HoneyBee: MudRun

Friday, May 6, 2011

MudRun

I apologize for the wait to see these pictures (although if you have FB, these will be a repeat). Thank you to all of you who donated to our team. We raised over $1000 for LLS. I think all four of us were very nervous on the day of the event, but once we made it through the first obstacle, all of the nerves were quickly forgotten. The very first obstacle was a set of logs over about two feet of mud. We were instructed to crawl under the logs and as I watched the team in front of us, I realized that thinking about the mud would only make things worse. The logs were at the same level of the mud, so there was no option but to fully immerse my head in the mud. Did I mention I hate mud?? That was probably my second to least favorite obstacle. My least favorite was the very last one which I think was only added for optimum dirt coverage at the finish line. After walking through a stream and crawling over logs, we were actually relatively clean until we came across this trench - full of thick, black mud - that smelled horrible. Tar pit would be a good description. My teammate started to slow down towards the end of the trench, because it was so thick, and I had to tell her not to stop. I thought I was going to be sick! But other than that, the rest of the mud throughout the course was more liquid-like and not black either. The only two our team was unable to complete was the Tarzan-like rope swing (which was pretty much impossible in my opinion anyways- 6 or 7 ropes across a mud pit that required you to swing from one to the next without falling - which requires an enormous amount of upper body strength without even taking into account that you are already covered in slippery mud) and the arm walk (which apparently not many females completed - using your arms to travel the length of two parallel bars without touching the ground. Sounded easy enough, until I tried it). The rest of the obstacles were a mix of mud, more logs, ropes, and walls, plus running up and down several mounds of slick mud (did I mention it was raining while we were on the course). The total distance was over 5 miles and we finished in 1 hr 40 minutes which seemed to be the average time for non-serious competitors. The results are all posted on the website along with links to pictures through the course. Luckily our TNT trainer was able to take some action shots along the course, plus some before and after pictures as well. And yes, Team Skirts N Dirt is signed up for the fall MudRun!