Sunday, June 5 I got up at 4:30 AM to drive an hour to run the Merrell Down & Dirty Mud Run at Cedar Hill Park with my friend, Dan. It was a 5k (3.12 mi) run with military style obstacles every half mile or so. Compared to the Warrior Dash in April, this one had fewer obstacles and a lot more running, fewer participants, costumes, waves, and photographers. The really cool thing was the Texas State Guard acted as volunteers to run everything and supervise throughout the course, cheering and pushing us on. One called out orders as we ran by, shouting, "I don't hear you laughing. Now laugh!"
The obstacles included a low crawl under a net about a foot off the ground through freshly cut prairie grasses that destroyed my shins and forearms, a tunnel crawl, cargo net climb, wall hurdles, ladder wall climb, 2 mud pits, 3 water crossings, and a patch of evil called the "slippery mountain." It was a smooth, flat wall at a sharp incline, soaped up, and you had to pull yourself up a rope—no knees or feet to help. *I* struggled. But I did it! Because I'm awesome. And my arms were too sore the next day to push open doors or push the boyfriend off me when he tried to tickle me, of which he took full advantage to torture me relentlessly.
(This is not me. I was not smiling.)
There's not a chance in hell I'd pay for these crappy over-exposed photos. I can't believe these are "professional" photogs. Ugh.
We both finished 37th in our age groups (that's the top 3rd for me), and if the registration Web site had sucked less, I might have known about the barefoot category, in which I would have placed 2nd at 44:26. Toe shoes are awesome (except on gravel).
At the end, we received cool pewter-ish dog tags with the event name on them.
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