At 6:20 am on Saturday March 16th, I rolled out of bed so I could get dressed & eat some breakfast while I waited for my friend Alina to show up. She showed up a little before 7 am & by 7:10 we were on the road to Smithville, Texas.
After nearly 2 hours of me driving through beautiful Texas Hill Country & singing along to some country music while Alina slept most of the way we finally arrived at Rocky Hill Ranch in middle of nowhere, population 3800, Smithville, Texas.
We parked our car & waited for our friend Janie & her friend Denzel to show up so that we could all head in together. Because none of us had done the race before we weren't sure if there would be a place to keep our stuff while we ran so we left everything in our cars since we had no one with to hold the stuff. So after attaching my car key to my bra & Janie duct taping hers to her arm, we took a couple before pictures before heading in.
Alina & I waiting in my car
Alina, Janie, Denzel, & I ready to run
We were scheduled to start at 10 am but because there was already a fair size group lined up by the time we all get checked in we wound up going during the second wave at 10:15. Despite having looked at the course map I imagined that the obstacles would be a lot more spread out. There were 12 obstacles & it was 3 miles long so in my mind I was thinking run a quarter mile, do an obstacle, run another quarter mile...well you get the idea. Instead it was run probably a good mile before we even got to an obstacle, run a little farther where there were 3 fairly close together, run probably another good half mile or so & then BAM the last 8 were all right there together.
Barricade Breakdown: A series of climbing over a short wall & going under a wooden bar
Road Rage: Walking through a series of tires while holding up a mess ceiling
Two by Fall: Climbing up & down walls & balancing across giant puddles while being rained on
Giant Cliffhanger: Using a rope to climb up a giant wall & then to climb back down the other side
Trenches: Ducking under wooden planks while trying to get through trenches of mud
Pipeline: Crawling through giant rope tunnels:
Hard Rain: Climbing up a giant wall while being rained on & then back down the other side
Chained Up: Climbing up & down chain steps
The Underpass: Honestly I can't remember what this was...unless this was the trenches & I don't remember what those were...
Muddy Mounds: Climbing up giant muddy mounds, jumping into deep muddy holes, & then back up more mounds
Warrior Roast: Jumping over lines of fire
Muddy Mayhem: Crawling & then swimming through mud
We all finished at 1 hour & 18 minutes. Could we have done it faster? Probably. Alina & Denzel definitely could since they ran ahead of Janie & I the whole time but waited at the obstacles so we could all do them together. I probably could have too since I spent most of my time walking while Janie jogged/walked. She hurt her ankle fairly early on & I wasn't about to leave her behind & since my legs are long my walking was basically her jogging. It doesn't really matter though because I never really saw it as a race. All I wanted was to finish. To say that I could do it. Despite wanting to die during parts of it...or thinking I might (like at the top of the giant cliffhanger when I didn't think I could get down the other side...I have a huge fear of heights) as soon as I crossed the finish line it all went away. I was on such an adrenaline rush I was so proud of completing the race. I was 2212 out of 4189. For walking almost the whole 3 miles plus the 12 obstacles...that's pretty darn good in my book.
After the race Alina & I needed to get back to Houston ASAP for the rodeo so we couldn't stay around to enjoy the after party of music, beer, & food. The 4 of us headed back to my car to take some after shots before parting ways.
Me, Janie, & Alina proud & covered in mud.
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