This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Well…I’ve done some crazy things in my life – jumped out of perfectly fine planes, tethered myself to bungee cords and leapt off a bridge, ran 26.2 miles when there was seemingly no wild animals chasing me.  But today pretty much takes the cake.  For some unknown reason, running an obstacle course in the mud sounded like fun.

Had been hoping for a nice sunny day but of course, Mother Nature was not on my side.  Overcast, sprinkles, cool temps. Oh well, as one friend said, “What does the weather matter? You’re running in mud.”  My foursome {rounded out with Heide, Sam, and Steve,} set out to run the 3 mile course midday.  I loved that we were able to get the same start time as my friend Margaret. Everything started out okay – nice and clean but that was pretty short-lived.  By the fifth obstacle we had mud in places mud should not be.  Early on Heide came face to face with a pig snout in the mud.  I’m so glad I didn’t see that – I would have promptly stood up and declared, “Alrighty then.  I’m out!”  The first challenge that got me was a vertical wood wall with slats and ropes.  The first time I went for the rope it totally slipped out of my hand, despite the fact I was wearing gloves.  So then I just got mad, grabbed that thing and hauled myself over.  At the second wall, a woman fell straight down after getting over the top and broke her ankle. She was quickly attended to by the EMTs but her wails were blood-curdling. We decided to go around.  I don’t consider that cheating.

The mudding continued, the most jello-legged challenge being the Doom’s Day Hill.  A few super muddy hills, where going downhill on my butt was better than what everyone else was doing – going head first – culminating in a climb/crawl up a 15′ hill.  Let’s just say it was beyond slick.  It was like climbing a hill of chocolate pudding, except it smelled like cow poop. {Did I mention the worms? No, because I still can’t get beyond the smell of muddy cow poop.} Loved the cargo wall…could have done that the whole race.  Up and over, quick and easy.  And especially loved running down the Tolt River.  My injured forefoot didn’t like it because the bottom was super rocky but since the water was ice cold, it was like an ice bath. So no pain.  Plus I rinsed off a bit.  One of the last obstacles was the Mayhem of Mud – a crawl, literally hands and knees – through 60 feet of nasty, deep, goopy mud.  Was thankful we were almost done.   

Special thanks to our great cheer squad: Krista, Brenda, Bill, Jeff, Jim and Goldfarb!  Extra special thanks to Jeff for being willing to play cameraman and extra extra thanks to his dad Jim for being so incredible kind to let us borrow his motorhome for warm, post race showers.  He is a brave man to let us in there in our muddy conditions.   Just checked my time: 1 hour 48 minutes!  Holy moly.  There was a lot of ‘hurry up and wait’ at the obstacles.  No wonder we were getting so cold toward the end.  Lessons learned for next time: 1]  sign up for an early time.  It’s less muddy and easier to get through everything, 2] an RV is a must and 3] don’t do a mud run with a bad foot.  Wait, what am I saying? There will never be a next time!  After a hot, hot bath, another shower, 2 runs through the sanitize setting of the washer for my clothes, tossing my shoes in the garbage, throwing away my contacts, and a whole bunch of pizza…this girl is going to bed.
P.S.   I had fun!