I Leapt Through Fire (and thankfully this had nothing to do with the house)

Disclosure: this post may contain affiliate links, which means I may make a commission if you decide to make a purchase through one of my links, at no cost to you.

I’m not much of a runner. I’m not much of a swimmer. I’m not much of an athlete in general, I suppose. But as of this weekend, I’m a warrior. After years of hearing about Warrior Dash, I finally did it. I stopped giving myself excuses and participated in one of the most challenging races around.

I ran up muddy hills. I trudged over buoys across a lake. I crawled under barbed wire, pulled my way up a rope wall, scrambled through a scrap yard of old cars, and hurdled over barricades. And as the post title tells you, I leapt through friggin’ fire! (Maybe the most impressive thing is that I drove up to the middle of nowhere and did this with a strong stench of petting zoo in the air.)

For years, I have watched several of my (guy) friends run Warrior Dash, and always gave myself an excuse not to try it. It honestly looked like fun (they have awards for best costume, so the people watching factor is off the charts). It also looked like you had to be tough as nails (or batshit crazy, or both) to do it. But over this last year, I’ve been throwing myself into things I’ve grown tired of avoiding (grad school, for instance). It was time I took that to physical challenges I’ve always wanted to do, too.

Every time I started wheezing up a steep, muddy incline (I have asthma, so this happened a few times during the race), I found myself swearing aloud to push just a little further (the mantra, if you want to call it that, was “F*ck you, b*tch. You’re doing this.”)  It wasn’t really something I said to me, but more to the excuses I give myself. I wanted to prove (to me) that I could do it.

My sister and I signed up for it together, and we had a blast. We witnessed a blind participant compete (dude, after seeing this, it was kind of impossible not to finish).

In the end, I was bloody, bruised, and exhausted. I even discovered muscles that apparently only pop out when they are covered in mud.

The above photo is probably the one and only time I’ll ever look anything like a bodybuilder. I consider that a good thing.

But without a doubt, I am doing it again next year. These are just a few photos we took the day of the race (the others are not yet available from the photog company, and based on the Dirty Girl Mud Run I ran earlier this month, are ridiculously expensive to purchase, so I may not have more to show). And at the end? A can of beer to replenish what I’d lost during the race (sweet of ’em to cater to me like that, don’t you think?).

I’m not going to lie, the race was tough. But I’m so glad I did it. I actually DID IT!