IAB - How was the Warrior run?
- Thread starter stoney
- Start date
Indeed...it was this past weekend, actually (both days). I gave a quick recap in today's GMT. I ran Saturday. Polandspring88 and Riding did it, too. Since you asked, here's a more detailed summary....
We had a group of five signed up for the 9:00 AM wave. It rained all night and was thunderstoming all morning, so rather than sit around waiting in the heavy rain for our wave, we hopped into the 8:30 wave (they don't check). We were sort of near the back of the wave for the start.
The race started as a 200 yard dash up a steep dirt road into the woods. When the horn sounded to start the race, everyone was running in the middle of the road, but I ran up the side of the road in the grass and mud, passing at least half the people in front of me. From there it was a couple miles of narrow trail running in thick woods, and it was a muddy, sloppy, slippery mess of a run. All the rain from the previous 24 hours made the entire course a complete mess. Water was everywhere, and most of the mud came up to your ankle. People were falling and slipping down the hills, tripping in the mud, tripping over downed trees that were all over the trails, and stumbling all over each other. I was just picking my way through the trees and people, hopping over logs, stomping through the mud, passing person after person, quickly asking people who fell if they were ok. I never fell once and kept a steady pace. After a couple of miles and a few obstacles, the trail opened up onto fields that the course zigzagged. The fields were just as sloppy and muddy as the woods though, but at least they were flat. I just kept chugging along at a good pace continuing to pass people, saying "On your left!" to people that were walking and in my way.
I don't remember the exact order of all the obstacles. The first though was a set of chest high walls alternating with barbed wire fences. Hop over a wall, go under a fence, repeat. Another was an area of tires hanging from ropes. Another was a set of wooden planks about six inches wide and five feet off the ground over water. Lots of people walking gingerly over those, but I ran right across (I ride much scarier stuff on my bike). They also had the tall wall that you had to scale by rope, and the tall cargo net wall. The fire you have to run through is barely worth even mentioning. The final two obstacles were a cargo net that you had to crawl across, and of course the mud pit. I had no problem with any of the obstacles and got through each of them quickly. As I approached each of them, I picked a path that was the most clear of people. I didn't have anybody blocking my path on any of them except the mud pit. The mud pit was the toughest obstacle because the mud was thick and deep and difficult to pull myself through. Overall though, the obstacles were pretty easy.
Near the end of the race my legs started to feel very heavy from having to run through that much mud in the rain, but I kept my legs moving and ran the entire time, slowing only for the obstacles. I clocked in at 34:40, good for 245 of 10,306 overall, and 46 of 861 for my age group. I was initially surprised as how high I placed, but thinking back on the race, I passed a lot of people and I can't imagine conditions of the course improved as the day progressed (though I refuse to blame deteriorating conditions on my good time
). My pace was 9:50/mile, and that sounds about right during that race (I'm about 8:20/mile on pavement).
I was completely covered in mud from chest to feet and threw out everything I was wearing. Our two photogs (wife and cousin) missed getting pictures of me because I finished much faster than they were anticipating. It was a good time. I'd do it again. Glad I ran early though because apparently people who didn't arrive before 9:00 had major parking issues. 
We had a group of five signed up for the 9:00 AM wave. It rained all night and was thunderstoming all morning, so rather than sit around waiting in the heavy rain for our wave, we hopped into the 8:30 wave (they don't check). We were sort of near the back of the wave for the start.
The race started as a 200 yard dash up a steep dirt road into the woods. When the horn sounded to start the race, everyone was running in the middle of the road, but I ran up the side of the road in the grass and mud, passing at least half the people in front of me. From there it was a couple miles of narrow trail running in thick woods, and it was a muddy, sloppy, slippery mess of a run. All the rain from the previous 24 hours made the entire course a complete mess. Water was everywhere, and most of the mud came up to your ankle. People were falling and slipping down the hills, tripping in the mud, tripping over downed trees that were all over the trails, and stumbling all over each other. I was just picking my way through the trees and people, hopping over logs, stomping through the mud, passing person after person, quickly asking people who fell if they were ok. I never fell once and kept a steady pace. After a couple of miles and a few obstacles, the trail opened up onto fields that the course zigzagged. The fields were just as sloppy and muddy as the woods though, but at least they were flat. I just kept chugging along at a good pace continuing to pass people, saying "On your left!" to people that were walking and in my way.
