I looked at the website and it looked challenging and fun. I was a little worried about the weather, the cold and the fact we had to get muddy and wet. As the days got closer and closer, I checked their Facebook page for updates and to see if they had a map.
Over the next few days I gathered everything I would need for Yakima for the five days I would be there. That included the pirate outfit, warm and cold weather clothes.
I was woken up by dogs licking my face and Willmarth saying that I only had 20 minutes to get ready to go. We were going to try and get there by 8, mostly because we still had to pick up our packets. I scarfed down some Count Chocula, grabbed my stuff and got in the truck. We were one of the first vehicles to be let into the parking area. It cost us $5. We found a spot, grabbed our stuff and went and checked in. There were some very enthusiastic people and there were some people who weren't quite there yet. I still had to change into my pirate gear. I made my way to the porta potties and put my clothes on. I had an outfit for pictures and my outfit for the actual race.
We took a few pictures with my camera and one of the professionals wanted to take pictures of us so were were like, sure! We tried to look intimidating.
It was almost race time so I quickly took the vest and shirt off because once I got them wet it would be a heavy haul. I tried to wear something light and that could without being cold. I kinda wish that I wore shorts instead of the black pants.
Eight minutes! We gathered around the start line and ended up talking to some people while we waited for go time.
We talked about the run and the obstacles as we waited to go.
And we were off. The dirt on the ground was very dusty as we all ran though it. I decided not to go all out running so I don't leave Willmarth behind. Plus it's much more fun doing a obstacle race with some one.
About a half mile into the run, Willmarth had to take a few breaks. I slowed down so I didn't get to far ahead of him. I was prepared for running and he wasn't quite there in his weight loss routine. A lot of people passed us up. Many people were wearing pirate garb, eye patches, bandanas, lots of spandex, matching shirts and some eye black.
We got to our first obstacle (not one of the actual obstacles) and had to wait for the people in front of us to go through it. It was a pretty quick tire one. We went through another set of tires before we ran across the bridge towards the I-82. We saw some camera people and a cameraman on a quad who thought he could cross the water and got stuck. Haha! We continued on to the first obstacle.
Obstacle number one was a square building with many tires hanging from ropes from the ceiling. They named it the Mutineers Misfortune. We had to run through it being careful not to take a wrong step or have a tire knock out off balance. I could have ran through it quicker but there were a few people a head of me wandering through it slowly. I got in and out and waited for Willmarth before we went to the next one.
"Pieces of Eight" was a obstacle where we had to duck and crawl our way through a series of structures in our path. It didn't take me long since many people have already gone through and moved the sand out of the way. It was quite hilarious watching Willmarth jump over the wall and climb through the sand. The next one was a secret obstacle, the Scurvy Scurry...it was basically a wall we climbed up and slid down the other side.
I ran ahead and made my way thought the Crow's Next, a series of entangled webs. I watched Willmarth struggle though them and laughed at him when he finally made his way out. The next obstacle was another mystery and it was fun watching people fall in the mud. The Gangplank Gallows basically was this platform, two rope swings and a pit of mud to attempt to not fall in. Neither rope was long enough to make it past the mud so you either fell in or you landed gracefully beside the pit. I got a little muddy but Willmarth fell in it. Once again, I laughed. He said he's here to get muddy so might as well go all in. I wasn't quite ready for that because I knew the mother load was coming up soon.
We ran/jogged/walked for another quarter or so of a mile to obstacle six. We got to climb up a 12 foot wall "Black Beard's Blockade" with the help of ropes. Obstacle seven, Shiver Me Timbers, was not a favorite of mine. There were seven pipes roughly two feet in diameter and twelve feet long. We had to go over and under each of the pipes. I had a really hard time getting waste deep in the put of mud water. Once I got waste deep, it was hard for me to go under the pipes without psyching myself out. I did a frantic dance in the middle of this muddy water pit as the volunteers told me that it wasn't that bad or that cold. Eventually, when Willmarth caught up, I went over and under over and under. Under was bad. It was cold, I was wet from head to toe and it had some sort of bark like stuff in the water that got all over your face, eyes and mouth. He took his glasses off and had me wipe them off because he couldn't see. We squished our way to the next obstacle.
