warrior dash [pics + video]

this weekend we went to live oak for brett and jp to do the warrior dash, a 5k with 12 obstacles throughout the course. i decided to be the photographer for this race since it was expensive and really since i'm not into climbing through naxty mud. (the race waiver definitely helped dissuade me, "i accept that the water obstacles have not been test for chemicals, disease or contamination. i assume the risk of infection." i'll pass.)
here are the highlights of the race that i pried out of brett::
favorite obstacle: the rock wall or really any obstacle that didn't require crawling on the ground.

least favorite: crawling through mud under barbed wire.

most random obstacle: going football style through tires then climbing from trunk to roof to hood over a car.

here's the before picture. nice and clean. both shirts became casualties of the course.

their wave was at 1 but they got in line with the 12:30 heat to make sure they got a spot up front. i ended up being the pack mule for their wallets and race gear. unfortunately the course wasn't spectator friendly so i only saw the start and the finish. there were lots of characters there though, and people who dressed up in all kinds of crazy ways, so i was entertained while i waited. 

the second to last obstacle was the fire jump. here's jp cruising through the fire. they used hundreds of dura flame logs to keep those fires going all day.

i had to keep my place at the front of the spectator area so i didn't get any pictures of jp going through the mud, but here he is going through the finish. he did it in 22 minutes! he was 11th overall. way to go jp!

 and then along came brett jumping the flames...

...like a gazelle.

jp and i couldn't help but laugh when brett took a moment to assess the situation when he got to the mud pit.

pretty sick. jp ended up with a few cuts on his back from the barbed wire somewhere along the way.

the official "after" shot. brett ran it in 31 minutes. not too shabby for someone who's not a runner.

this is my "don't get too close to me and my new dri-fit shirt with your wet mud" face. you can see in the background that they had a stage with a band playing and the big screen showed people climbing over the mesh rope obstacle.

the line for the hose was too long so they washed off in the non-potable water spicket. ha

this is my "you're mostly clean so we can hug now" face. it's also the face of relief since we picked up some free shades and i'd been squinting for the past hour.

they had a shoe drop off station so the shoes could get cleaned up and donated. what a great idea. (also i think i've read too many holocaust books because my mind jumped straight to the holocaust when i saw this big pile of shoes.)

one more shot in their gear. i'm not looking forward to how emo brett is going to be when jp moves to birmingham.

and of course brett had to pull over when he saw these two beauties on the side of the road. he came back to the car and said "did you get a picture of that thing?!" way ahead of ya buddy.

psst - have you ever watched top gear? (the bbc version not the lame americans.) they did an episode on three wheeled reliants. so funny.

here's the video. apparently between all the excitement and the rain, i didn't end up videoing too much. also i apologize for the race footage, i was manning the flip with my left hand and my cannon with my right.