Mud Run 2012

A few months ago Tonya (the manager of our softball team...pink shirt below) asked if we'd do The Original Mud Run with her and Darren.  Tim and Bud (also on our SB team) also joined in for the big race.  The mud run is a 10k (or 5k....but we missed the turn for the 5k so we did the 10k! lol) cross country race.  Not only are you running across uneven terrain, you encounter 25 obstacles along the way.  Let's just say you don't exactly stay clean during this competition!  The 2nd obstacle involved swimming across the Trinity River (brrrrrrr!) and climbing up a muddy embankment on the other side.  From then on we were diving into muddy water, crawling on our bellies through mud, climbing up and over 20 foot walls, walking across a muddy/slippery log, and many many other crazy obstacles! 

Yesterday was race day and it was sooooo much fun!!!!  Here's a picture of the crew before the race:
Mike, Staci, Bud, Darren, Tonya, and Tim  (Darren & Tonya's daughter, Taylor, was just a spectator)

 

Bud's spikey hair didn't stay styled for long....

 

Tim's wife, Kristin, sat at this obstacle and waited for us to come by so she could take pictures.  Here's me and Mike climbing up the shipping container

 

And then jumping off it into a pit of muddy water!  You couldn't see the bottom to know how deep it was....but you had to assume it was really deep.  It looked like we were really high up when we were standing on top of the container!  The girl sitting down on top (by me...I'm standing about to jump) sat there for a while....afraid to jump!  If you look at the water just in front of Mike you'll see that there's a person there.  You can barely see the black of his head and then his hands sticking out to the sides away from Mike.  This guy was drowning in the deep water!!!  When Mike jumped in, the guy (over 6' tall and at least 250 lbs) grabbed on tight to Mike like a panicked drowning victim.  Mike said he couldn't talk to Mike and just had a panicked look in his eyes. 

 

Mike grabbed the guy and hauled him to the embankment.  He was very thankful to be back on solid ground!  I didn't even realize what was happening until afterwards! 

 

This was Mike's first 10k!  I'm so glad I got to do it with him!  We had soooooo much fun on this race!  I'm glad the others talked us into doing it!  Can you tell that we got a little dirty?

 

The after picture: 

Staci, Mike, Tim, Darren, & Tonya (I still can't figure out how Tonya kept her shirt so clean?!?)

 

After the race we headed to the clean off area.....there was a fire truck parked in the parking lot with some firemen manning the hoses spraying off all the dirty contestants!  It was freezing....but it felt great to get all the mud off our bodies!  Then we changed into clean clothes and enjoyed the free food and drinks provided by the race organizers/sponsors.  We found out that there's a kids division of the Mud Run.  I can't wait to let our boys compete!  They love any activity that gives them permission to get muddy!!!!