The Hornswaggle Tire Hoard, or the very large pile of tires, was our next obstacle to get through. It was harder than it looked. We were soaking wet, mud and debris were in our shoes and I had to go slow across the tires because the girls in front of me were really slow. The tires did move so you had to adjust your balance accordingly or you would fall or roll your ankles. I got through it unscathed and once Willmarth got through we moved on.
Oh man, let me tell you about the Bilge Rat Crawl, they were these huge culvert pipes that you crawled your way through. We had to go through two sets and we got wet and muddy the entire time. There were tiny rocks at the bottom of the pipes and I started to get scraped up so I floated my way towards the end. Willmarth was about a person behind me. I got out of the second pipe and immediately fell forward into the mud pit. I caught myself. This was maybe thigh high. I saw a woman in front of me slip and fall completely in so I knew something tricky was ahead of me but didn't know how deep it was. I got closer and fell into the trench that was taller than I was. Willmarth had just gotten out of the last pipe and saw me completely disappear. I wasn't ready for that so I got water and mud in my mouth and nose. I finally climbed out of the pit and wiped my face as best as I could. He made fun of me for being short. I didn't find any pictures of us in the gallery for this obstacle.
We made it to the Swashbuckle Cargo Climb, obstacle ten. The cargo net was no problem except for a few spots where the net became unstable because of the weight proportions of people climbing it. I almost tipped over before I got to the top. The top was a empty storage container and you jumped into what you thought was a pile of hay. Good thing I decided to jump feet first. I jumped down and immediately stopped on a platform hidden by the hay. I wonder how many people were surprised here or hurt themselves here.
Kraken's Revenge was another cargo net climb, this time it was taller and you slid down a pole to get down on the other end. Once again, the cargo net wasn't hard, I got up in no time. There were a few people at the top who were kinda afraid to slide down the pole. It was my turn to slide down the pole. It was so far of a stretch to reach it, you had to lean grab the pole and slide down. It was a fast drop, almost like you just jumped off the the platform and then you were on the ground. Willmarth said his gloves had no traction what so ever and how fast he was on the ground from the top of the pole.
We climbed up Jacob's Ladder and made our way down the other side. This one was a quick and we didn't have to wait for a lot of people. Obstacle thirteen was a hard one if you didn't have very good balance. We had to Walk the Plank. The plank was basically a balance beam over a pool of muddy water. Luckily neither of us fell in.
The Jolly Roger Mud Scramble was next to tackle and there was nothing jolly about it. It was this long "creek" they created with fire hoses. It was uneven, muddy, slippery and you couldn't see where you were stepping. I fell several times. It was like walking down the street drunk. I laughed a lot at Willmarth.
We turned the corner and made our way up the Scallywag Slide, a 30 foot dirt hill and then a large waterslide down the other side into a pit of mud. On the way up, I didn't notice it but Willmarth did. I guess there was a chicken foot sitting in the dirt on the way to the top. It didn't surprise me because this land they leased from the city of Yakima probably had at one point a farm or farm-like area on it. I decided to slide down backwards into the pit of mud at the bottom.
And now to the last obstacle, Marauder's Mud Crawl. It was very muddy and if you stayed in one spot too long your knee started to sink in so you had to keep moving. I decided not to do it the traditional way, like the military people would do on their forearms and wiggle their way under. I didn't want my bib to come off because I forgot to take the free beverage stub off of it. I finished the obstacle and ran my way towards the finish line, got my medal and waited for Willmarth who was a few people behind me.
Yay! We finished! It took us roughly an hour and a half-ish. We went and got our bags and I changed as soon as I could because I was cold. We went to the beer garden and got our free beer. We sat at the table and we listened to the pirate band. We chatted, saw the couple who we talked with at the start line and then wandered around the booths on the way back to the truck. We got stopped by a physical therapist stand, I talked to the lady, who was from WSU and Willmarth talked to the guy about golf. We got free shirts.
We made it back to the truck and stopped in Union Gap to grab some honey crisp apples from the fruit sand. We talked to them for a few minutes about the pirate plunder and then we picked up some burgers from Miners and then a piece of carpet from the discount carpet warehouse. We got home. We cleaned ourselves up, ate our food and apples and watched some football for a while.
Everyone took a nap...it was much needed after the past two days of getting up really early and we got up just before the Coug game. The Cougars beat Cal 44-22, it was the first time in 8 years. We watched the Huskies lose to Stanford. The day was complete. We hung out for a while, watched TV and talked about random things. He went to bed and I fell asleep on the couch.