I don't remember the exact order of all the obstacles. The first though was a set of chest high walls alternating with barbed wire fences. Hop over a wall, go under a fence, repeat. Another was an area of tires hanging from ropes. Another was a set of wooden planks about six inches wide and five feet off the ground over water. Lots of people walking gingerly over those, but I ran right across (I ride much scarier stuff on my bike). They also had the tall wall that you had to scale by rope, and the tall cargo net wall. The fire you have to run through is barely worth even mentioning. The final two obstacles were a cargo net that you had to crawl across, and of course the mud pit. I had no problem with any of the obstacles and got through each of them quickly. As I approached each of them, I picked a path that was the most clear of people. I didn't have anybody blocking my path on any of them except the mud pit. The mud pit was the toughest obstacle because the mud was thick and deep and difficult to pull myself through. Overall though, the obstacles were pretty easy.
Near the end of the race my legs started to feel very heavy from having to run through that much mud in the rain, but I kept my legs moving and ran the entire time, slowing only for the obstacles. I clocked in at 34:40, good for 245 of 10,306 overall, and 46 of 861 for my age group. I was initially surprised as how high I placed, but thinking back on the race, I passed a lot of people and I can't imagine conditions of the course improved as the day progressed (though I refuse to blame deteriorating conditions on my good time
). My pace was 9:50/mile, and that sounds about right during that race (I'm about 8:20/mile on pavement).I was completely covered in mud from chest to feet and threw out everything I was wearing. Our two photogs (wife and cousin) missed getting pictures of me because I finished much faster than they were anticipating.
It was a good time. I'd do it again. Glad I ran early though because apparently people who didn't arrive before 9:00 had major parking issues. 
good work gramps.
Nice work IAB!
I am considering doing the Warrior Dash here, but I have a LOT of work to do beforehand. Looks like a hell of a lot of fun, as long as I don't die in the process.
I am considering doing the Warrior Dash here, but I have a LOT of work to do beforehand. Looks like a hell of a lot of fun, as long as I don't die in the process.
As IAB said I did it on Saturday as well, 5:00pm wave. There were MAJOR parking issues, the field they had selected ended up turning into a mud bog and lines to get in were several miles long. Anyone not in an SUV or truck ended up getting stuck and there was a team of people there to push you through.
Conditions had deteriorated quite a bit before the end of the day and it was pretty bad out there. I'd say the mud was anywhere from 6-8" deep through most of the parts with frequent holes up to 24". I wasn't really focused on doing it quickly and had more fun jumping in the mud puddles and wallowing around. Brought a camera with me too so I have a few pictures from during the race that I can post when I get home tonight. Order of the obstacles was Arachnaphobia (rope woven through trees), alternating walls -> crawl under barbed wire, tire forest, balance boards, roped climbing wall, fire jump, cargo net, mud pit, and cargo net crawl. There were less obstacles than advertised and other than the roped climbing wall and cargo net they were fairly disappointing. The fire jump was more like leaping over a bed of hot coals. I ran in just a pair of shorts and sliding down the final hill at the end resulted in cuts to my legs, arms, chest, and back.
Post race was just as messy, I was literally covered from head to toe and not even the water cannons (snowmaking machines turned on people) could blast the mud away. Shoes went to the donation pile and clothes went in the trash.
A few things to consider if you are contemplating doing it:
-You will see lots of scantily clad people, and probably even a few bits of T&A&D. Quite a few chickies were walking around with their butts hanging out after having their spandex rip.
-Wear high socks and duct tape your shoe-leg interface. The mud will build up in your shoe and chafe your foot, quite uncomfortable.
