Warrior Dash Wisconsin! Get ready to get muddy!!

It's another weekend adventure!  For the second year in a row, we were Warrior Dash Bound!  The trek down to Johnson Creek for this event is always full of fun and laughs.  We didn't really know what to expect last year when we went, we had a awesome time and decided that we had to go back again this year!

This year John and I made more of a weekend of it and headed to Milwaukee on Friday afternoon to check out the Wisconsin State Fair.  When we went to the Brewers Game a few weekends ago, the tickets that we had included free passes to the state fair.  So, what did we really have to lose?  It was nice that we were able to get there early enough in the day to park right on the back stretch of the Milwaukee Mile Speedway - probably the only time that John can say that he actually got to drive on a speedway!

Ok, don't' get me wrong - thousands of people enjoy going to the fair for various reasons but you can only look at so many cows, horses and chickens in one day!  Oh yeah, and walk past more food vendors that I can to even try and count!  All in all, it was an entertaining afternoon... walked around the fairgrounds, had a beer, watched some people getting their (overpriced) Polaroid picture taken with a monkey, tasted some new wines and left.   We were there for about 2 or 3 hours and left... I didn't even have a cream puff!  They looked good but I really didn't feel like waiting in line to get something I really didn't need to eat!  John was tempted to get the chocolate dipped bacon, but in the end, the only thing we bought was a few beverages!

Once we left from the fair, we headed to Johnson Creek for the night, grabbed dinner at The Pine Tree (local truck stop) - good food, large portions at a great price and then hit the outlet mall for some shopping.  After that we headed back to the hotel to relax for the evening.

The joys of sleeping in a hotel, you never know what you are going to get.  Unfortunately, this hotel was not the quietest... the truck parking lot was right outside our window, there were a bunch of kids staying in the hotel (we think there was a softball tournament or something in town) and we ended up with a bed that was not the most comfortable.  Needless to say, I was up at the crack of dawn and couldn't sleep anymore.

Our crew this year, before the run

Right on schedule the rest of the gang arrived at the hotel so that we could carpool to the Milford Hills Hunt Club for the run!  We were scheduled for the 10:30am heat and had to get there with enough time to pick \up our race packets, so we were on the way by 9am.  20 minute drive to the club, another 10 minute walk from the parking field and we were there!  Since it was still early in the day, the lines for packet pickup were not very long so by 9:45 we were ready to go!  now we just had to wait... oh wait, we are not going to!  We were rebels and jumped into the 10am wave start and were on the course early!

Before the run...

 One drawback to this event is that they do not allow spectators along the course (safety reasons) so even though we had John with us, the only pictures that he was able to get were from before and after the race.  I thought about trying to figure out how to attach Darrin's helmet cam to a baseball cap or headband but ran out of time before we left home.

Once again, the course did not disappoint!  There was plenty of fun to be had!  By the time we got done, we had crawled under barbed wire, over walls, through mud, traversed rope walls, over cargo walls, jumped fire and had plenty of laughs!  We did some of the same obstacles from last year, but were pleasantly surprised with many different challenges. We did notice that there was more water involved in many of the obstacles.  Nothing major, but just a light mist straying or water trickling down over the boards that we had to walk across or walls to climb over!

notice the "wheels" on the 4-wheeler...

This year they added a mud splatter, sponsored by Gander Mountain.  So, if the course did not successfully get you covered in mud, they would make sure that you were covered from head to toe!  Of course, the boys all wanted to do this, and all the mom's couldn't let the boys have all the fun!  A few signed waivers and we grabbed the goggles to get splattered!

I can honestly say that I could tell a huge difference between this year and last year for me personally.  Last year, by Saturday afternoon I could hardly walk because I was so sore. This year, after doing more strength training and running, I felt awesome!  If fact, I even went out and ran 10 miles on Sunday!  All of the sweat and hours at the gym and running all those miles really paid off!

All in all, another absolutely amazing fun day!  Will we do it again next year?
Without a doubt!  You in for the fun next year!?!?

Will you survive the Warrior Dash?

Come join us next year to see if you can! (yes, I know you can do it!)

The group - after the run, but before the mud spray

successfully covered from head to toe!