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Windham, New York

Sunday, August 14, 2011

So, hello crazy! With all of our 'racing' as of late, we decided to do something outside of the norm - and boy, did we find a doozy here! The Warrior Dash, part distance 'race', part obstacle course, and in their own words "The Craziest Frickin' Day Of Your Life" - and that it was!

Out early on Sunday morning, our goal was to get to Windham around noon and hopefully avoid the oncoming bad weather. The registration time was a bit 'loose', so jumping into an earlier start was no problem. We made the drive on 88 to Oneonta, then it was two lane road to the Windham Ski Resort. Nice looking resort with newer buildings adjoining it, as well as houses up and through the slopes. We grabbed our race paraphanalia (bib, hat, t-shirt), threw most of it into the car (except for the bib which we pinned on obvioiusly), and headed for the start!

At around 1:00 (I think) our 'wave' started. The first task? A mile run, straight up hill! Obstacles on this part included climbing over and then under a wall, and also the tires to run through and cars/trucks to run over. When we finally reached 'the top', there was the teeter-totter obstacle, then we started back down the hill - right to our first water obstacle! Chest high water awaited us, complete with three logs that we had to crawl over - oye! Next was the 'dead man's drop', where we climbed up a small 'ladder', then over the top, then down a steep slope a few feet to the ground below. Then came the cargo net climb, about 30 feet up, and the cargo net crawl across. More running in there somewhere, a slip and slide, then the two final obstacles, and probably most famous Warrior Dash ones - jumping over the fire and crawling under barb wire through muddy water! These were both in the finish area, so there were quite a few people there to watch us.

We showered off afterwards, trying to get most of the mud off of us, before heading back to the car to change. We donated our sneakers to a charity that was collecting them (they had quite the pile too!), and I 'donated' my socks to the parking lot as many others had. Somewhat clean, we headed back into the festivities for our free beer! (yep, came as part of the adult registration). We grabbed a couple of turkey legs and corn on the cob as well! There was a group at the other end of the picnic table we were at and they gave us their timing chips (beer tokens) since they were leaving and wouldn't use them - bonus! We bought a couple of Warrior Dash beer mugs, and got our free beers to put in them. After some souvenir purchasing, and watching some others come across the finish line, we decided it was time to bug out. We had a great time!!

Stopped in Afton at Vincent's for some dinner on our way home, before making the rest of the drive back to Binghamton.

Total Mileage: 210 Miles

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