Warriors & Ballerinas

A few weekends ago I ran a race called Warrior Dash. I'm happy to throw my running buddy Courtney under the bus on this one...she made me do it. Love her heart - she walked with me, stopped at multiple gas stations with me and plain tolerated me through my hormonal hell aka pregnancy so when she expressed her desire to do this race I obliged (after much convincing with a dash of peer pressure on the side). Because the first glance at the website thoroughly freaked me out I didn't return to it after I registered. I figured I'd be educated on the course soon enough!

Don't you know, as fate would have it - the ENTIRE week prior to the race I had some sort of stomach bug. I don't take stomach bugs lightly. For whatever reason they almost always wipe me out to the point of needing professional assistance to normalize (i.e. IV catheter and fluids). This sweet little stomach bug was no different and on Wednesday I got myself some re-hydration - IV catheter style. Come Thursday, I still wasn't sure if I was going to be able to handle the dash. After all our scheming to pick the perfect warrior goddess names and shirts (and please know that when I say "our" I mean Courtney) it was KILLING me to even consider the I might not be well enough to run this thing option. So, on Friday I packed my bag and loaded up with Courtney to head to Louisville to meet up with the 3rd goddess in our group. I figured even if I couldn't run I could attempt to be the most obnoxious fan there (that was before I saw the types of fans that were at this particular race of course). That night at dinner I couldn't even eat and I kept thinking "oh.my.word.....must.feel.better.soon! Well, the Lord Almighty must have heard me out because by some miracle I inhaled my supper that I'd taken home in a doggy bag that night and was feeling a bit energized for the next morning. I went to bed insanely early and was hoping for even more good feelings the next morning. I woke with my appetite firmly back in place: hallelujah and was feeling all "carpe-diem-like" about the race!

Here we are in our Warrior Goddess attire. I chose the name Rhea meaning Goddess of Fertility (the other gals don't have kids so I thought it a perfect fit). Tammy was Nemesis, Goddess of revenge & Courtney was Eos, Goddess of the sunrise which is perfect for her seeing as how she's been known to wake at 4:30 AM before to get in a before work run with yours truly (nuts.....buta good nuts!)

So, remember how I said I didn't look back at the website after that initial time? Well...I probably should have becuase I was COMPLETELY UNPREPARED for what was ahead. I take comfort in knowing that I couldn't have been prepared though, because - who gets prepared for jumping over boats in the middle of a race course? Right....no one.

Oh and then there's the giant wall that we climbed over - where would one even go to find one of these to practice on? Um...pretty sure a military base would be your only option and I don't think our running skorts and pink shirt would have gained us entry. Good thing we conquered all our obstacles without practice! 

There was also wading through creeks, climbing across and up and down cargo nets, climbing up and down seriously steep and slippery hills, jumping over fire (yes, fire) and all sorts of other crazy challenges.The cherry on top of the sundae, icing on the cake, or whathaveyou was the last "obstacle". We had to army crawl through a mud pit under barb wires to get to the finish line. So.Very.Gross & so very un-anticipated because again (didn't look at the website to see what was ahead). I dove in though. Clearly - we all did:

To see a video of said mud pit diving (because a picture and description simply doesn't do it justice...click here).

It was a super fun race. I hope there are more in our future. Challenging? Yes! A little insane? Yes! It was probably the most fun I've ever had in a race (though my pale face and chain smoker like cough likely didn't demonstrate that to my fellow goddesses). I think the reason it was so much fun is because EVERYONE was out to have a good time. Almost everyone was in costume. No one was running laps and stretching and setting their watches before hand like at most races (well...there were a few but they were seriously in the minority). It was just a laid back, lets get dirty and have fun group and it made for a low pressure, super upbeat environment. At each ostacle everyone was cheering other runners on. It was just a really neat race. Plus...if you finished you were rewarded with a turkey leg and beer. Not kidding! I wasn't really "up" for that, but Courtney's husband Brett was:

Now for a drastic change in subject matter - Kennedy started ballet last week. She was so excited words cannot even describe the sheer joy that was busting out of her leading up to her first class.

 This is her showing me her learned "first position"...clearly we need a little work. :) She LOVED it and I'm looking forward to her having class every Friday.

I figured Kennedy's first ballet class was the perfect time for Avery to wear her little ballet onesie from Auntie Janine. It was so cute I had to take one or 42 pictures. ;)

I can't believe in a few short days this lil' bit will be 6 months old. *Sigh*