I don't know where I found out about this run. I think Brownie Got Back posted a link to someone's wall on FB, and I caught wind of it. I had always wanted to do an obstacle course thing like they do in the Army or Marines, whichever it is, but I never wanted to do it with some really big, mean, strong guy yelling at me. This was perfect!
I even wore my army tee with face paint. It seemed fitting. There was a costume contest, but I didn't stay around for that. The judging was post-race, which I thought kinda sucked considering most people's outfits were soaked and covered with mud by that point. Michelle was the Notorious P.I.G., which was super cute. Lisa was Juno, but couldn't run with a towel baby. That definitely would have weighed her down coming out of the lake!
Lisa and I had no idea what to expect. At the registration table there was a map of the course. After seeing that I got a little freaked out, not gonna lie. I was thinking "What the hell did I just get myself into?!" Do we look a little terrified?
The first obstacle was a 60 yard water walk. Here the water only went about waste deep.
Next was a 100 ft. long rope crawl through the lake. Here the water was deeper. Michelle went hardcore and totally went for it!
Climbing out of the water, you can see it was about chest high. And it was cold!
After the rope crawl, there was a swamp walk. Thank goodness we duct taped our shoes to our feet! The mud nearly went to my knees, and the water nearly went to my neck. I was half treading water/swimming to get out of that quick! After coming out of the water there was like a reed tunnel that we went though. I thought that was pretty fun. The only complaint I have about that is it was 1 person wide. The ladies in front of us were walking it, so we had to walk it too. Sure, it would have been kind of hard to run through, but I was a little discouraged that someone else was setting my pace.
Then there was a 5 ft wall to climb over, which was actually taking us over a fence. Then a few over/unders. Spikes on top to make you go under, or spikes on the bottom to make you go over. After that you came to the cargo net wall. When Lisa an I reached it there were a line of people waiting to cross over. This is the only obstacle we went around. I didn't have the patience to wait, because shortly after was another obstacle that we would have had to wait at too. I just wanted to keep moving.
That next obstacle you reached was the 12 ft rope wall. I had never done something like this, so I was really hoping I had the upper body strength to pull me up. The rope was kinda slippery, but I just kept my momentum going and made it over without any problems.
After this was the mountain or as Michelle dubbed it "the hill from Hell." It really was. They had hay bales you had to climb over going up hill. Torture, I tell you. I mean, this hill was steep, and muddy, and rocky, and never ending, and did I mention steep? There was a bag piper perched on a hilltop in the distance.
I found it to be such a fitting instrument to be played while walking (because I couldn't run anymore) up this mountain. I told Lisa "It sounds like he's playing my death march." Because by the time I was half way up and saw how much more I had to go, I totally felt that way. I mean, look how big this thing was....
Can you see the little runners at the bottom right corner? We had to run around to the left side of the picture and then up the side of the mountain to the top of the picture. And this is only a picture of half the mountain! The elevation of the mountain was 568 ft. The terrain was really rocky. I kind of jogged down, but didn't want to go to fast. I'm pretty sure I would have been the one to totally eat it. Can you see the runners coming down?
The mud pit was by far the funnest part. I wish there was a group of us that went in and did it together. Some teams were taking each other out, pushing and throwing mud at each other. I could just picture us RGs getting feisty! How much fun would that have been?
Coming out of the mud pit, I was so exited. I thought I was done! Until....
Vikings.
I'm pretty sure as I ran up I said "Are you freaking kidding me??" The guy laughed and bumped me around a little. I was not prepared to be confronted by strong, cute, muscular, shirtless men! I mean....look at me.
Okay...maybe it's not that bad. My clothes were soaked, my feet were sore, and mud was everywhere! But I had an absolute blast and can't wait to to it gain next year! I just hope more Running Grrrls come out. It would have been much more fun with a team.
This was the first annual Mud Mash event. The organizers only expected about 200 people and over 400 actually showed up to race. They were beyond pleased with the turnout. Proceeds went to the Special Olympics.
Oh, and I wanted to say thanks to Michelle, because I stole a lot of her pictures!
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