Extreme 5K Mud & Fun

Last Saturday I woke up to a very chilly cold Washington morning. I also woke up ready to run my last Mud Run of my season. I was excited because it was also the first Mud Run for several ladies from our workout group. Awhile back my running partner Ashley & I got together with another friend to start a playground moms workout group. It has taken off by leaps and bounds from just us 3 ladies working out three days a week together. Now on any given Mon/Wed/or Fri you can find at least 6 sometimes 13 of us ladies working out hard at the local park. Well a few of those ladies jumped right into my passion for mud runs. When Ashley & I brought up running one last race they asked to join. We told them heck yeah you can & we will stay with you through out the race.That cold Saturday morning found me excited and ready to run!

At this point it was 38 degrees & I was to cold!

The fabulous group of ladies had 4 veteran mud runners & 5 newbies.

This was the first year for this fun run and I really held no expectations of greatness. With new runs I've learned you just go for the pure fun of playing in the mud. It turned out that the course was amazing! We took off right into some beautiful trails- YIPPIE! The first Obstacle was a low crawl through a tunnel filled with ice cold water & mud. At this point I could no longer feel my toes. More running on trails then we hit mud so thick people where losing shoes right & left. A few of our girls had to retrieve theirs before moving on to the switchbacks. Now my legs where numb from the knees down so I took off with two of the girls because we where advised for our safety to keep moving. I hoped at that point that the rest of our group would catch up as Ashley was with them. Finally we got hung up in a line for a horse hurdle & the gang all showed up. Thankfully this was not a timed race or I would have been upset waiting. But we waited jumped around trying to stay warm. Here is the obstacle from the camera I carried.

That would be my hiney climbing up and flipping over. This was a great obstacle, but challenging for us shorties in the group. It was easily 4 ft off the ground & then another 3or 4 to even lift yourself up & over.

More running to an amazing slip & slide that was the steepest I had ever been down. It rocked! More running in open fields until we came to the trench of terror. I had just got dry so I was not to thrilled to get down on my belly to crawl through a trench done like a maze filled with water & electric barb wire over my head. I was so cold by that point I knew I must have hypothermia. But we all survived and here is the picture a lovely freelance photographer grabbed then posted later .

 

 

We carried amo cases, crawled through a lot of mud , jumped over two 8 ft walls, & jumped fire at the end. We found out after that the course was 3.6 miles of fun & cold! I was so very proud that all the ladies kept going even when they needed to walk they where laughing. It may not have been my best time for the season but it was fun to watch the ladies fall in love with getting dirty.

After it was done we ate from some great vendors. This was a nice after party with several food selections. Beating out all the other runs I had been to all year. The ladies enjoyed their beer, mine I gave away after a picture. Not a fan of dark bitter fall beers. Ashley & I found a huge Hamster for a picture.

My running partner & I have now signed up for our first road race 10k . I've never just run a regular race before that doesn't involve mud or obstacles. This should be good for me to try. I am dragging my husband along for the fun on November 4th. Stay tuned for how it all turns out. In the meantime I am excited to report most of the ladies are already asking about the next run- I think I have created some mud divas!

Jaime the reason my mud insanity began 3 years ago- love her!