Gettin' Muddy

Speaking of saying yes and doing things that make me nervous, guess who did her first mud run last weekend?

My gym friend Jen asked me if I wanted to be part of her team. Actually she asked me last year and I laughed at her, but this year I contacted her to see if the invitation could be repeated.

So that's how I ended up awake at 5am last Saturday morning and driving to Jacksonville for the MS Muckruckus. The team was made up of 12 people, 11 of whom were in much better shape than I am. Jen was our team captain and named our team the Mud Badgers. Our team shirts were the envy of everyone there!

Photo courtesy Jacksonville.com

We met up, got registered, and then it was time for taping:

One of the guys convinced me to tape around my pant legs and the tops of my shoes to keep some of the mud out

It didn't work though. I had mud EVERYWHERE.

The race was a 10K with 28 obstacles. Apparently the goal was to get the runners as muddy as possible. Here's a photo of Shawn, who placed 15th overall for the day (out of 1300 runners), swimming through a mud puddle:

Image courtesy Bruce Lipsky, Jacksonville.com

There was a giant swing set that you were supposed to use to launch yourself across a huge ditch of mud. Brad got some serious air going over that thing! See that race volunteer behind him with his mouth hanging open?



Image courtesy Jacksonville.com

Unfortunately, Mark landed wrong off of this obstacle and ended up with a pretty serious tib/fib fracture. So he and (the other) Melissa did their post race celebrating in the ER. 

For me, the most difficult obstacle was this huge crazy net thingy. Remember when I told you that I don't like indoor rock climbing? This was even worse because the whole thing moved around A LOT and I had to swing my leg over the top to get to the other side. But it was mile five, too late to quit.

Yeah, I climbed that

Like most scary things, the fear of the unknown was the hardest part of all of this. Now that I have done a mud run, I know I can do another one (and I have a better idea of how to train). Good thing because Meg has already sent me an invite for the Hero Rush in November!

Mud Badgers!!!!

So long for now, KISS (keep it simple stupid), and try saying yes- see where you end up!