-Wear a pair of spandex or compression shorts, will help minimize the potential to get sliding abrasions in your nether regions.
-Bring googles or safety glasses if you plan to play in the mud. I wore safety glasses and was damn glad that I did.
-Make sure to bring towels and baby wipes for post-race clean up. Also make sure that whatever clothes you plan to change into are easily put on in a public place.
Most importantly, don't forget the turkey leg and beer!
Conditions had deteriorated quite a bit before the end of the day and it was pretty bad out there. I'd say the mud was anywhere from 6-8" deep through most of the parts with frequent holes up to 24". I wasn't really focused on doing it quickly and had more fun jumping in the mud puddles and wallowing around. Brought a camera with me too so I have a few pictures from during the race that I can post when I get home tonight. Order of the obstacles was Arachnaphobia (rope woven through trees), alternating walls -> crawl under barbed wire, tire forest, balance boards, roped climbing wall, fire jump, cargo net, mud pit, and cargo net crawl. There were less obstacles than advertised and other than the roped climbing wall and cargo net they were fairly disappointing. The fire jump was more like leaping over a bed of hot coals. I ran in just a pair of shorts and sliding down the final hill at the end resulted in cuts to my legs, arms, chest, and back.
Post race was just as messy, I was literally covered from head to toe and not even the water cannons (snowmaking machines turned on people) could blast the mud away. Shoes went to the donation pile and clothes went in the trash.
A few things to consider if you are contemplating doing it:
-You will see lots of scantily clad people, and probably even a few bits of T&A&D. Quite a few chickies were walking around with their butts hanging out after having their spandex rip.
-Wear high socks and duct tape your shoe-leg interface. The mud will build up in your shoe and chafe your foot, quite uncomfortable.
-Wear a pair of spandex or compression shorts, will help minimize the potential to get sliding abrasions in your nether regions.
-Bring googles or safety glasses if you plan to play in the mud. I wore safety glasses and was damn glad that I did.
-Make sure to bring towels and baby wipes for post-race clean up. Also make sure that whatever clothes you plan to change into are easily put on in a public place.
Most importantly, don't forget the turkey leg and beer!
If your goal is to finish, you'll have no problem if you are in any kind of shape. I saw a lot of people participating that were obviously not physically prepared.Nice work IAB!
I am considering doing the Warrior Dash here, but I have a LOT of work to do beforehand. Looks like a hell of a lot of fun, as long as I don't die in the process.
Yeah, you're good to go.
You really don't need to do anything else but run if you're going to train for this. No need to strength train to pull yourself up a 20 foot rope wall.FYI, I've been running 10-12 miles a week for the last five months, not necessarily in training for this event, but just as part of my workouts. It definitely had a lot to do with how well I did in this.
these are the only pics we need
Ahh, the one obstacle I could not conquer. I walked in front of a fan, yelled "HOLY FVCK!" and decided it was better to just stay muddy and pass on the blistering cold shower.
My cardio isn't bad, but I stopped running after the Guard (2006) because of my left knee being hashed. But I do plan to do some trail running, or hit the treadmill at least a few days before.
Did you get to wear a viking helmet?
You can wear whatever the heck you want! I wore the free soft Viking helmet that came with registration. It kept mud out of my hair.
I'll have some muddy post-run pics as soon as my cousin gets off his butt and sends them.
Try getting some of the Merrell or Vibram barefoot shoes.My cardio isn't bad, but I stopped running after the Guard (2006) because of my left knee being hashed. But I do plan to do some trail running, or hit the treadmill at least a few days before.
Did you get to wear a viking helmet?
I haven't really been able to run in five years since I blew out my knee, but these shoes are changing my life. When I first got them and started running again my calves burned like hell as the new muscle was developing. I could barely run one mile while my calves and body acclimate to running barefoot, but I've had a total turnaround in the last month.
