Down and Dirty

At my party a few weeks ago (I am going to blog about this very soon, I promise, I just need to get pictures in order!), there was a sign welcoming to the dirty thirties. This turned out to be very literal, as Bari and I did the Down and Dirty Mud Run yesterday morning. When I did a mud run last October, I loved it and wanted to find another. Unfortunately, winter doesn't make for a good mud run season. I found this run pretty quickly and convinced Bari that she needed to do this with me and yes, she would love it. Because this run is partnered with Operation Gratitude, the course was staffed with service men and women who definitely provided motivation on some of the more difficult obstacles.

Being girly girls, we wore our Team Sparkle skirts, of course!


Because Bari is recovering from an injury, we didn't run it. I was completely fine with that, because a mud run, to me, is more about having fun and enjoying yourself and less about setting some fabulous time goal. Besides, I can barely run fast on a regular day, let alone with 18 pounds of mud caking my shoes! Even without the obstacles, this was a tough course. It was VERY hilly--and I don't mean little hills, I mean the type of monsters that you're not sure how to walk down without killing yourself.
That said, despite recovering from an injury, Bari was a beast at the obstacles requiring upper body strength. I was, uhh, not. Despite that, I managed to successfully complete all but one of the obstacles. This one got me!

In my defense, I wanted to go on the short wall, but a very stern woman in fatigues yelled at me to not wuss out and that the short wall was for little kids. So I took the big wall. By some grace of God, I made it all the way to the top, put my hand on the ledge to pull up... and the mud coating my hand did not make for good leverage. At which point, I went WHOOSH straight to the bottom, where some buff eye candy in a uniform broke my fall by grabbing me under my arms. In all honesty, getting caught by this guy wasn't half bad, so you could say that failing to climb over the wall was a good strategy. I could've tried again, but I also managed to gash my knee on the way down and you know what? I'm a wuss. Bari, however, owned that wall!

As if we weren't already muddy enough, this was the last obstacle. I only captured about half of the mud pit! When we went to go in, a guy in uniform yelled that no part of our bodies was to touch the net and then yelled and laughed that I was going to get my hair wet.

I didn't mind getting yelled at, because most of the guys in uniform were serious eye candy. I could actually use them running next to me yelling at me every day.

And this was us after the race...


I definitely got my hair wet. After the race, they handed us a Powerade. I drank it, then asked Bari if I had mud on my face because I wasn't sure if it was mud or if I managed to spill Powerade all over my chin. She confirmed that, as you'll see, it was most definitely mud.


The race was an absolute blast. Spending time with Bari? Also a blast. I can't wait for next year's mud run!