OK, OCR season is officially underway for the year! I did run a small race last week, The P.I.G. Race, which stands for Perseverance, Integrity, and Grit, a 12k where I picked up my first overall win! But this was the first big race where there would be people coming from all over to run. The top 25 people in each of the competitive waves qualify for the Warrior Dash World Championships, and that was my goal. I missed out on this last year, but have worked very hard in the last 52 weeks to get better.
The weather was in the 40's, very cold for us in Florida, and my wave began at 8 am. I tried to will the sun to rise faster to heat up the course, but it didn't work. This was going to be a cold race. Within the first mile, after a pretty good start for me, I hit the water for an obstacle and realized I couldn't touch. Looked like I was going to have to swim to the obstacle. Swimming is a major weakness for me. I can survive in the water, but I am not going to travel very fast. Not good when it's cold. I get to the obstacle, basically a floating cargo net. When I go to jump off to get back into the water, I sunk pretty deep over my head. For a moment, I wondered if I was ever going to come back to the surface. I did, and SLOWLY trudged my way to shore, frustrated as person after person passed by. When I got out of the water, my body did not want to run, but I had to. I still had more than 2 miles to go! Finally I shook it off, and started trying to regain some ground.
I won't do a play-by-play of the entire course since I have attached a link to my GoPro video footage, but I was able to finish 11th place male in my wave and qualify for Warrior Dash World Championships! I wish I would have been able to keep something that said I qualified, or smart enough to hold the card we got up to my GoPro before I handed it in to the people reporting the results. Oh well, at that point, I just wanted to warm up!
With any race, there are ups and downs. I wish there would have been more challenging upper body obstacles. There were monkey bars and rings in the festival area, but none on the course! The obstacles in the race mainly consisted of crawling or climbing over things. I get that Warrior Dash in geared more towards beginners, but there were monkey bars on last year's course. Other than that, it was a great time. The OCR community is such an amazing one, and I was very happy to see so many people that share in my love for the sport. It was also exciting to root friends on and see them qualify for the Warrior Dash World Championships too!
Overall, I had a blast because I was around some of the best people I know. OCR brings so much out of us. Maybe it is because the races take so much out of us. It is strange how much of a reaction I get when it comes to other people and their success. I am so happy when I see a friend do well, and so upset when they just missed out on where they hoped to be. I struggled to watch one of the most fierce competitors I have ever met forced to be a spectator because of an injury. But I also know that the people I surround myself with are fighters and, though this may not have been their day, they will be back stronger, faster, and ready to conquer whatever is put in front of them. I can't wait to be there to watch it happen!
Below is the full race, with the running parts sped up so you can see how the entire course was laid out.
Click here for my full run from Warrior Dash
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