This past Saturday, I participated in the Metro Dash. This is the
original race the Courtney got me excited about, and then had to pull
out of for a convention. Metro does not involve mud, and really, not
very much running. The course is only 800 yards, but there were 30
obstacles. You can participate as an individual or as part of a four
person team. I thought that it would be more fun being part of a team.
I was able to talk Bobby, a 27 year old officer, Jeff, a 47 year old
officer and Marine, and Christian, a 37 year old gym owner and former
military man into joining the team. When it was time to register the
team, I had to come up with a name. So, I called Courtney and I knew
that she would come up with something good, and she did not
disappoint. Courtney named us The Winded Warriors. Then I had to choose a start time. We needed to race in the afternoon,
since Christian's gym (where I do Crossfit) is open Saturday mornings.
The team times started at 2 PM, with 2 PM being the start time for the
"elite" wave. The website said to choose that time if you felt that
your team was competitive. I reasoned that we had one Marine, one
youngster, and two Crossfitters, so 2 PM it was, in the elite wave. Jeff and I thought that it was be cool to wear matching shirts for the
race. We found a very appropriate Under Armor shirt that supports the
Wounded Warrior Project. Jeff chose dessert tan as the shirt color and
then provided us all with a pair of dessert tan tiger strip BDU pants.
At least we were going to look good. Race day arrived and we all met at the race location which was in the
shadow of Reliant Stadium. The course had been set up on black top in
a parking lot. It was sunny and warm, with the black top making it
feel that much warmer. We all got registered and received our t-shirt
and timing chip. Then we began to walk around the course to get an
idea of all of the obstacles. We all thought that it was odd that the
competitors seemed to be walking between the obstacles without a sense
of urgency. A short time later, we would come to understand why. They called for our wave color to enter the holding tank, and it was
time for us to get ready to race. We were the third team to start in
our wave. After the team in front of us got 5 obstacles into the
course, it was our time. The first obstacle was a 20 foot tall rope
ladder. You climb up, touch the top, and climb down. On my third step,
my foot slipped off the rung. Thankfully, I had a good grip on the
rope. Otherwise, it would have been a very inauspicious start to my
Metro Dash. The ladder was followed by a ball sprint, high wall,
tunnel crawl, stutter step tires, and then a cargo net. The cargo net
was 15 feet tall. You climb up one side, cross over the top and climb
down. It was my first experience on a cargo net. It was fun and would
be a great addition Christian's Third Coast Crossfit gym. Then it was on to box jumps, tire flips, an 8 foot wall, and then
push-pull. For push-pull, there was a weighted sled with a rope
attached. You pull the sled to you using the rope, and then push it
back using the handles. Sounds easy enough, but the handles were very
low so leverage was hard to come by when pushing it back. The
push-pull which closely followed the tire flips, made me realize why
some competitors were walking by this point of the race. A shuttle run
was next, then over/unders, high hurdles, balance beam, and monkey
bars rounded out the first half of the race. The second half started with some low walls, a sand bag carry, low
crawl, strongman shuffle, and then a wall traverse where you had to
traverse the wall horizontally without touching the ground or using
the top of the wall. That was followed by a window jump, farmer's
walk, and 12 foot wall where a rope was provided to help you get over.
A log climb, black hole crawl, log carry, and rope swing rounded out
the obstacles. So, how did we do? We all finished and no one was injured. I thought
that it was very fun. It reminded me of a Crossfit workout. It took us
about 15 minutes, utilized functional movement, and was done at a fast
pace. I wish we could have done it more than once. A special thanks goes out to my wonderful wife, A1, A2, and my parents
who braved the sun and heat to cheer us on. It was great to hear A1
and A2 yelling for Daddy to go faster. To Mike for taking some great
pictures of us. My Dad got some good photos as well, thanks. To
Courtney and S1 for rooting us on, and finally to Terry, who had
volunteered to take the pictures, until we found out that Mike would
be back in town and was let off the hook. I appreciate the support.
