Sandy's Year of New Things

My husband, sister, brother in law to be, brother, and I competed in this ridiculously fun 5K obstacle course in Amesbury.  We dressed as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I was Splinter, but I wish I had done a better job with my costume.  As we were running/sliding/falling the course, people were cheering for TMNT!

Brian and I were slated for the twelve-thirty slot but Kate, BDC, and Gray were running at noon.  Don Don picked us (along with Gray’s girlfriend and my niece) up and drove us all there.  We left my  place at 10:30 and should have had plenty of time BUT there was over a mile backup leading to the course.  Kate told us to jump out so we did and started running.  We ended up all running in the 12:30 heat which was great because my mom was able to make it to the finish line (after finally parking) and Kate and I were able to run together and the boys were able to run together.

The race began with a straight uphill which was bottlenecked so we walked it.  (If you are going for time, I would suggest starting in the front of your heat- we were at the back.)  Then we went into the woods in ankle to knee deep mud.  It felt like being on ice skates because you were so coated in mud that you had no traction.  First obstacle was some wires you had to cross over and under (lame) but then it went right back into uphill in the mud.  The obstacles I loved were the wall (climb a rope up and over then drop to the bottom- I think it was 10 feet) and the balance beam.  My absolute favorite was jumping over the fire.   The worst was getting hosed off in a snow blower at the end (FREEZING!!)   I would definitely do this race again and it was a really awesome day with my family!

Some advice if you want to do a race like this:

• Get there early (like 2 hours early so you can park)
• Have a DD (free beer at the end!)
• Wear shoes that you never want to see again (they will be gross and you can donate them after the race)
• Bring a wet washcloth in a plastic bag to sort of clean yourself up
• Wear a costume- the people cheering for us really helped with the motivation
• Don’t forget the sunscreen and bug spray!
• Bring a trash bag to sit on on the way home- you will be filthy! (I changed in a port o potty which I definitely DO NOT recommend.  Gross!)
• Don’t worry about your time- if you aren’t in the front, you’ll get stuck at some obstacles.  (My sister and I could probably have finished 20 minutes faster if we didn’t start in the very back.)

  check out:  http://warriordash.com/