right into the junkyard. I finally got to step on a car! lol stomp stomp :) The tires continued after the junk yard.

#5 Hustle up over giant straw hales (Hay Fever)
This one was actually rather nice. Very easy to get up, and it was kinda fun. I wish I could stayed on this one and just hopped up and down :P The hay was soft and bouncy, kind of like jumping on a bed.

I'm not sure if this was the half way point, but there was this awful hill to go up. By the time I was up there, I couldn't wait for the water. After two cups, I continued the run. I prayed there were no more hills. I couldn't imagine what "Hell's hill" was suppose to be like!

No such thing, there were more hills.

#6 Rapple down a steep ravine (Cliffhanger)
This one was quite the opposite, it was more like going up a steephill, but it wasn't too bad. Quite a fast one to overcome. Building some momentum as I came downhill, I zipped up and grabbing the rope for extra support.

#7 Chaotic Crossover (crawl across tangled nets)
This one was a little tough to get through (for me anyway), but I stratigized and kind of did a side-stepping method to get across. Another girl (Jess) followed what I was doing, and we got across together. Team work! lol

After that, Jess and I ran the rest of the dash together.

#8 Slosh down a slippery slope (petrifying plunge)
This one was so cool! It was like doing the slip n' slide, a commercial I saw as a kid. Just with a little bit of mud :D

It was after this obstacle that I asked Jess about the hell's hill. And she told me that they had taken it off the course since we already had so many hills. She also said we were near the end... and we were! from a short distance, I could see the cargo climb, and the fire!

#9 Cargo Climb (Maneuver over cargo nets)
This one I took my time with. I hate heights. It also wasn't as bad as expected, but still a little tough due to my phobia.



#10 Warrior Roast (Leap over warrior fires)
By the time I got to this obstacle, it was the spectator area, and I knew the finish line was less than a km away. I leapt over the first fire, and then the second one...and I heard my friends cheering, and for a moment, I got distracted, lol and forgot that I was still leaping in mid air, while turning my head to the sound of my name.

Next thing I knew, I fell. lol. Flat on my face. Quite funny, but embarassing, because I could hear the crowd go "oooooh".

Jess turned back to check if I was ok, and I was, lol, only a little bruised pride ;)

I moved on to my last obstacle:
#11 Muddy Mayhem (Scrambling beneath barbed wire - replaced with chains - as you near the finish)
As I dove into this muddy pit, I not only felt immersed with mud, but I also felt the gravel beneath the mud. It bloody hurt! I looked over at Jess, who too felt the pain, and she started to limbo beneath the chains instead of crawling under it. I just kept crawling, I wanted to get out of the mud! I could feel it soak through my pants, my clothes, everything! *shudder* mud.. ick!

Once I was out of there, I knew it was over, the obstacles were done! I ran along side Jess to the finish line. Filled with dirt and grime, they hung our finisher medals on us, and handed us a paper cup filled with water. I drank it with zeal.

As we made our way out of the finishing area, I saw Lynette and Madeline ... and Jess saw her friend Nat right beside them! Strange coincidence! We took a finishing photo together, and then made our way to be "hosed down".

When I say hosed down, I literally mean that. There were two warrior dash staff members holding hoses and showering freezing cold water over all the mud covered "Warriors" :)

After rinsing out, I made my way to donate my running shoes. They were so caked with mud, even if I decided to keep them, they would never look anything near white again. I got my sandals (crocs) and extra clothes from my friends, and went to change in the portable bathrooms. I was really glad I brought some towels :P



After I changed, Lynette slipped on the "I survived" souvineer tshirt from the dash on, and we made our way to the shuttle buses. I decided that I didn't want any free beer nor the turkey leg.. we were going to have japanese tapenyaki, so had to save my stomach! :)




The evening ended spectacularly with an exceptional meal at Yangs. I loved my Salmon and Black Cod dish. I was so happy that I had friends to celebrate my acheivement, and I was so glad I was able to make it through the dash, with contacts, no scrapes! and ahead of my predicted time! An added bonus was that I wasn't too far behind some guys with six packs :P

Would I do something like this again? Yes.
Will I train more for it? H*ll yeah :) Hill training in particular!

There's something called a Tough Mudder that looks really interesting :P A friend told me about a Spartan one too, which is a charity dash. Both though are much more intense than Warrior Dash from I heard. We shall see how training goes ... :)

*** Edit add-on ***
So today, I made my way to the running room to buy new runners (can't train barefeet!), ironically the person fitting me (James) also did the warrior dash! He was in the 4:30pm wave. He agreed whole-heartedly that the hills were awfully hard to get through. Glad I wasn't the only who thought so!
After making my purchase, he said he had a great chat with a fellow warrior :)