I signed up for the Warrior Dash several months ago - this is an adventure/boot camp style 5K with multiple obstacles (Running across planks over water, jumping over fire, crawling through heavy mud underneath barbed wire, that sort of thing). I figured it would fit in perfectly with my training since the race was 2 months from the climb.
I also thought the race would be pretty uneventful....I thought wrong. The gun goes off and we run on open road for about a half mile until we come to the first obstacle - which is crossing a lake over 12 inch wide planks. On my first step, I slip and fall and my shoe gets stuck in the mud. When I pull my foot out, my shoe is gone! I turn around and dig for it but its nowhere to be found (I still have my sock on at this point). Unable to find the shoe, I decide to continue the race with just one shoe - after all, this is called The Warrior Dash, so there's no way Im quitting!
On the next step, I slip and fall again, this time losing my sock. Now its just my bare foot and the open road! I trudge through the lake and make it back to land and run the next 2 miles with one bare foot and one sneaker on. I pull back up into the top 20 or so, being ultra cautious not to hurt my foot and with some extra adrenaline from the people cheering for me since I continued the race with only one shoe, and I'm putting together a reasonable showing.
Then I come to the 3rd to last obstacle - sliding down a hill into hay bails and then crawling through super thick mud under barbed wire - and as I come down the hill and land over the hail bails.......I feel a rock go through my foot. Immediate pain. I crawl through the mud, veer off to the first aid team, and look down to see a decent amount of blood. After hemming and hawing with the first aid girl for a few minutes, we decide it'll be quicker for her to just wrap my foot, Ill finish the race, and then go to first aid - which I did.
Unfortunately, this led to a 1.5 hour trip to the urgent care facility when I arrived back in Atlanta, 4 shots of Novocain in my foot (The most painful shots Ive ever had), and now the inability to put any weight on my foot. Needless to say, training is now on hold. The doctors think I should be able to put weight back on my foot in 10-12 days and then resume training from there. Ill keep everyone posted, but until then, here are some pictures, pre-doctor, for your viewing enjoyment!
I'm not sure we really needed a close up... How many people were in this race? Was it divided by age groups? How many folks in your age group? How did you place?
ReplyDeleteWhat did you learn from this mishap?
Hopefully he learned to wear his shoes!
ReplyDeleteFrom Jess
Babu - Answers to your questions: This race had heats every 30 minutes from 930am until 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. 200-500 people per heat. Yes, its divided into age groups - mine was the 30-34 . Its also divided into gender and overall performance. My place ended up being 455 in my age group I believe. I was able to locate pictures of the guys I was running with and they finished in the 21-23 minute range. So I estimate this cost me 7-10 minutes on my time.
ReplyDeleteWhat did I learn?! Sometimes its about the experience and not learning anything. I learned the race was a blast and Im dumb enough to do it again next year.