Muddy Mayhem

 I suppose I have a teensy defiant streak in me... I'd love to prove you wrong.  Find me something I can't do, and I'll show you just how well I can.

I love shopping and manicures, chick flicks and the color pink.  I am a hopeless romantic and I cry at commercials, but if you've got  something heavy that needs to be moved or fixed I just might be your girl.  I am a girlie girl through and through, but I'm not taken down as easily as one might think.

When I learned about the Warrior Dash to be held in Hollister this October, I knew it was just my kind of fun.  It was a 3.5 mile course riddled with 10 different obstacles similar to what you might find at a boot camp, but a little edgier.

Kristie found the race and recruited her neighbor Julie, and Rebecca and I to join her.  From everything we had seen and read, we knew this event was more of a party than anything else.  More runners than not were in a costume of sorts.  I liked the idea of doing a tough event in something frilly.  Always one for the contradiction.  Kristie and I went out Friday and bought the supplies.  Saturday as we drove the girls worked on their tutus.  We blared our music and psyched ourselves up.

We wore knee high sports socks and used a tube of mascara for eye black.

We tied tulle in our hair, around our wrists, and in our shoe laces.

The festive atmosphere and anticipation had us all a bit giddy.

Our next task was to pick up our viking helmets we got just for registering!

Our costumes were mild compared to others that we saw.

We felt a camaraderie with others we saw wearing tutus, and they happily posed for pictures with us.

As we were waiting for our wave to start, we stopped by the mud pit and watched as runners from earlier waves of the race dove, jumped or belly flopped into the goopy thick mud.  Watching got us so excited we decided to run in an earlier wave, just so we could get in there!

Flames blew up into the air marking the start of our wave.  We sang silly songs as we started the run through course.  The first obstacle we came to was a scramble over demolition cars.  The next was a climb through a web of bungee ropes, later we went up and over cargo nets, and eventually crossed over a ravine on beams.

 We crawled through a tunnel and over bales of hay.  We climbed a steep hill and slid back down on the other side through  soapy water  while on our tummies.

The two obstacles that I was anticipating the most were leaping over flaming hurdles and the muddy crawl to the finish.  From the moment I registered for the event, I wanted to do my irish jig over the flames.  When I did, the event's camera man caught it!

When we reached the edge of the mud pool, Kristie and I stopped.  The crowd was chanting,"Tutu chicks, tutu chicks!" We curtsied, smiled and waved real pretty and then we belly flopped into the mud!  It was so thick and seemed to suck us deeper and deeper into the goop the further we went.  By the time we scrambled out, my tutu looked more like a loin cloth!

We waited about 7 or 8 minutes for the other half of our group to get to the mud pool so that we could cheer them on.  And then of course, we helped make sure they got good and dirty in the mud.

After we decided all were sufficiently covered, we crossed the finish line together.

There was a huge stage near the finish line, and they were playing the best music.  None of us could resist.  Rather than join the long lines of runners waiting for some of the water from the fireman's hose to semi rinse ourselves, we went for the dancing.

For a while we had a little audience and eventually we had a huge crowd of mudddy runners who joined us.  A few even asked if they could have their picture taken with us!

When we finally got hosed down we were still covered in mud.  A little less mud, but now we were muddy, wet and cold!  The rain started just as we headed into the parking lot...

We flew home while comparing our battle wounds and planning our next run.

Warrior Dash So Cal 2011, here we come!  You coming with us...?