Be warned - the pictures below are ridiculous. You may have to look away. We ran in the
Warrior Dash in Tulsa this past weekend. If you don't know what it is, you need to look it up and do it next year - it really is so fun. It's a grown up obstacle course, complete with tires, barbed wire, lots of mud, cars to climb over and fire to jump. It was the fire-jumping that had me hooked. It is a 5K, so most people can do it without too much training - though many of the obstacles were bigger than I imagined them. It is very well organized, as it has to be, because over 7,500 people participated just this past weekend.
People wear crazy costumes, and after a late-night run to Wally World, Luke and John came back with these get-ups. I love that my husband wore a pink moo-moo and gardening hat to run in a race called the Warrior Dash. He adopted the persona of "Rosie", which included a crazy gravelly voice to yell in all along the way. Luke dressed mocking Thor, and Laura (my youngest sister) and I wore capes, though it should be noted that the Incredibles were right about capes. Laura's got caught in the barbed wire, and I had to free her. Another side note, the day before the race, this text message conversation transpired between Laura and I.
Laura: Are you wearing anything special for the race? Or just old clothes?
Me: I have made tutus for you and I. So, tutus and a sports bra.
Laura: What?! Really?
Me: Totally. Your tutu is red, mine is blue - it will be very festive.
Laura: Well, thank you! You're just going to wear a sports bra?
Me: I'm feeling really good about my flat abs.
Laura: That's great, Carol! See you tomorrow!
Me: I am kidding. No costumes, only regular old clothes. Sorry for leading you on.
Laura: You had me and mom going. Mom said "Carol likes to go in style." haha
Oh, how hard I laughed after this. And, our costume choice was a last minute decision. Ellen was going to run it, but since she is pregnant (which is now public on Facebook, so truly real and wonderful!) Laura took her spot. Used her ID and everything, since they look so much alike. You can see in that last picture up there that we were ready to run, with serious game faces.
My mom and Wes came down to help with the girls while we ran, and my brother Mike joined them, and Ellen was also there to cheer us on - so most of the McCulley family was in attendance, which was great fun and joy. Here are some shots from the side-lines. All pictures from this post are courtesy of Luke and Ellen - thanks so much! They are already treasured.

Lily loves her Uncle Mike

Nothing sweeter than baby Bella in a Warrior Helmet with Nana.

Lily likes to move rocks around, and as it transpired, Bella likes to throw them on the ground.

Ellen can sure rock that helmet, even though she didn't get to run the race. Growing a baby is also very warrior-like.
Luke finished the race first. Love that shirt.

There are obstacles all along the race - once John figured out how hard it would be to truly "race", he decided to fall back and run with Laura and I. So, when we came to the first obstacle, jumping over walls and going under 2 by 4's, we heard someone yelling, "Let's Go, Ladies! Rosie thinks you can do better than that! Let's go!" And, as it turns out, Rosie had a lot to say and do as the race wore on. Highlights: At a water station when handed water, Rosie yelled, "Rosie don't need no stinking water!" and turned and threw the cup of water onto me. Or when Rosie, tired of her flamingo garland, left it behind on an obstacle saying, "Rosie has been given so much. Rosie wants to give back." Or, more disgustingly, when Rosie said, "A good day for Rosie is when it doesn't sting when she pees." Let's just say, I am so glad I ran the race with Rosie - she is crazy, but crazy fun, which made the crazy race that much more fun. We all need more crazy fun in our lives. Here is John/Rosie crawling under the barbed wire and through the mud in the home stretch.
Then, we rounded the corner, and the crowd was cheering, and Rosie was screaming more crazy Rosie-ness.
And, then there was the fire jumping. These pictures almost do justice to how much fun it was to do. Almost, but not quite.
The approach.
I keep laughing at how my face looks positively giddy, like jumping over fire is the best thing I could ever do in my life.
And, the leaping. Luke captured these moments perfectly. Hysterical.
We really were a mess when it was all said and done.
Seriously, this much fun should not even be legal. I ♥ed it. Made even better by sharing it with the fam and especially him.
Baby girl was plum wore-out after all that.
There are more pictures from this weekend, and they shall come in another post. Warrior-Dashing deserved its own post.