My running style has completely changed and it is far, FAR easier on my body. I'm not running fast, but I can run forever now. I went for a run on Sunday hoping to get 4 miles, which until then was the farthest I've run in four years. I ended up running 6 miles and only stopped because I ran out of time. I had another 2-3 miles in me at least and I haven't felt like that since I was doing Tri training in 2006.
I highly recommend reading 'Born to Run'. It's a non-fiction, but gives tons of detail on how to run efficiently and how to do so while barefoot. Between getting those shoes and re-learning how to run (thanks to the book), my workout has changed entirely. I definitely contribute some of the 10# I've lost in the last month to my being able to run again.
I was not so enamored by the Warrior Hike.
My Fiancee and I had coordinated with 6 other folks to do the 11am wave. Knew IAB as well as a couple other folks were doing earlier waves so I wanted to get there early to check out the scene and see the action.
Week of the race we received an email. ~Attention Warriors blah blah blah. BTW there no parking near the facility, go to Pond Street for parking there will be frequent shuttle buses and parking is $10/car.~ I look at a map. Parking lot to venue is a 1.9 mile drive. OK, that sucks, I like to change out of my wet relatively clean running clothes at my car, but I guess I can bring a clean shirt and flops on the shuttle with me and get into the muddy warrior mindset for the afternoon.
So I talk the girl into heading up even earlier to compensate for the shuttle deal. We leave at 7:30 am expecting we'll get there around 9. We get to the Exit at about 8:45 and using GPS head towards the lot. we take a right off the exit and just as we are about to turn left onto the road that will take us to the parking lot, we see a detour sign because a bridge is out. OK, no big deal, got GPS I can go another way. turn around, go back over the highway and start heading to the lot from the other direction. We are about to turn onto the road where the lot is when traffic pretty much stopped.
It's now 8:50, we are moving at the pace of about 1 car length every 20 seconds and I've been hydrating all morning so I won't cramp while I run and I've been drinking coffee. A bad combination when you're stuck in traffic driving a stick shift.
At about 9:10, we slowly rolled by the parking lot entrance which was blocked off. Nobody was there, we had no idea what was going on. Look behind us, there's only 5 cars behind us. WTF, they stopped cars from turning onto this road. Pissed!
9:30 crawls by and we get to about the end of the road. There's a cop directing traffic and he tells us to turn right. As we drive down the road, we see bus loads of Warriors heading in. Yeah, a little hope, we're still moving approx 1 car length per 20 seconds, but at least there's hope.
9:45 hits and we're still going the same speed, but we can see that there's another road merging into this one and there are tons of cars on that road too, but there seams to be a parking lot ahead of us.
10:00 hits and suddenly cars starting driving towards us and cars in front start turning around. After a few minutes of this, it's pretty much bumer to bumper on the other side of the road, I ask someone on the other side what's going on. They just shake their head and say "They told us to go this way now!". I saw a bus coming and cut it off to turn around.
10:10 we hit the original parking lot road. Cop lets the bus turn left, but everyone else has to go straight. WTF is going on. At least traffic seams to be moving a little faster now.
10:20 hits and we are turning into another street. GPS says it's a Dead end, but we're moving.
10:30 hits and we're finally in a parking field somewhere.
10:31 open the door to my jeep an start pissing
10:32 take a deep breath
10:33 finish and pull up my short, throw on my sneakers, grab a bag full of gear and start the walk for the shuttle which is at the end of the street.
10:35 waiting in line for the shuttle so I take this photo:
That's the line behind me as we waiting. 5 buses later, we were able to get on a bus.
Got to the field, registered(surprisingly quick), changed, setup, and checked our bags.
We walked over to the starting queue at approx 10:55 with our wave going off at 11. Did 2 hamstring stretches and horn went off.
