Mighty Mud Dash

A group of friends talked me into joining them for the Mighty Mud Dash in November.  We signed up for it back at the beginning of the summer and at that time, November weather sounded like awesome weather to run in.  As the time got closer I got really worried that it was going to be too cold to run in, let alone cover myself in mud!  It turned out to be perfect weather and so much fun!

Josh and the kids all came to cheer me on and take lots of pictures.  They were allowed out on the course and it was fun to see them all at different obstacles.  The kids were so sweet and kept yelling encouraging things.  Sawyer looked a little distressed most of the time to see me so dirty!  Hahaha.

Here was our group before:

And at the starting line: 

We had quite a big group there and ended up splitting up into two groups - the hardcore runners and the not-so hardcore.  You'll never guess which group I was in!  Yes, I was in the slower group but that's where most of my good friends were and where I would have stayed even if I had a choice.  ;)  It was so fun to do all the obstacles and run together!

Here the kids were waiting for us to get to the next obstacle:

 

There were several of these walls, each a little harder than the last.  I am quite proud of myself in that I didn't get a boost or use the help of the supports on ANY of them.  The other side of the wall looks the same as the front.  (These type of obstacles had me the most worried before the race.  I didn't think I could do anything that required any upper body strength, but I did it all!  Must have been the adrenaline.)  The whole race was pretty tame as far as obstacles go.  There was a lot of army crawling through muddy canals. 

We could see this next obstacle from the starting line and we were not excited about it!  Shannon (the lady next to me) and I decided to do it together knowing full well that we'd fall in together. 

We both hit the water immediately but Shannon held on better than I did!

This cargo net was definitely one of the harder obstacles.  It was really big as well as high - not my favorite.  Josh managed to capture a smiling moment though. 

After the cargo net there was a huge mud puddle and another bigger wall to climb over.  I tried to walk to an empty spot on the wall and totally fell into a huge hole and landed straight on my bum.  It was pretty funny. 

Unfortunately I was freshly covered in very slippery mud for this last big obstacle.  I thought for sure I was going to slip off this wall but thank goodness I managed to hang on.  I was so surprised when I got over it and realized that was the finish line!  They said this was a 5K but there is no way we ran 3 miles.  At this point I thought we were maybe halfway done!

Here's our group after: 

They had a firetruck there for hosing down if you so chose.  We all tried it because most of us were covered in mud but that was some seriously cold water!  The mud didn't feel cold at all but I couldn't even breathe while we were trying to clean up.    

Still can't believe I did it!