Real Dirty

In my quest to enjoy running, my sister convinced me to do a Mud Run, too. So, this morning, I got up bright and early to conquer the Dirty Girl Mud Run. 13 obstacles (at least that's what they said at the start of the race ... I didn't count them) spread over a 5K trail. And when I say trail ... I mean trail - it was quite rough terrain between the obstacles ... so definitely ideal for trail runners.

My sister and some girlfriends did it together last year and had a great time. So she told me I really needed to sign up for it this year. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about this. I mean ... there are obstacles. I have to climb up rope ladders and crawl under a tarp in the mud. I am so uncoordinated and while I've finally embraced running ... I still have an inner tube for a waist ... so how's this going to work?

I decided, what the hell, let's just do it. So that's why I found myself up extra early this morning to greet the team. Unfortunately, my sister, who got us all together, came down with a pretty bad virus and had to skip out. I feel really bad, because she's the one who actually made up our team shirts. But at least I was able to pick up her t-shirt and number at registration.

And then we were off. The first obstacle was climbing this bouncing pyramid. Going down it (or I should say bouncing down it actually kind of hurt. No mud on that one, just a good introduction to exerting ourselves in a new way. The second obstacle allowed us to get muddy. Here's a pic of us after the first two obstacles. (Please take special note of D's uncanny ability to make sure that he takes a photo of me with a ridiculous facial expression.)

There were some obstacles that were definitely more difficult than others ... but overall, it was just difficult enough to make you feel like you accomplished something. And you bond when you're working with others to do crazy tasks, right? Yes, it was good fun ... and a nice change of pace to my normal 5K feat. Now, I've got just a few weeks before my next one so it's time to focus on pace and endurance so that I can catch up to D!