Getting Dirty

This past Saturday I participated in the Dirty Girl Mud Run for the third year in a row. For those of you who aren't familiar, it's 5K with obstacles, most of which involve mud. The first year I did it I was so nervous. A good friend talked me into it, against my better judgement. I don't run, I generally don't like mud and I wasn't too sure how I felt about obstacles. Turns out it was an absolute blast!

I'm really not a fan of exercising for the sake of exercising, but exercising for the sake of fun is a whole different ball game. The Dirty Girl made me feel like a kid again, which is funny because I don't think I would have actually enjoyed it as a kid. Pretty sure I would have much rather curled up under a tree with a book and a snack.

Anyway, we jogged a little, walked a lot, bounced up and down inflatable obstacles, crawled through mud, waded through chest deep muddy water, climbed over and through a variety of obstacles, talked and laughed. When it was over I felt strong, confident, completely filthy and ready to do it again.

This year was a little different. One of our team members twisted an ankle early on due to some crazy ruts on the course and had to spend most of the morning in the first aid tent. We had some pretty serious stuff to discuss, so there was a less laughing and more intense conversation. And there were a few new obstacles: a (very short) leap over (very low) flames and a slide down a fireman's pole at the end. I managed to avoid any danger of landing face first in the flames by jumping over the  very end of the obstacle where there was no wood and thus no flames.  I almost chickened out on the fireman's pole and climbed down a ladder instead, but after a little encouragement I managed to make it safely down the pole.

By far the worse part of the Dirty Girl last year was waiting in line to rinse off. This year we wisely brought jugs of water and rinsed off in the parking lot. It wasn't easy nor was it super-effective, but we managed to scrape off enough mud to ride home without getting our cars filthy. Here I am post rinse off. Yeah, I missed just a bit of mud on my face...Can't wait for next year though!