Down & Dirty

Last Friday, I drove to Columbia after work.  I spent the night with Jenn and we went to supper with Nicole and my dear, sweet friend Margaret at The Pizza Joint.  It was laid back and delicious.  After supper, we hung out at home and Jenn and I stayed up until one in the am.  My alarm was set for 6:00 am and then 6:20 am since I had an early morning ahead of me.  At some point in the evening, Jenn accidentally dropped my phone, which was fine.  However, when the battery fell out and so my phone turned off.  And so I did not awake at 6:00 or even at 6:20 as planned, but rather at 6:45 am when Jenn came in my room.

AH!  Don't tell me I overslept!?!?  What the hell?!?! This would happen to me!  Help me, Jenn!?!?

Jenn's such a trooper!  She got me breakfast and helped me load the car...pulling away from her house at 6:51, I was only 6 minutes behind schedule.  I ate breakfast in the car and put on my socks and shoes in the car.  I drove out to where I thought the mud run was.  It was instead a random neighborhood of sorts.  I called mom and she helped me navigate somewhat blindly to where we thought I needed to be.  The line to exit was miles long.  So I went up to the next exit, got lost again, and then made it to the mud run site.  FINALLY!  Just over an hour in the car...sheesh!

I met up with my teammates: Emily, Adryan, and Sallie.  We signed in and lined up.  At 8:35 it was our time to shine.  Y'all, this is the craziest thing I've ever done athletically.  I know that isn't saying much, but still.  Ha!

The website recommends that you wear work boots, long pants, and a long sleeved shirt.  But I was just fine in my ratty old tennis shoes, running shorts, and a sports bra.  The course is over 4 miles and contains 32 obstacles.  You are soaking wet in mud pretty early on.  Praise the Lord my team was chill!  We got along well, cheered each other on, and were ok to walk or skip something if we had to.  No shame in that game.   The course changed a bit from last year and was rumored to be harder, but this video gives you a good idea of what we did:



Right after obstacle 14 we were jogging ahead when I slipped in a pot hole and twisted my left ankle.  My left ankle is my bad ankle that was sprained pretty tragically over 3 years ago.  It hasn't been the same since.  So the medic came and wrapped it...I was DETERMINED to finish this thing and luckily my team was ok to go at a slower pace.  I could no longer run and couldn't do as many obstacles -- things that required a great deal of pressure on the ankle.

One thing to note: some of the people working the course were mean.  Straight up mean.  Early on, you have to climb a 20 foot wall, swing over, and climb down.  The thin wall is swaying because there are about 20 people doing it at once.  Three of us did it and one couldn't complete due to a fear of heights.  Well, we were taking the 1 minute time penalty (aka a break!) and the rather large out of shape lady working the course taunted us.  Finally I asked her if she'd done it.  She had not...ugh.

Just after I injured myself, I was swimming through mud under logs.  A guy behind me hit my left foot and I yelled out in pain.  He apologized profusely and I told him I'd already hurt it -- it wasn't him.  Well, the guy surpassed me; when he got to the end, he extended his arm (he was quite muscular).  I took it and he dragged me under the last few logs.  The guy working the course yelled, "THIS ISN'T A DATING GAME!"  To which I replied, "you're a jack ass!"  He then yelled, "THANK YOU."  Apparently, the services are not for me.

We finished up in 1 hour 50 minutes.  Not too shabby!  During the course, I said I wouldn't do it again...but I totally would!  Anyone interested?!