Warrior Dash 2012

Yes, it is that time again.  We signed up for the Warrior Dash again.  This year it was me, Ryan, my sister Jaime, her husband Bill, and I conned one of my friends, Laura (the same Laura who used to be Juliana's speech therapist- yes, we became friends). 

Last year, Jaime was "the beast" (that's a compliment for those of you who don't teach high school or hang around high schoolers) who conquered her fear of heights.  This year, Laura was "the beast".  I worked on her for 2 weeks in January to get her to sign up for the Warrior Dash.  She is scared of heights (so I had her read Jaime's blog about last year's Warrior Dash) and didn't think she could do it.  I told her she would be fine.  Then she freaked out about the running.  Seriously.  She made me commit to "running dates" with her on the weekends starting in April to prepare for the dash.  Fortunately, I only had to do a couple of these, because I got injured, then she got injured, and then her son had baseball tournaments.  The only reason I say "fortunately," is because running is NOT my idea of fun (it used to be, before the arthritis).  Now if we were rollerblading or riding bikes, then I would be fine. 

She wasn't able to sign up for the same wave as us, because our wave was full, so she signed up for an earlier wave and I told her she would just jump in ours.  Laura is severely Type A, so going against the rules was also stressing her out.  I explained until I was blue in the face that last year we were able to jump in on an earlier wave and no one caught us.  She still didn't like breaking the rules.  The morning of the race, one of her many texts to me before we got there was "get here please". 

Jaime doesn't like this picture because she thinks she looks like a giant

Once the other 4 of us arrived and got checked in, we found that we were early enough to jump in at the tail end of the 9:30 wave.  Laura had no choice but to join us in our breaking of the rules.  I was happy to be at the back of the pack, because crowds of tightly packed people freak me out ever since my brain injury.  The downside to being at the back, was that at the first few obstacles, we got stuck waiting in line because there hadn't been enough running to space the pack out.  It worked out though.  Laura conquered her fear of heights 3 times.  Once she got out of line to go around an obstacle (Ryan was supposed to block her from that, but he didn't do his job so I stayed behind her the rest of the time to prevent that from happening again), and the other 2 times we just encouraged her through it.

Jaime, Laura, and I

My favorite part of the dash was the water slide into the muddy pool.  It came at the right time.  We were all hot and sweaty, and the water was COLD!  Somehow, Ryan emerged from the muddy pool barely covered in mud, while the rest of us were covered.  I don't know how he does it!  Seriously!

I look cleaner in this picture

The other part of the dash that I enjoyed was being with my sister.  Growing up, my mom always told us that it was important to be nice to each other and love each other.  When we were younger, we didn't always understand what she meant.  Once we got to high school, we started to figure it out, but once it was time for college, we really realized how important we are to each other.  Case in point: during the dash, my hip started to bother me (stupid early onset arthritis!).  Jaime slowed down and kept asking me if I needed to walk (Laura asked as well- not to make it sound like she didn't).  Then, at the end of the dash, after we jumped over the fire, we had to crawl through the muddy water pit.  Bill had given Jaime her Epi pen back just before we got to the pit (he had shorts with pockets, and was afraid he would lose it in the mud pit).  Jaime was "securing" her Epi pen elsewhere, and so I waited for her.  I didn't even think about it, that's how we were raised- you wait for each other.  Everyone else was ahead of us and focused on finishing.  Jaime and I got in the pit together and exited it together (unfortunately, the Epi pen was still lost in the mud pit, but on a good note, Jaime didn't need to use it), because that's what sisters do, or at least that's what Jaime and I do.

My best friend and I

As for my hip... growing up we had this gorgeous german shepherd mix named Bear.  Towards his later years, his hips went bad and he would lay in the hallway with his hips shoved up against the wall.  I always wondered why he would want to put additional pressure on his hips.  I noticed that again with Chili Dawg after his amputation- he would lay on his amputation scar on the hot patio, and then when the cancer came back in his hips, he would also press his hips up against the wall.  I'm noticing it now with Finchy.  Why am I telling you all of this?  Well, that night, my hip began to hurt and I couldn't sleep.  I found that the only way I could get relief was if I laid on that hip (it surprisingly feels good to do that!).  Only then was I able to drift off to sleep, only to be woken up when I rolled off of it and the pain raced back.  Last year, my hip only ached for 2 days after the dash.  This year, my hip hasn't stopped hurting, so I have to make a decision when registration for Warrior Dash 2013 rolls around: is the pain worth it?  This year, I would say yes.  My friend Laura was able to overcome her fear of heights and did something that was WAY out of her comfort zone, and I was able to have an awesome time with my husband, sister, and brother-in-law.

We are a fine looking bunch, aren't we?