Warrior Dash, also known as The Time the Thought of Changing My Name & Fleeing the Country Seemed Appealing

At the 2012 finish line. No makeup, all sweaty. Don't judge.

 

I mentioned here that I recently completed my second Warrior Dash. In 2012 I signed up for the Dash after one of my (totally super in shape and fantastically fit) best friends suggested it. She's an avid mud-runner and obstacle courser and convinced me it'd be a fun challenge and most of our close friends were running too. I signed up hell bent on training hard and surprising myself with how awesome I could dash.

 

And then, like, life got in the way. I started a new job and we bought a house and we moved and I got too lazy to train. The day of the 2012 Dash came and to be honest, the only reason I didn't chicken out is because my two best friends were also doing it and I'd feel silly saying, "Oh, no, you guys go ahead. I'll sit this year out..."

 

We threw on matching tank tops and (mostly) ran the 5k and tackled the obstacles—including a rock wall, jumping over fire, crawling under barbed wire, and hurling ourselves down a giant mud slide in the woods. I felt amazing when we crossed the finish line and it was one of those moments in my life where I was like, “I AM A FREAKING ROCK STAR!” I immediately signed up for the 2013 Dash.

The start line...or where I really wanted to pee in my pants.

 

This year was a different animal. I spent most of the year in this depressed haze because of some health stuff and couldn’t get myself into a training routine. I gained a bit of weight and just felt so gross. I thought, “Ugh, I’ll do the Dash again because everyone else is.” But the big group from 2012 wasn’t running together again, people had signed up for Sunday and I was a Saturday runner. I realized a few days beforehand I’d be running alone and it made me MUCH more comfortable with throwing in the towel. I was set on skipping the Dash and lying around the house that day instead. Friday night, I was already feeling guilty about my impending bad decision. I texted a few of my favorites and asked them to weigh in, all of them said I should push myself and do it. At 8pm on Friday night, I put on workout clothes and left my shoes by the door. I was Dashing at 9am.

I started at the finish line at my heaviest weight ever, all alone, and forced myself to tackle every obstacle and make it to the end. I was “running” (when I run it’s more like a slow-motion jog…or just a walk) up a big hill in the woods and thought, “I could die here. Like, I don’t want to go on and I’m not even halfway through and I just want to lay down and hide. They will find my body in a few weeks and it’ll be fine.” Then I realized, that would be SO like me. It would be so my fitness style to just give up because I wasn’t doing as well as other people were. I pushed up the hill, hit my face on an obstacle, bruised up my bod, jumped over that fire, and crossed the damn finish line.

My mom (middle) right before the finish line.

I am lucky to have a supportive net around me that encourages me to reach outside of my comfort zone because I so would’ve regretted not doing the Dash alone. It sparked a healthy revolution inside of my bod. I felt kind of unstoppable and have been pushing along and creating a healthy lifestyle ever since. I’ve never completed a physical challenge like that all on my own and it made me feel, to be a total cheeser about it, really powerful. I felt very in control of my body and made a commitment to myself to be at my goal weight by New Year’s Eve (a post on my that later…it’s been a trip). It was the motivation I so desperately needed to really get my ass in gear and take my life by the balls (or the ovaries…my life is probably a girl).

 

See you in 2014, Warrior Dash!