Mission Accomplished - Mud Run

Challenging. Fun. Dirty. Those are the words I would use to describe the Merrell Down and Dirty 10K mud run, I participated in yesterday.

I knew the mud run was going to be challenging but I under-estimated how challenging it would be. My triathlon experience is the bar in which I compare every event to. I set the bar high but I love to meet a good challenge. This 10K mud run was MORE challenging then the triathlon in Tahoe and I did not expect it to be.

Yeah - I can run 6.2 miles on almost any given day now. But this it was -- different.

Zumara and I decorated shirts the night before to look like lady bugs. It ended up taking a lot longer than we had expected but it was fun. When I finished, I made a traditional runners dinner --Spaghetti. I splurged and got garlic bread too. Mariyn has been begging me to get garlic bread. YUM... I laid out all my clothes and the girls the night before.

Trying on the shirts after we finished coloring them.

I grabbed and set Mariyn's alarm clock for 5:30 am. Then I got to bed. It was pretty late and I needed to get up early. I wanted to leave by 6:30 am. Rich was planning on going hunting and set his alarm too. When I awoke, it was not to the alarm but to sunlight peeping through my window. Panicked I rolled over and seen it was 7:07 am. I ran to my phone to call Zumara, I was supposed to pick her up already. I got ready in less than 15 minutes. The girls ended up staying home with Rich because he too slept in too late to go hunting.



We arrived at Folsom Lake around 9 am, luckily the 10K started at 10 am.
Once we found parking we had to walk about a mile to check in near the start line. No big deal. I got to see a bunch of the 5K runners finishing up the last leg of the race, the lake and a view of an obstacle. The course going through the lake! Yes, if you look closely at this picture you will notice the runners are in the lake!



We checked in got our stuff and it was time to line up at the start line. The race started in waves with the runners placing themselves by anticipated race pace. We were running late, and there were so many waves. Zumara and I quickly got a wave we could see room. It was the 8 -9 minute pace! So much faster than where we really are. The waves were very well organized the announcer was great a new wave started every 5 minutes. When it was our turn, the cannon went off - and we ran!



The first mile of the race was easy and fairly flat. The first obstacle, was small net with sand pit under. You had to crawl under the net and to the other side. Then continue on the run. No big deal, a little uncomfortable. Mile two, was up hill through smaller trails. It got a lot more challenging. Tree roots, rocks and who knows what were in the path.

Other obstacles we encountered included a giant hay pyramid, vertical wall, hurdles, cargo nets, vertical rope walls, the lake and of course, more mud pits! The obstacles were fun and both Zumara and I had no problems completing them. Other runners seemed to struggle with them more than we did. The pictures below are examples of the obstacles we encountered -- not us on our run.












Our biggest struggle was the terrain. One portion of the run, was a very steep climb. The trail had a very steep and narrow path. Once you reached the end of the path you turned and the path got steeper and continued to climb, 3 times this happened. My hamstrings were burning, and I was walking not running up the hill. Finally, we reached the top of the hill, where the obstacle was to climb over the cargo net. I got over, and took off running. Down hill, was equally hard on your body. Yeah you can go faster, but it wasn't safe. The trails were so small and hard to find footing. Plus the pressure on the knees was excruciating.

Around mile 5, Zumara and I stopped a bathroom not to far off the course. I really had to go, bad and had since we finished mile #1. The pit stop at the bathroom lost us a good 10 minutes. There were 6 bathrooms - 3 regular 3 porta potties. One regular was locked, one had no toilet paper and the others didn't flush. All three of the porta potties were out of toilet paper and completely dirty and covered in spider webs. We had to play musical bathrooms to be able to go.

Back on the run again, we were on the home stretch. You could hear the music back at the finish line. Feeling relief, Zumara and I said we were going to run the rest of the course. Around 6 miles or so, the course went off into the lake. and we had to follow the flagged area. The water was cold but it felt so good on your sore muscles. Some parts were shallow others were chest high and easier to swim than walk/run. Finally out of the water, we were in the home stretch and final obstacles.

The rope wall, had been soaped down and was our next challenge. The person in front of us, could not grab the rope and climb over the wall. She tried at least 3 times. The wall it's self looked really intimidating. I grabbed the rope on my first attempt and pulled myself over. Zumara was still at the bottom. I told her it was no problem, she had this. It was so much more intimidating than it was challenging.

Next we crawled into a giant mud pit. It was deep, and wet full of mud. You were to crawl under the flags and you got covered in mud. Mud in your face, mud in your hair, mud all over. Across the other side and over a little mud retaining wall and on to the finish line!

We did it, we can, we ran, we crawled, we conquered but most of all --- WE got down and dirty!

Official time: 1 hour 39 minutes 56 seconds! I ranked 92/112 for my age division. 908 of 1020 overall. Maybe not the greatest rankings but I'm proud of our time, especially considering we didn't have any running experience with hills or trails like that. Considering we lost 10 minutes or so in the bathroom. Considering our athletic ability and how far we've came. I anticipated finishing around 1 hour 30 minutes due to the obstacles. I had a great time and it was SO much fun! Even though, the 10K was so hard, I'm glad we chose it and rose to the challenge.