Welcome to my recap of the 2014 Warrior Dash in New Plains OR, Race with my Mom edition. This was my first Warrior Dash that we did not receive a timing chip to race with, which I new a few other racers had mentioned that they were sad that it wasn’t timed. I didn’t mind that it wasn’t timed. I was racing with my mom for her first Warrior Dash and I think her second “mud run”.
The Warrior Dash was back at Horning’s Hideout again and the course was slightly modified from the past years, removing a few obstacles and adding a few news ones to keep the dash fresh. A few people had commented on how the dash this year was a more difficult than the past Warrior Dashes and I would have to agree. The obstacles that was the most difficult for me was the three mud hills that were separated by mud pits. The second hill was very slippery and you had to help someone up and then be helped up over the hill. During this hill I had to help my friend Michael up twice. The first time to get him up to the top and the second time because I had pulled him back down trying to get myself up! This was also the obstacle that I injured myself on as I gave myself micro tears in my shoulder gasping other peoples hands to help get them over the hill. Whoops.
The obstacle that was the most fun was the cargo net climb/spider crawl/mudslide combination. This was probably one of the two obstacles that required the Warrior Dash to not be timed as there was a weight limit on the cargo nets and there was a pretty decent queue to get up them. The second being the cargo net “tubes” that you had to crawl through. Most people took the obstacle on their back, while I chose to crawl through on my hands and knees. For this this was much quicker and I didn’t have to worry about the metal run in the middle of the obstacle to be found by my back that so many others found.
The mud pit at the end of the dash was a different smell and color than the rest of the mud pits. From what I heard it was organic mushroom mud. Whatever it was, it was not as pleasant as the rest of the course, but that didn’t stop me from having fun. I had noticed that Michael was plowing through the mud trying to stay as clean as possible, but I was having none of that. I rushed to catch up with him and tried to “wrassle” him into the mud. Michael held strong and I only managed to get myself more muddy, but I got a few great shots from the Warrior Dash.
One of the funniest moments of the dash was when Michael went to fake kick a rock and put everything into it. He ended up doing a Charlie Brown and completely left the ground and my GoPro caught the beginning and end of the kick. We all laughed for a good five minutes after that. Never a dull moment!
Here’s a video of the last few obstacles of the Warrior Dash.