As Promised...Warrior Dash Pictures

I was able to finish editing the pictures from the Warrior Dash

that Brian and Ty ran on Sunday.

This is one of the first sights we saw

when we arrived at the venue:

It was a HUGE pile of muddy shoes

that had been left behind 

by runners who had already run their heat.

I later found out that a charity organization

was collecting the shoes.

I am not sure how they were going to use them

(clean them up and donate them

or recycle them somehow).

It is a great idea, since majority of the people

don't want to take home their smelly muddy kicks!

We arrived at the venue about an hour early

so we decided to chow down on some serious 

Warrior Food...turkey legs.

Ladybug the Terrible was able to eat the

whole leg on her own:

Brian and Ty showed up to the event nice and clean...

but alas, that would not last for long.

Here is the start of the race.

The serious runners were in the front.

Speaking of serious runners...

check out the guy in front.

WTH is he wearing on his feet?

They look like ballet slippers with individual toes.

Many of the runners had these on.

Apparently, it is cool to dress up in costume

to run this event.

We saw a banana,

a guy in a pink tutu,

lots of Vikings,

Batman,

Superman,

and

Ricky Bobby...

There were many more, but too many to recount here.

How does a Ricky Bobby costume translate to "Warrior?"

Kilts and body paint were popular too.

The dude with his tongue sticking out?

Yeah, he better put that thing in before he bites it off.

Warriors do not run with their tongues wagging.

It's a bird, it's a plane...it is Batman!  

Oh, wait.

That is supposed to me Superman's theme, right?

Anyhow, here come Ty and Brian at the middle of the pack...

After the beginning of the race, 

Ladybug and I had to wait for Ty and Brian

to come down the home stretch.

We couldn't see the rest of the three mile course,

so while we were waiting, 

I took some pictures of innocent victims

emerging from the Barbed Wire Mud Pit Crawl.

We had Swamp Monster:

And Saggy Viking Girl (who actually did the backstroke through the mud pit):

Oh!  Look!  Here come Ty and Brian...

Ty is looking a bit happier about this than Brian.

Happy as a pig in mud...so the saying goes.

And, yes, my butt cheeks were clenching watching this.

One, because barbed wire was just above my baby's head

and two because this is any mother/wife's laundry nightmare.

Brian makes it through, although later he told me 

he could not see a thing because he forgot 

to protect his contacts when he dove into the mud!

And not being able to see is not a good thing.

You see, (pun intended) the fire hurdles were approaching

and it is just a *tiny bit* important to be able to see 

to leap over them at the correct time or risk 

getting your hiney scorched.

But in the end, all was well.

Brian did get quite a bit of road rash

due to the rocks in the bottom of the mud pit,

but otherwise, my two men were injury free.

Ty couldn't quite open his eyes,

but he was happy nonetheless.

They did, indeed, survive the Warrior Dash.

I wonder if I will get up enough nerve to give it a go next year.

I think I will add it to my bucket list :0p