Guest post by Caitlin! Warrior Dash Race Recap!!!

This is my very first guest post, by my dear friend Caitlin.  This past weekend she and her boyfriend ran the Warrior Dash race in Mountain City, GA. (Note:  The photos at the end are out of order, because the new photo uploader is a pain in the rear.)  Here is her race recap:

Hey everyone, I’m Jessica’s friend and coworker Caitlin.  She asked me to be a guest blogger on her site to tell you all about the crazy race my boyfriend convinced me to do this past weekend.  I have Jes to thank for meeting Ryan.  A year ago we all went on a cruise, he and I were invited on the cruise from mutual friends, and it was all downhill from there.  We just reached the one year mark, and instead of something normal and sweet to celebrate he convinced me to do the Warrior Dash in Mountain City, GA.  So we made a trip up for the race.  Don’t worry it wasn’t all crazy, we did do the gushy one year celebration by stopping at B&B in St. Augustine and Savannah.  From there we went up to Brevard, NC for some hiking before the race.  If anyone gets a chance to make it out to any of these places you should definitely take advantage.  Brevard has beautiful hiking trails and waterfalls, definitely a must see!!!

The Warrior Dash in Mountain City, GA was so popular this year that they had to open up two days for the race.  They had waves of 500 people starting every half hour from 10am -5:30 pm both days!!!!  Needless to say it was complete madness at the site.  Now with a race name like Warrior Dash it is expected there will be quite some characters.  We saw a little bit of everything in the way of costumes and beards.  Some of my favorites included:  a man in a wedding dress with 4 of his male friends in pink bridesmaid dresses; little bo peep (staff and bonnet included); domestic warriors, complete with apron, rollers, and cleaning gloves; and the safety men in yellow safety vests and orange and white underwear.  Those are just some of the costumes that slightly scarred me!!!  Ryan and I dressed up as warriors, but I don’t think we were anywhere close to being in the running for best costume.

The website says the course was 3.22 miles…I can’t confirm or deny since the idea of a Garmin surviving the mud pit was insane.  Ryan and I were in the 2:30 pm wave, so it was a little warm when we started.  The race started with about a half mile run up some hills and around a lake.  The first obstacle was to walk halfway over a muddy lake on planks of wood and then swim (or wade) the rest of the lake.  I was ready to tackle the obstacle…until I took one step to find the plank and nearly lost my shoe in the mud.  From there on it was a slippery, muddy rest of the afternoon.  We made it across the plank and the rest of the lake with little issue.  On the other side of the water was where I took my first and surprisingly only fall.  We went through an obstacle of tires, which doesn’t seem so hard until you consider that a ton of other people have made the tires nice a slippery with mud prior to our arrival.  I am still waiting for the awesome bruise that I am sure is coming from the slip.  We went up and over the three walls that followed the tires without a problem and began running up some more hills.  After the lake, Ryan’s kilt was weighted down and decided it did not want to stay up, so he ditched it after the walls…luckily he had shorts on underneath and was not wearing it traditionally!!!  We scaled a wall with muddy shoes and then went up and over a cargo net wall with minor slips and stumbles.  That led us into a car graveyard where we had to maneuver our way over and through car skeletons.  After a quick crawl through a tunnel, we were off running again through muddy trails and winding hills.  The last three obstacles were in a row leading to the finish line…starting with the mud pit.  If you didn’t come out of it covered from head to toe in mud the crowd was not happy!!!  Ryan and I took waterproof cameras to collect pictures throughout the race, but they were as covered in mud as we were after the mud pit.  A nice romp through the water and over the floating logs cleaned us and our cameras off just a little bit.  The last few meters of the race led us to the part I feared the most…the fire pits!!!  Now if you ask Jes she will tell you just how klutzy I am, I had feared an ill timed trip and fall straight into the fire pits since Ryan convinced me of this race.  Luckily no falls occurred and I finished the race with minimal scratches and no burns!!!  

My parents were waiting with cameras to capture the muddy goodness of us at the finish line.  Ryan was ready for the beer and I was ready for a bath.  We jumped in the lake to clean off, but that didn’t nearly get the mud out of all the many places it managed to get to.  Some very smart people on the way out of the race area were offering use of their hose for a dollar for two people.  We chuckled at people using the hose down their shirts and pants on the way in, but we had no shame at the end and took a turn with the hose.

I strongly recommend this race to everyone, it was lots of fun!!!  Just make sure to take clothes you plan to ditch because I don’t think the mud will ever come out!!! 

Add caption

Starting Line

After the mud pits!

Headed toward the mud pit

Tire obstacle = first fall

Water pits, nearing the finish line

Leaping over fire

Finished!!! And Muddy!

Donating the shoes

Arrrg Warriors!

Leaping over walls

Tackling the cars

Scaling the wall

The mud pits!

And the white squirrel from Brevard!