Dirty Girls!

I got inspired a few months ago by seeing a friend's before and after photos for the Warrior Dash Mud Run. (For those of you who have never seen a Mud Run, it's an obstacle course for adults (and sometimes for kids)...you run a bit, go over a fence, run a bit, climb through a pit of mud, run a bit, slide down a big slide into a mud pit, run a bit...you get the idea.) Wait, goofy fun with your buddies sliming around in the mud!!!! I was totally riveted by the photos and psyched to give it a try. (Thank you Sabine for the inspiration!)

Now don't get me wrong, I have total respect for hard core mud racers (the hard core races can be 10 miles and involve things like barbed wire mazes and fields of live electric wires (what the bleep are they thinking???)) but those of you who know me know that I struggle with my sense of myself as an athlete. So for me the right place to start was with the entry level races which are 5k and not even timed. I don't know why but for some reason, my buddies who are actually athletic were psyched to try it with me. So we got some goofy socks, a team t-shirt and some Duck Tape (to help keep our shoes on...don't be thinking those nasty thoughts...sheesh) and off we went to the Dirty Girl Mud Run. To be honest, I was pretty spooked because I am very SLOOOOOOWWWW when I run and I HATE to be the one who holds everyone up. (Now I know you are about to say "oh I'm slow too" but everyone I've ever run with who says that is either lying to me or lying to themselves because I can't keep up with ANY of them for more than a few blocks!!!) But if my buddies were willing to go with me, I was going to swallow my fear of being the fat slow girl (again) and try it as a team.

The Dirty Girl is a 5K run for breast cancer and has about 8 or 10 obstacles (mud pits, water pits, giant slides, cargo nets, a wall to climb over, the usual). Turned out the Dirty Girl was a great starter race because the obstacles were pretty tame but big enough to be fun. The run was in the Candlestick Park parking lot with the final few obstacles actually inside the stadium which meant that we played in Candlestick Park the day before the 49ers played the Stuporbowl! (I admit it...I'm not a football fan...that's just one more sport I got humiliated by in Junior High. But I understand there are those among you who actually like watching a bunch of guys in different colored shirts running up and down some green grassy field chasing a ball that is too small to be seen on your average TV screen over and over in exactly the same manner as they did last week, and the week before, and last year, and the year before that...and I know, the StuporBowl is supposed to have "cool commercials" that are supposed to appeal to me... but really...the Bud Bowl? OK points to Budweiser's advertising team because I remember the campaign but not because it inspired me in any way...I only remember it because it was on enough and annoying enough to stick with me. But I digress...)

Analisa on the other hand was so excited to be on the field at Candlestick that she almost wet herself...but she refrained because she was actually doing a handstand on the field at the time :)

As we were rounding the last curve, muddy and wet and a wee bit chilly, it struck me: I not only kept up with my team, I was actually at the head of my team for a good chunk of the race. I was running down the final stretch thinking THIS is my thing! It was low key. It was fun! (The woman in front of me lost her tutu and was laughing so hard I almost abandoned my team and joined her on her run!) It was great exercise and it was interesting enough that I almost enjoyed the running.

For those of you who are hung up on numbers, we timed ourselves informally and it turned out we did the 5K in somewhere between 40 and 45 minutes. That was about the same time as I ran my last 5K which had no obstacles to slow me down. - Analisa claims that is because this sort of race is an interval run which allows you to run faster between the obstacles than if you just run at a steady pace over the same distance. (Ah yes... interval training which I totally prefer to just straight running in any case!)

All 5 of us got off the field and said..."can we go again?" I have NEVER felt that way about a run before. Normally I can't wait to make it stop! At last I have an inspiration for something I really want to do more of that will keep me training. I would like to move up and do some slightly more hard core races...but I think I'll have to draw the line at live electricity!