Mud Run

Saturday morning we headed up nice and early to Carnation for the Survivor Mud Run.  It is a 5k where people tend to dress up in funny clothes and there are 22 obstacles along the way from running through a swamp, river, water slide, rock piles, climbing walls, etc.  All including lots of mud.

Our goal this year was to go faster than the Warrior Dash last year.  There were about twice as many obstacles this time around so it was a good goal.  Last year my wet feet caused the worst blisters almost immediately so I taped up my feet really well this time.  We decided to start towards the start because we knew if you line up at the end you can get really backed up at all the obstacles and we didn't even start jogging until after the first obstacle last time.  Plus we were the first wave of the day (they start ever 15 minutes) so it was good because later in the day you catch up to the slowpokes from the people earlier than you, and the fast guys from the one after you catch up and it is just crowded.

We took our place and the race started.  We had a good pace so when we got to the first obstacle (one of those climbing nets that are set up parallel to the ground so you kind of crawl over it), we didn't have to wait in line to go.  It wasn't long after that we plowed through this swamp area that had about 2 feet of water.  My shoes were SO heavy after that, it was difficult to jog haha!  We kept a pretty good pace and was not held up too bad at any obstacles.  We ran most of the time...except hills.  I have a rule not to run up hills because it doesn't make you much faster than walking, but it will take ALL your energy out of you. I discovered that on the ER hill in high school when I learned that walking up the hill and jogging down made me the fastest runner in class because the athletic people try to jog up it at the beginning lol!  We did really well. One thing I am good at (which is really good in rugby) is after a period of stopping the jogging pace, as in an obstacle (or tackle), I get a huge boost of energy and can sprint for awhile afterwards.  Most people have to keep their pace and hitting obstacles kind of slows them down.

We trudged through the mud and water and finished more than 10 minutes faster than last year, YAY!  Our time was 47 minutes :)  Haha- Don't jugdge that compared to other 5k's because with the obstacles you usually have to do things like stop and crawl on rocks for 10 yards, climb straight up over big walls, etc and that is much different than running straight through, especially when you are waiting for the person in front of you too.

It was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to do another one!

Before

After (my shirt is more wet than muddy)

Showing off my medal

The finish area.  You can see a wall behind it you had to rope climb up one side and ladder down

A mud pit

When we went through this there wasn't a line of people to follow so the net kept getting stuck in my hair, it took forever!

Andy went UNDER those 

A starting line