We are back online folks! Woo Hoo!
Team "One Bad Apple" in line to start!!!
Anyway, a little over a week ago Andy and I participated in the USMC Mud Run. Andy had done it last year, but I was pregnant, so he got me all psyched to do it this year. As far as training was concerned... I started running (jogging) on the treadmill at the gym about a month and a half ago. Andy told me to up the incline every once in a while because there were lots of hills you had to run up in the race. I did that... once. It was hard, so I never did it again, thinking it would be better to try to slowly increase my speed, rather then worry about a hill every now and then. Right about the time I hit the first "hill" in the mud run I regretted that decision. As we started the race out, I started to think, "ok... this is absolutely not fun. What are people so obsessed with this whole mud run thing for?" I kept saying things along the lines of, I do not want to do this, and I quit. Andy tried to reassure me by telling me that everything that was going through my head, had gone through his head about this time during the race last year. I doubt everything I was thinking had gone through his head. I doubt he was worried about how his behind appeared to the people below him climbing up the hills (embarrassing), but all the stuff about how I was not going to be able to keep that quick a pace for the entire 4 and a half miles, and how my legs were already pumped from the hills, that I didn't know how many more I could take, all that stuff... maybe. So I kept going. And then it happened. We hit a mud hole. Thank goodness for the mud holes. The water was cool and, I wouldn't necessarily say refreshing, but they were a nice break from all the hills. (Can you tell that what I didn't like about the mud run were all the hills) I enjoyed basically every obstacle, but the hills. The hills were just double stress... oh crud, can I make it up that hill without having to stop - because if I have to stop - I will totally slip (mud lends you no traction!) and then suddenly you hit the top and it's like... oh dang - that is steep, and I'm wanting to slide down on my bum, but there are rocks, and so I run down, hoping I can stop myself when I get to the bottom, if I get to the bottom without crashing. I think the obstacle I enjoyed the most was the jump - I don't know 12 feet or so, into 14 feet of mud. It was fun, I got a little freaked in the water because it was deep and dark so you couldn't see anything below the surface and I had to roll onto my back - look up, and just swim towards the other end (where there was of course a giant hill you had to climb up to get out... but there was a rope for help, and I made it up and felt very proud). The hardest obstacle is a 10 foot wall. You have to get all 4 members of your team over it, and it can prove to be challenging... especially when you are the last person at the bottom, no one to stand on to get yourself over. It's a little high to just jump over, but we all made it. By the time it was over, I thought... had I known this was really the end, I would have pushed myself a little harder. Maybe next year - now that I know what to expect. I am glad I was on a team with Andy. Made me feel safer. Made him take it easy - but it's all good. We ended up finishing in less time then I thought we would - So I feel good about it all. Here is a short video of all the excitement.
