Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Dirty Dash!

Last Saturday I competed in a race called the Dirty Dash. In case you aren't familiar with this race I'll give you a quick run down. It's held at Soldier Hollow, the distance is 6 miles, it's very muddy (hence the name), and there are TONS of obstacles along the way. All of which are designed to be challenging and downright filthy!

We arrived all clean and ready for the action and completely unaware of the muddy muck that awaited us.

At the starting line with my game face on. A little mud on the cheeks to get me prepared for the race.While I was racing Cory was doing his own race as he called it "The Daddy Dash"! Hiking all around watching for me and snapping a few photos. What a guy!!
The mud was just too irresistible for these little piglets.

A little flexing....nice!



Cory got here right before I did. I stood up on the hay bale muddy and proud to show off my strength and skills.I swung on the rope while getting sprayed with water. And wiped out on the landing. The knot at the end of the rope whipped me in the face as I fell...instant headache! And so great that Cory got a picture:-)







The huge slide. As Melissa well knows that a slide of any kind is my arch enemy! I went head first all the way down. I stood up part of the way down and ran to get some momentum....well turns out the slide ended sooner than I expected and I came flying out at the end and landed in the big ruts you can see. That nice Miss #70 said, "Oh my, are you okay?" It was pretty painful and all I could do was laugh. I scratched my arm pretty bad and both my hips hit the ground and are bruised. They are still black and blue now! Plus there were a lot of people watching and Cory snapping another pic of me. I told him I must be trying to show off for them because both times they were watching me I got injured.




The final muddy event. I decided to go head first, which seemed like a fun idea, but that mud is no respecter of body parts and I came out feeling like I breathed it in and it was in my ears, nose, and mouth! And everywhere else!

There were so many challenges and obstacles along the way I was equally impressed and surprised at how many there were, it was the most fun I've had running 6 miles in all my life! Jumping over double stacks of hay bales, wading through waist deep, muddy water for 1/4 mile, climbing a cargo net, jumping through tires, climbing over walls, climbing through pipes, falling down, I could go on and on. I hoping now I can rally the troops for next time and get a group together to run with me!
The filthy finish!

My feet were lovely!

Trying to dry off and warm up waiting for the Piglet Plunge to start.
So the boys have been anticipating this race for a while now. This was Spencer's first race and a few days before he said, "Mom, I really hope you will hold my hand while we run." We held hands most of the way in a muddy, squishy grip. Mostly to keep him from falling down.The kids race was just 1 mile. They got to slosh through lots of mud, go down the slide, and jump in the huge mud puddle at the finish. This picture shows me and Spencer running down the slide in the 4th lane.Parker went for it and jumped right in. Spencer decided to hang with Mom and just go chest deep.
Little swamp thing!


Another filthy finish! What a fun time it was to race with my boys. Cory was a little worried about me doing 6 miles and then another 1 mile. I laughed so hard I didn't notice being tired or fatigued.


There were showers at the end. They had freezing cold showers or $4 hot showers. I told Parker to man up and get clean with the cold water. It got ugly complete with weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth on his part. He was already so cold so showering was pure torture. I told him it was all apart of the fun and I knew how he felt because I had to do it after my race to get clean.


We made it out of there after getting clean and changing clothes! It was a memorable day:-)