IAB and Poland springs reports were approx accurate. However, I think there must have ben WAAAAY more people in my wave, I think a lot of the folks IAB passed later in the course were stragglers from the previous wave. My race went more like this:
Walk to start line, everybody runs for 20 feet and then stops and starts walking. I say screw this, I star heading up the sides of the course. get about 20 feet and someone is walking there. juke back inside, walking there. finally get around bottle neck, start running up again, juking and jiving around folks, always keeping my legs moving because it is slippery. Get to the top and I have a clear path so I run quickly to the corner. Turn the corner and the course narrows and people are walking up a little hill. I try to find a spot to pass, finally find something and I'm off again at a nice pace. come around another corner and yup, another bottleneck. At this point I gave up on trying for any kind of time. I waited for the girl so we could hike the trail together. In the end, I really only had fun on the skinny boards, the cargo net and the rope/wall climb. The spider web thing just pissed me off.
I finished in 1:02 60% of my age group. my last couple of Runs were real close to IABs pace. My last 5k pace was an 8:34.
So we buy tickets to drink some **** beer and some actually decent food and hang out for awhile. When it was time to leave, the line was ridiculous. So we walked back to the car.
I'll give props to the Warrior Dash folks for actually getting the original lot working. My understanding is that they trucked in tons of stone to make it happen.
However, I'll never do another warrior dash and probably never another event of that kind at the Amesbury Sports Park. Expensive, dissapointing day when I could have taken my bike to any number of local trails and had way more fun.
Poland springs considerations are spot on though.
My Fiancee and I had coordinated with 6 other folks to do the 11am wave. Knew IAB as well as a couple other folks were doing earlier waves so I wanted to get there early to check out the scene and see the action.
Week of the race we received an email. ~Attention Warriors blah blah blah. BTW there no parking near the facility, go to Pond Street for parking there will be frequent shuttle buses and parking is $10/car.~ I look at a map. Parking lot to venue is a 1.9 mile drive. OK, that sucks, I like to change out of my wet relatively clean running clothes at my car, but I guess I can bring a clean shirt and flops on the shuttle with me and get into the muddy warrior mindset for the afternoon.
So I talk the girl into heading up even earlier to compensate for the shuttle deal. We leave at 7:30 am expecting we'll get there around 9. We get to the Exit at about 8:45 and using GPS head towards the lot. we take a right off the exit and just as we are about to turn left onto the road that will take us to the parking lot, we see a detour sign because a bridge is out. OK, no big deal, got GPS I can go another way. turn around, go back over the highway and start heading to the lot from the other direction. We are about to turn onto the road where the lot is when traffic pretty much stopped.
It's now 8:50, we are moving at the pace of about 1 car length every 20 seconds and I've been hydrating all morning so I won't cramp while I run and I've been drinking coffee. A bad combination when you're stuck in traffic driving a stick shift.
At about 9:10, we slowly rolled by the parking lot entrance which was blocked off. Nobody was there, we had no idea what was going on. Look behind us, there's only 5 cars behind us. WTF, they stopped cars from turning onto this road. Pissed!
9:30 crawls by and we get to about the end of the road. There's a cop directing traffic and he tells us to turn right. As we drive down the road, we see bus loads of Warriors heading in. Yeah, a little hope, we're still moving approx 1 car length per 20 seconds, but at least there's hope.
9:45 hits and we're still going the same speed, but we can see that there's another road merging into this one and there are tons of cars on that road too, but there seams to be a parking lot ahead of us.
10:00 hits and suddenly cars starting driving towards us and cars in front start turning around. After a few minutes of this, it's pretty much bumer to bumper on the other side of the road, I ask someone on the other side what's going on. They just shake their head and say "They told us to go this way now!". I saw a bus coming and cut it off to turn around.
10:10 we hit the original parking lot road. Cop lets the bus turn left, but everyone else has to go straight. WTF is going on. At least traffic seams to be moving a little faster now.
10:20 hits and we are turning into another street. GPS says it's a Dead end, but we're moving.
10:30 hits and we're finally in a parking field somewhere.
10:31 open the door to my jeep an start pissing
10:32 take a deep breath
10:33 finish and pull up my short, throw on my sneakers, grab a bag full of gear and start the walk for the shuttle which is at the end of the street.
