The Rollins Ruckus: Warrior Dash

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Yesterday, Jeb and I ran in our very first Warrior Dash! What is a Warrior Dash? You ask. A Warrior Dash is a 5k obstacle course race and event that travels all over the country every year. This was the first year for the Warrior Dash organization to come to Oklahoma and the event was held in Tulsa. Jeb heard about the Warrior Dash several months ago, and after watching the YouTube video he was dead set on the idea that we were going to be WARRIORS! So....we signed up! It was only a month ago that we signed up and I did not do any training for the race. I'm not a runner and I have missed several sessions with my trainer the past month because I've been sick with allergy/sinus stuff, so I was really feeling unprepared for this little warrior adventure. Jeb assured me that it was just for fun and it would be a great bonding experience. He PROMISED that he wouldn't leave me behind! My cousin Tyler had also heard about Warrior Dash and signed up to run the same time slot. He rode up to Tulsa with us, and we all agreed that we'd stay together as a team. People raced every thirty minutes all day long and their were thousands of people that competed.

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"But I'm like reeeeeally good at climbing over walls!"

Jeb: "When have you ever climbed over walls?"

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Here we are getting our warrior packets!

The event was so much fun! There was a little shop to buy "Warrior Dash" gear, a stage with a band, a beer stand, turkey legs and other food, and huge water trucks with people standing on top hosing the mud off those that had just finished the race.

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Warriors!

These are the hats we got for entering the race.

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On the way up we got on the Warrior Dash website and started checking out the results so far. I found out that the approximate average time for women in my age division was 55 minutes, so that was my goal. We decided we would shoot for 45 minutes, and that anything under that time would be AWESOME!

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I am strong! I am a WARRIOR!

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Here is a picture of one of the walls we had to climb over. The race started with a mile run through winding hiking trails. The first obstacles were small walls to climb over and barbed wire to climb under. Next there were hanging tires to climb through, old cars to climb over, and tires on the ground to jump through. After more running, we had to climb up a wall using a rope, then climb through cargo nets. Next, we had to run up steep, rocky hiking trails! That was the part that got me the most. We were over half way finished, but I was getting exhausted. I felt nauseated from the steep climb and I felt like we were never going to make it out of those trails! At one point, I was walking a lot and Jeb got mad at me and said, "I'm not going to walk this whole thing!!!" That motivated me a little bit, so I started running full speed ahead....and then I fell...I tripped on a stump and bit the dust hard! Two guys that were behind us asked if I was ok, and said, "Nice recovery! Now you're a real warrior." Lol! I could tell that Jeb felt bad, but I knew that he really wanted to laugh too. Just when I thought I couldn't go any longer, we got to jump in an ice cold lake and climb over logs! Jeb had a hard time getting over the logs and two girls had to push him over! The water cooled me down and got my adrenaline pumping again. The ice cold water took my breath away, but when I got out and started running up the muddy hill I felt completely rejuvenated! At this point, we had to run over rocky trails and climb over three more wall obstacles, run down a steep rocky hill, climb under more barbed wire, climb under nets, and then crawl through a mud pit! The race ended with us having to jump over fire!!! It was soooo exciting! The running part was hard for me, but I LOVED the obstacles! Jeb said that I was making him nervous because I was going over the walls and the nets so fast!

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We got sooooo muddy!

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The FIRE!

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We did it!!!! Jeb and I finished the race in 44 minutes! Tyler finished about 3 1/2 minutes before us, so we all beat our goal! I was so excited because I finished 140th out of 939 girls in my age division! I was pumped up, because I hadn't even been running! I've ran only twice in the past two months.