Today was the big day, the day of the Kansas City Warrior Dash. This year is the first year the Warrior Dash came to Kansas City, and I was so excited to give it a try! A group of my friends signed up together to join the fun. Here's a group photo before the race.
Little did Red Frog Events know, they scheduled the Warrior Dash to be held during one of the most trying heat waves in Kansas City. Today, we dashed in 97 degree heat at least that's the temperature it was during our wave. I use the term DASH figuratively. There was not much dashing on our part, more power walking/strolling instead. We jogged for maybe the first mile of the course, and then it was all over. The heat was so intense, the heat index was over 100 degrees, and the course was MUCH more challenging than originally expected. That, coupled with our 11:30am start time, made for a good 50min 5k course time. We should have expected trouble, when the starting line announcer told us to hydrate about 20 times, and then found it imperative to say that "they have seen over 30 people go down just this morning due to the heat". Fan-friggin-tastic. That really motivated me right from the start.
My friend Kate had warned me that the course was full of hills, but I was completely caught off-guard at the quantity and significance of the elevation changes we experienced throughout this course. The incline and decline were so steep, that just walking up these hills was trying, let alone the 10 challenging obstacles sprinkled in between. One participant actually had already ran in the Chicago Warrior Dash held earlier this year, and said that this Kansas City track was ten times more difficult. That made me feel like much less of a pansy. :) It was challenging, but still very fun! The obstacles ranged from cargo nets, to jumping over fire, to balance obstacles 6ft in the air, to tires, to a mud pit at the very end. The link in the beginning of this post will show all of the obstacles we encountered if you want to check it out. It kept us on our toes with every turn and every hill. A few were a little out of my comfort zone--mainly those that required climbing over a tall obstacle to climb down the other side--but all in all, I am so pumped that I finished every one of them! This is my favorite image of the day--My best friend Lindsay and I tackling the fire pits:
My friend Abby was a spectator at the event, and I have her to credit with some of the rockin photos she captured. Thanks Ab! It was fun, but the jury is still out whether or not I would participate again next year if the event is held at the same time of year. That heat was crazy bad, so bad that they cancelled the event shortly after our wave finished. I'm glad I had the opportunity to participate before it was called off! Whew! Otherwise, I would never have known what crawling under barbed wire in utter sludge felt like:
