we are warriors!

Yesterday was awesome....

It was clearly mom & dad's turn for some adventure - so we decided to go big!

Warrior big!!! 

We participated in the Warrior Dash at Copper Mountain.

There's a first for everything... and this was an amazing first, and so much fun it will probably not be the last. In a nutshell - it is a 5K (3.2 miles) running race with about a dozen obstacles... including climbing walls, mud pits and fire! Yeah - totally cool.

And of course, everything is more fun with friends!!!

our Warrior gang

the tag line for the race... it's dirty, it's hard and it's fun!
(love the old, beat up pair of running shoes! more on that later...)

getting ready for the race...

our biggest fans!

some people got the pre-race jitters!

We had a great gang from home that all participated together...

here's a group shot of the runners, the photographer (thanks Kirstie!), the support crew and of course, the fans! (aka the kids)

note the race course behind us - we were checking out the fire pits!!!

At the starting line...

The race itself was great.

Before you get to the really fun photos - let me just give you a few interesting facts:

On Saturday there were 5,755 participants

On Sunday (our day) there were 4,714 participants

Jason finished the race in 50 minutes, 29 seconds

I finished the race in 54 minutes, 11 seconds

Our friend Marty finished in 29 minutes, 23 seconds - putting him in 66th place for Sunday!

And our friend John finished in 25 minutes, 48 seconds - putting him in 13th place for Sunday and 17th place overall - out of 10,469 participants! (pretty cool...)

But it gets better:

There were over a dozen obstacles throughout the course, including jumping over fire, scaling several walls, climbing over a cargo net, crawling through a culvert, ducking under barb wire, running through a tire pit and hurdling barriers. 

But the fan favorite of all the obstacles: the mudpit!

Jason gets ready...

Pretty sure Jason may have intentionally gone in face first! I know he was doing the backstroke at one point...

Oh... is the still shot not enough for you?!?!! 

Then how about a video:

my turn...

I made it!!! (and I'm smiling?!)

Oh my gosh... what an adventure!

Sure, the run was tough (for me!) but the obstacles were really fun and challenging and the spirit of all the racers was exciting and positive.

People had fun - they raced in costumes, they cheered each other on, they danced to live music and they wore their medals, their warrior hats and the mud like badges of honor for the rest of the day!!!

Jason's warrior pose!

The event was amazingly well organized - in fact, they even encourage participants to turn in their muddy running shoes at the end of the race to be cleaned and donated to charity!

Post-race was fantastic - great atmosphere with more live music, food and lots of crazy people!

Thanks to my friends for the encouragement and the company - can't wait until next year!!!!

check out the whole album at my shutterfly page here!!!