10:35 waiting in line for the shuttle so I take this photo:
That's the line behind me as we waiting. 5 buses later, we were able to get on a bus.
Got to the field, registered(surprisingly quick), changed, setup, and checked our bags.
We walked over to the starting queue at approx 10:55 with our wave going off at 11. Did 2 hamstring stretches and horn went off.
IAB and Poland springs reports were approx accurate. However, I think there must have ben WAAAAY more people in my wave, I think a lot of the folks IAB passed later in the course were stragglers from the previous wave. My race went more like this:
Walk to start line, everybody runs for 20 feet and then stops and starts walking. I say screw this, I star heading up the sides of the course. get about 20 feet and someone is walking there. juke back inside, walking there. finally get around bottle neck, start running up again, juking and jiving around folks, always keeping my legs moving because it is slippery. Get to the top and I have a clear path so I run quickly to the corner. Turn the corner and the course narrows and people are walking up a little hill. I try to find a spot to pass, finally find something and I'm off again at a nice pace. come around another corner and yup, another bottleneck. At this point I gave up on trying for any kind of time. I waited for the girl so we could hike the trail together. In the end, I really only had fun on the skinny boards, the cargo net and the rope/wall climb. The spider web thing just pissed me off.
I finished in 1:02 60% of my age group. my last couple of Runs were real close to IABs pace. My last 5k pace was an 8:34.
So we buy tickets to drink some **** beer and some actually decent food and hang out for awhile. When it was time to leave, the line was ridiculous. So we walked back to the car.
I'll give props to the Warrior Dash folks for actually getting the original lot working. My understanding is that they trucked in tons of stone to make it happen.
However, I'll never do another warrior dash and probably never another event of that kind at the Amesbury Sports Park. Expensive, dissapointing day when I could have taken my bike to any number of local trails and had way more fun.
Poland springs considerations are spot on though.
I need new runners anyway, I will check those out.
Sounds like I should be glad I had 0 interest in doing such an event.
Thanks for sharing your story!
Anything for my fellow
s
I work less than 5 minutes walk from the Mountains to Sea Trail. I do all this stuff at lunch with no line to wait in.
That being said, I wish I could do one of these things. I also wish I had thought of this idea. Look at the rows of cash in that picture!!!
That being said, I wish I could do one of these things. I also wish I had thought of this idea. Look at the rows of cash in that picture!!!
QFT
At the MA event in 2 days, 16000 Finishers. There were definitely more than that that registered/attended.
I think the cheapest rate was $40, but that went up to $60 or $70.
16000 x $40 = $640,000
plus the beer lines never seemed to slow at $4/beer for a coors light or $20 for a 32oz plastic stein. I bet everyone spent at least another $20. That's over a million in gross revenue for one event.
I'm filling out their survey now, not going to be a good one, but they won't allow me to post all my comments, yet another fail, so I'm pointing them to this thread.
Nice write up. I had wanted to do one of these, but I'm not surprised there were teething issues. Sounds like Windham had it figured out, same with Mt. Snow and the tough mudder. I'd say the death race in VT has it figured out, but no.
Oh well, back to being fat.
Oh well, back to being fat.
HAHA, F That! Although if I ever did get into ridiculous shape, I'd want to try it.
I did the Rugged Maniac in Southwick, MA last year. At the time I took a lot of the stuff for granted, in retrospect it had some issues(first event ever), but started with a 1 mile run on relatively flat wide trail and the field thined out.
the course itself was a Motocross course and was basically up a hill down a hill up a hill over an obstacle repeat. The running was really tough. The running at WD was only tough because of the mud.
And this year they are sponsored by Harpoon. Already planning on doing it.
is that when you run out of krispy creme, over the hood of your truck drive to the house, fight the front door, jump over the cat and make it to the can before you soil yourself?Nice work IAB!
