MudRun

Friday, Brandi made a journey west to Michigan's neighbor across the lake and I found her after my shift sitting at the Graze bar.  This wasn't just any visit, we had signed up for the Madison Mud Run!! With registration starting at 730 the next morning, we thought it was best to pre-game the night before with mexican and margaritas. Carb loading and plenty of rest....who needs it!?

Thinking the race started at 9, we showed up to registration promptly at 8am, only to discover our heat wasn't released until 11:06am. :/ So, we headed back down town to march the farmers market and get a proper breakfast complete with coffee. Where else to go on the square, non other than Bradbury's! Crepes and Flat Whites, all around.

Arriving back to the race, we 'stretched' and waited for our heat to be released. As we counted down from 10, our excitement rose! After about 100 yards, I remembered how little I liked running, but the cool autumn air felt good and I was excited to see what kind of obstacles we would face. The excitement quickly diminished. After a quarter mile of running we found out, they weren't going to ease us into anything. First obstacle: water crossing. We had to jump in a muddy, murky, waist deep creek wade across, climb out and continue on our next four miles of running and obstacles with 10 pound weights on our feet! I can't say that I was too thrilled about it, but it is exactly what I signed up for, so I jumped in with no hesitation and just got it over with! The next obstacles were as wet or muddy as either of us had expected. We had to crawl under some things, climb a 5 foot wall with climbing grips followed by jumping a 5 foot wall spiderman style with no grips or rope. Next we had to run up soaped up ramps, through inclined plastic tunnels, through an inflatable obstacle course (that a little girl and fallen into a corner and couldn't climb out, Brandi had to pull her out!). Then just when we had mostly dried off we approached a long line for the next obstacle. The slip-and-slide. Yes! This is my kind of obstacle! When we got to the front of the line, we chanted for more soap, ran together and superman-ed down that slip-and-slide like it was our job!

Soapy and giggling we started to run again (our least favorite part of the race). We had a few more obstacles before the main event. As we rounded the last corner, a volenteer shouted 'keep your mouths shut!' I was a little offended but soon found out what she meant.  A 40-50 foot mud pit came into view with ropes of flags a mere two feet from the ground. This is what we had been waiting for! We dove in and frantically crawled through the mud. Laughing most of the way I caught many splashes of mud right in the mouth. Getting up out of the mud, we still had to run to the finish line which was up hill! Gah! We crossed the fine line together feeling completely beat but proud of the physical accomplishment we both had achieved! We waddled back to the car and were riddled with questions from racers who had not yet started the race.

before

after

before

after

When we got done taking our dirty pictures, we realized we hadn't brought anything to change into or towels to clean up with! Smart. Luckly, we got a race t-shirt so we changed into those and headed back to the finish line to redeem our post run beer, chicken wing and chips.

Even after removing my socks, (which we threw away, along with our shoes) I discovered polka dot dirt marks on my legs

On the rid home we had to go pantsless and scurry into my apartment unseen. A feat we almost managed to pull off. Almost.

mudface

After the race, we prerinsed our shirts in the sink before putting them in the washing machine and showered and headed down town for post-run snacks. Due to my mis-direction, we walked the long way around the square to Cooper's Tavern bellied up to the bar and downed a sconnie egg, belgian cut fries with malt vinegar aioli, ruben sandwich and brisket sandwich with green salads. We don't play around.

We both loved the race, minus all that pesky running and can't wait to do another!!