Two weeks ago, I thought I closed out my From Casual to Competitor series. And then, I somehow pulled out a personal pinnacle: completing three obstacle course races in three straight weekends. After that, I had a conversation with my girlfriend, and I was talking about being a casual obstacle course racer. She then made the very obvious point I’d been missing: “You probably should drop the word ‘casual’ from your vocabulary.”
Edit 2/16/17: Photos are in!
Yesterday, the journey I’ve been chronicling for the last few weeks finally came to fruition: yesterday I ran and completed my first competitive wave at Warrior Dash. A little over a month of training crammed in between long days of work finally finished off with a long morning and a great race. Here are some of the things I got out of my first competitive run:
First off, I’m normally up this early because of work. Even on weekends. But this morning is different. In 24 hours, I’ll be waiting at the starting line of Warrior Dash with the other competitor racers. As I stated in previous posts of this series, I don’t have any crazy expectations. I’m running the competitive wave to push my personal boundaries. I don’t expect to stand at the podium and hold up a check. I don’t expect to be in the top 10 and qualify for the OCR World Championship. I just want to finish in a respectable time. My goal is 45 minutes for the course.
Right now, I’m excited, nervous, and full of anticipation. Keep your eyes peeled for the followup to the race. And find me on Facebook and Twitter!
It’s pretty hard to imagine. In November, I took the chance of registering for Warrior Dash’s competitive wave. That was over three months ago. As of this writing, I am less than a week away from entering the ranks of OCR competitors around the world. With only six days (or five days and 16 hours to go for those who enjoy being technical), this is a good time to reflect on what’s to come from this experience.
Ryan Runs in Mud 