Warrior Dash-- a muddy, mushy time for all

Saturday was a day of squish.

Thousands of people from around Florida converged on a span of soggy farm in the middle of the state for an athletic foray into mud.

It was the first Warrior Dash of the year, a "race" that continues in similarly muddy locations around the country.

People come dressed in costumes, and some show up in not much at all.

Brevard County represented well, with many different groups making the trip.

I saw some from Space Coast Triathletes, a group I still belong to and hope to actually train with again one day.

And Crossfitters were everywhere, from all over the state. A large group from Brevard took the 2-hour drive over together, our caravan growing to 8 vehicles at its longest, including one packed party van leading the way.

Thanks to Allie, Eric and Keyori for taking the photos you see here, although I apologize for the blurriness in some of them-- those waterproof disposable cameras apparently don't like motion.

But I included some to give the general idea of what the race involves. The company that takes photos to sell online either didn't take any of me or they're not posted yet. I was hoping for a nice one leaping over the fire!

To sum up: yes it's fun, but it's hard. Think about it, you're trying to move through a course while constantly unsticking your feet out of mud. Shoes come off, mud piles form inside the shoes, clothes get wet, and the ground is never even.

If you ran through the course, as I did, it was demanding.

It was very kind of Allie to run with me, and constantly remind me to use "quick feet," pointing out how important it was to use the Pose method of running we enlist every day. Actually more important on this course, given the penchant for the feet to get sucked under if you left them in one place to long!

I'll mention quickly that my little "heart episode" manifested itself twice, the second time being quite bad and at the very end of the race. But I jumped over fire and moved through muddy water under barbed wire on elbows and knees to cross the finish line and earn my finisher medal, pushing through it.

There was barbed wire to go under, walls to go over, cargo nets to climb, planks to walk, bails of hey to run over, tires to juggle feet through, a mud tent to crawl through and cars to get over. And the fire lines to leap over at the end.

There were prizes for top three males and females in each age category and overall, plus top costume.

Allison in our group came in second in the costume contest, although she was clearly the celebrity of the day, with so many people asking her to pose in photos. You can see why in the image here... and yes, that's really the gown she wore at her wedding. The front was spray-painted in red "Divorced," and back said, "And loving it!"

There were other "costumes" I won't post photos of here, too, so it ran the gamut. And by the way, Allison made it through the entire course with that dress.

As for injuries... there were some. I saw several people hobble to the first-aid tent to get their ankles iced or wrapped. I wrapped my wrist for the race, as it was about 11 days since my injury when I fell off the pull-up bar and my body crushed my wrist in some awkward twist.

X-rays Friday ruled out any break and it's just an irritation in the tendon. So, waiting it out...

It hurt when I hoisted my body up over the first wall, so I adjusted my means of getting over and used the good hand to get body up and over.

Given the potential to hurt ankles and knees if you tore through the mud at a good pace, I feel fortunate that I only have some soreness that I would expect from something like this, similar to soreness that comes after running in sand-- if you're not used to it.

I did not go crazy with any costume, just wore some colorful striped socks that quickly became one color-- mud!

Good times.