Can't wait till it comes back next year.
original race the Courtney got me excited about, and then had to pull
out of for a convention. Metro does not involve mud, and really, not
very much running. The course is only 800 yards, but there were 30
obstacles. You can participate as an individual or as part of a four
person team. I thought that it would be more fun being part of a team.
I was able to talk Bobby, a 27 year old officer, Jeff, a 47 year old
officer and Marine, and Christian, a 37 year old gym owner and former
military man into joining the team. When it was time to register the
team, I had to come up with a name. So, I called Courtney and I knew
that she would come up with something good, and she did not
disappoint. Courtney named us The Winded Warriors. Then I had to choose a start time. We needed to race in the afternoon,
since Christian's gym (where I do Crossfit) is open Saturday mornings.
The team times started at 2 PM, with 2 PM being the start time for the
"elite" wave. The website said to choose that time if you felt that
your team was competitive. I reasoned that we had one Marine, one
youngster, and two Crossfitters, so 2 PM it was, in the elite wave. Jeff and I thought that it was be cool to wear matching shirts for the
race. We found a very appropriate Under Armor shirt that supports the
Wounded Warrior Project. Jeff chose dessert tan as the shirt color and
then provided us all with a pair of dessert tan tiger strip BDU pants.
At least we were going to look good. Race day arrived and we all met at the race location which was in the
shadow of Reliant Stadium. The course had been set up on black top in
a parking lot. It was sunny and warm, with the black top making it
feel that much warmer. We all got registered and received our t-shirt
and timing chip. Then we began to walk around the course to get an
idea of all of the obstacles. We all thought that it was odd that the
competitors seemed to be walking between the obstacles without a sense
of urgency. A short time later, we would come to understand why. They called for our wave color to enter the holding tank, and it was
time for us to get ready to race. We were the third team to start in
our wave. After the team in front of us got 5 obstacles into the
course, it was our time. The first obstacle was a 20 foot tall rope
ladder. You climb up, touch the top, and climb down. On my third step,
my foot slipped off the rung. Thankfully, I had a good grip on the
rope. Otherwise, it would have been a very inauspicious start to my
Metro Dash. The ladder was followed by a ball sprint, high wall,
tunnel crawl, stutter step tires, and then a cargo net. The cargo net
was 15 feet tall. You climb up one side, cross over the top and climb
down. It was my first experience on a cargo net. It was fun and would
be a great addition Christian's Third Coast Crossfit gym. Then it was on to box jumps, tire flips, an 8 foot wall, and then
push-pull. For push-pull, there was a weighted sled with a rope
attached. You pull the sled to you using the rope, and then push it
back using the handles. Sounds easy enough, but the handles were very
low so leverage was hard to come by when pushing it back. The
push-pull which closely followed the tire flips, made me realize why
some competitors were walking by this point of the race. A shuttle run
was next, then over/unders, high hurdles, balance beam, and monkey
bars rounded out the first half of the race. The second half started with some low walls, a sand bag carry, low
crawl, strongman shuffle, and then a wall traverse where you had to
traverse the wall horizontally without touching the ground or using
the top of the wall. That was followed by a window jump, farmer's
walk, and 12 foot wall where a rope was provided to help you get over.
A log climb, black hole crawl, log carry, and rope swing rounded out
the obstacles. So, how did we do? We all finished and no one was injured. I thought
that it was very fun. It reminded me of a Crossfit workout. It took us
about 15 minutes, utilized functional movement, and was done at a fast
pace. I wish we could have done it more than once. A special thanks goes out to my wonderful wife, A1, A2, and my parents
who braved the sun and heat to cheer us on. It was great to hear A1
and A2 yelling for Daddy to go faster. To Mike for taking some great
pictures of us. My Dad got some good photos as well, thanks. To
Courtney and S1 for rooting us on, and finally to Terry, who had
volunteered to take the pictures, until we found out that Mike would
be back in town and was let off the hook. I appreciate the support.
Can't wait till it comes back next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment