My Husband The Warrior

Saturday found us in North Bend, Washington for the big Warrior Dash.

I may have been more excited for this race than Justin was and I wasn't even competing.

In Justin's defense, he was more worried than excited because we cut our time a little short getting to North Bend and then catching the bus from the parking lot over to the race grounds.

But here he is with his game face on and fifteen minutes to spare before the starting gun (actually starting torches of fire which triggered panicked crying from Kendry, poor thing).

 Then in line to start,

intensely planning his race strategy perhaps?

 And they're off!

 

The course was just over 3.5 miles long and spectators could only view about the last 150 meters of the race.

Justin's parents accompanied us to the race so once Justin was out of sight the four of us set about people watching.

If there is one thing you should know about me its that I loovve to people watch,

and this event did not disappoint.

Check out some of these costumes:

 Is anyone else a wee bit suspicious about these tighty-whitey tan lines?

I had no idea the Tooth Fairy was competing!

Talk about a unique wedding.

 By the way, we saw this girl toward the end of the race and her dress was still totally white.

How is that possible?

This friendly contestant posed for me with her post-race turkey leg.

Not having napped properly for the second day in a row, Kendry was a bit moody.

We did our best to keep him occupied while we waited for Justin to round the last bend.

He did not want to cooperate for photos;

ironically, this one turned out to be one of my faves anyway:

I'm pretty sure Kendry and Grandpa are making the same face in this picture:

Finally Justin came back into view:

Yeeaahhh, then the stupid camera battery died just as Justin approached the fire jumps.

And I had just changed the batteries before the race!

(It seems someone put the used batteries back into the bag instead of throwing them away, not that I'm naming any names...)

While we love our camera, the thing eats up batteries like a fat kid eats twinkies.

Fortunately, this chica knows how to finesse our camera when she is being difficult.

By quickly turning her off and on, off and on, I was able to snap photos of Justin finishing the muddiest part of the race.

Upon finishing, Justin rinsed off a bit before he came to find us so I photographed this guy's legs instead, just so you can see how truly muddy this race was.

This photo was taken after this guy shook off his muddy hula skirt while standing behind us.

Silly us for thinking that as bystanders we wouldn't get dirty at this race.

And to think I almost wore white pants - eeek!

A small snack seemed to cheer up this grumpy viking for a few minutes anyway.

Justin and I are already talking about doing the race together next year.

Whatever shall we wear for our costumes?

{Justin's official race time: 38:13.75}

Ooo, I almost forgot to show you this crazy pile of muddy shoes donated by the runners after the race: