2012 Warrior Challenge--Iowa City, IA

On Saturday, March 31st in Iowa City over at the Hawkeye Recreation fields, 3 friends of mine and I were in a race together. This was a unique race put on by the VA hospital for the Wounded Warrior Project. See link to know more about that. It was a super cold morning around 45 degrees out.  The weather said it would be a heck of a lot warmer so we basically froze the entire time.  None of us had gloves and should have because it would have helped with our events as you will see below.

This year one of my goals is to do a lot of longer races and a lot of harder races.  I consider this one of those "harder races".  There were three events.  First you had to flip a bus tire, weighing approximately 100 pounds down 25 yards.  Then you had to carry cinder blocks 25 yards and stack them into the correct formation with your team.  Then you had a backpack with 15 pounds of rocks in it that you had to carry on your back for a 5K distance.   You could run or walk with these rocks.  Our team walked/jogged the entire race because we had a team member that just had knee surgery 4.5 weeks ago.  I was so proud of her to be able to participate in this event given how her knee was still not 100%.

I have lots of pictures to tell the story of the day.  I have to say this is one of my favorite races so far that I have done.  Races are so much more fun when done with friends!

Showing off our cool shirt sleeves.  My friend Kris Tharp owns a running store in North Liberty Iowa called  We Run and she gave us all matching shirts!  Then Rhoni Jo's husband designed the back of the shirts for us.

Our shoes with our timing chips.

Before the race began.  From Left to Right:  Me, Kari, Rhoni Jo and Allison.

The back of the shirt that Chad designed.  I love it!  I'm sure we looking the most awesome.

Allison flipping her tire down 25 yards.

Me flipping the tire, putting my knee into it.  This thing was soooo heavy.

Caleb and Jacob were asked to DJ the event.  Here is their website

Another shot of Allison.   You can tell from her expression how hard this tire was to flip.

Kari flipping the tire with no problem at all, she is so strong.  We all admire her.

Rhoni Jo getting the tire over.

Another picture of me.  I was making all kinds of growling noises.  I really struggled getting this thing lifted and over.  If you double click on the picture you can see my expression.

Next was the cinder block carry.

I thought this was hard to do as well.  The block is just awkward.

Finally we did it.  The blocks all made a flag.

This was taken just before the 5K.  Our backpacks are on and we are ready to race.

this was during the race, not sure where Rhoni Jo was.  She was with us the entire time because we had to run /walk or jog as a team and couldn't be further than 50 yards away from a team member or you were disqualified.

Posing with our heavy bags.

My favorite picture taken after the race was over.