I am considering doing the Warrior Dash here, but I have a LOT of work to do beforehand. Looks like a hell of a lot of fun, as long as I don't die in the process.
you would take platinum!
it's kinda disappointing to read all the writing about mud covered, half naked chicks,
while the only photograph looks like the line in front of the welfare pay out in detroit....
while the only photograph looks like the line in front of the welfare pay out in detroit....
As a point of reference, I used to help the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity (friends of mine..was not in a frat) with their Mud Volleyball tournament every year across from WCU's campus. It was a HUGE fundraiser with beer trucks on sight.
Dig a 3 foot deep trench. Repeat 20+ times across a vacant field. Have the local VFD hose the pits. Fire up the music. Lose a contact. Wind up in your room with no recollection of events...but a trophy for 2nd place overall????
And in fairness to the photogs, in general, muddy drunk chics don't photograph well. They just look like victims of the plague.
Dig a 3 foot deep trench. Repeat 20+ times across a vacant field. Have the local VFD hose the pits. Fire up the music. Lose a contact. Wind up in your room with no recollection of events...but a trophy for 2nd place overall????
And in fairness to the photogs, in general, muddy drunk chics don't photograph well. They just look like victims of the plague.
It rained during my wave.
Attachments
looks like a pretty lonely wave. next time you should try to get everybody around you to do it at the same time....I think that's how they're done at sporting events
Comedy gold right there.
WTF? REAL barbed wire? I would think that is kinda dangerous. Did you see anyone with bloody streaks down their backs?
Riding... How did you do on the balance beams? I know you have some height issues (no, I'm not calling you short 
)
We are headed up to Mammoth again? Wanna come?
Oh, and I assume you heard that Boomer is a dad now?
)We are headed up to Mammoth again? Wanna come?
Oh, and I assume you heard that Boomer is a dad now?
eh i tried. congrats on being awesome at jumping in mud puddles. I wanted to do one of those, but i decided foolishly to focus on the very economical sport of DH racing, which I am equally bad at.
It looked like real barbed wire to me, though I am certainly no expert.WTF? REAL barbed wire? I would think that is kinda dangerous. Did you see anyone with bloody streaks down their backs?
It was high enough off the ground where you've got to really suck to scrape it. I was able to scoot under it by going down to just one knee. In the final mud pit though, the barbed wire was lower so you had to get down on your chest to avoid it, thus you got covered in mud.
haha yeah, I was a little nervous, but nothing compared to the exposure in Bootleg canyon. The balance beams were OK, only 5 6 feet off the ground as IAB noted it was easy work for anyone who has ridden skinnys. The "Great Warrier Wall" was about 15/20 ft high on flat ground. I just concentrated on where I was a didn't look down. The Cargo Net was probably the scariest for me because it was about 15/20ft high, but was situated on the top of a big(for MA) hill so you got to the top and the view down was relatively far, but I just concentrated on where my hands and feet where and blocked out my peripheral.Riding... How did you do on the balance beams? I know you have some height issues (no, I'm not calling you short
We are headed up to Mammoth again? Wanna come?
Oh, and I assume you heard that Boomer is a dad now?
I haven't been Downhilling in years now, not since I tore my ACL. Every year I think I'm going to go at least once and one of my buddies get seriously hurt and I think, nope not worth it. I'd love to head out west again though. Maybe we can all get together for a Moab trip or something.
I've been following Mina Boomer since Christmas card through Facebook.
Oh, and the barbed wire sure looked like real barbed wire, but I think the part where you crawled under the wire actually had a 2x4 in case you hit it with your back. The barbed wire looked like it was more for effect and to make sure you went under the stunt rather than over or through it.
Lots of people are breaking out in poison ivy. I feel so bad for them!
I HOPE it's poison ivy. We all have it too.
I'm convinced that hill at the end must have been laced with the stuff before it was trampled down. That is the only place that I full out wallowed around enough to get it over my entire body.
I don't get poison ivy. I count myself very lucky. The Warrior Dash New England facebook page has a bunch of people complaining about it.