Copy/Repost Hike

Rain.  It can ruin a picnic.  Rain.  It can ruin a hike.  Rain.  It can ruin a day at the beach.

We have these expectations of what a picnic is, what we want to see at the top of a mountain (and fog and rain isn’t it), and what going to the beach is for (after all they sell “suntan” lotion and not “rain” lotion).

But there is one thing that rain can’t ruin:  a run through the mud with new friends.  Especially when there is a free beer and a souvenir Viking hat waiting for you once you are done.  That’s what three of us did on Saturday.

Here’s some quotes:

“I got up this morning and thought, ‘What the hell did I get myself into?’ but this turned out to be a gold star day.  It was great.”

“I was a little worried about what we were going to do but I haven’t had this much fun in a while.  I’m addicted.”

I spent the night at a Comfort Inn down the road after a Gay Coaches Conference in New York and was well rested and ready to go.  When we met at 11:00 am at the Post Office near Thompson Motorsports Park in Connecticut, the weather was cold, grey, rainy and generally icky.   We followed each other to the complex and ended up parking near the entrance – a ¾ mile walk to the starting line.

We checked in, signed out “death waivers”, got our bibs, went to the bathroom and locked up our keys – the usual rundown before any race whether Warrior, Tough Mudder or even just a street race.  Although we had different starting times starting at 12:45 pm, we decided to go ahead and get in line and were on the course by 11:45.

The first ½ to ¾ mile was miserable (IMHO) mainly because we were running around the race track to get in the distance… back and forth… back and forth… it is just silly to me.  But soon we were on dirt and crawling under some barbed wire.

The rest of the obstacles were evenly placed so it made running / dashing / walking to them a breeze.  I’d run ahead take some photos then I would go on the obstacle so I would get in some photos.

Lots of joking / laughing and pointing out the eye-candy that surrounded us as we made our way through the course made the time just fly by and soon we were at the finish line, a beer in our hands and a red furry Viking hat on our head.

I wish the day was a little warmer – mainly because there would have been more skin to accent the eye candy.  Even so, this was the best Warrior Dash I have done to date!  I think in part because there were three of us and none of us had met before.  (a week ago I was thinking, "I wish more people had signed up" but having done it with our little group, I am glad it was a small number).

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