Fun in the Mud

When my daughter Isabella asked me to do the Warrior Dash, I had no idea what I was getting myself in for!  We had so much fun and it was definitely more challenging than I expected!

I had not been running in 3 weeks, but still thought my base fitness level would enable me to blow through this fun run.  Little did I know that keeping up with my 15 year old would have me huffing and puffing like a steam engine!  I have been running for 5 years, and my teenager was giving me instructions on how to breathe more efficiently – in through my nose out through my mouth.  I don’t know if its true, but for a die hard mouth breather like me, it was hard to change my pattern!

The first obstacle caught me by surprise, it was a double mound of sticky mud that dropped into quicksand mud, and then into a mud pool.  Everyone was helping each other up the slippery hill, one guy pulling us up, another pushing us from below, which was good, otherwise I never would have gotten my slimy self over that second hump!  Just as I reached the top, victorious, I took a tumble down into the mud pool and ended up totally covered in muddiness.

My son Nick got one of his shoes stuck in the quick-mud, and while attempting to dig it out, lost the other one as well.  In true Studly Nick fashion, he said “leave them” and ran the rest of the 3 mile course barefoot!  All along the run I could hear people saying in awe “Wow!  Look at that guy he’s running it barefoot!”  My inner proud mama was thinking, “Thats right, thats my boy!”

After that first mud bath, I fell back and let my daughter and son take the lead.  My friend and I, “the Moms”, kept up pretty good and I would say inspired those youngsters that even “the moms” have the stuff!  Very fun and will definitely do it again next year!