Mud Run Debacle

I'd really rather not write about it. I'd rather write about the million and one other things that are on my mind, but because everyone has been asking me about it, I'll tell you a little about the run. I may be making multiple posts tonight. It's pouring and the satellite's been out for days and I don't really feel like cleaning (don't judge me) so maybe I'll just do a couple posts while I'm just hangin out.

So, I'm going to do this with as little bitching as possible. I'm going to try to state only what happened, just the facts, but it's going to be hard. The mud run was, in my humble opinion, horrifically disappointing. This makes me uber sad because I was pretty stoked to do it (even though my nerves were getting the best of me days before it).

We went down to Wilmington the night before and stayed there and left from there 9ish the next morning. Angel drove my truck (thank you princess!) because I had had a... err... "rough night" and was feeling in it in the morning (ok, maybe I was celebrating my last night alive because I was pretty sure my lungs would fail me during the run, but hey, here I am!). So we left and got into the town around 1230. By into the town, I mean off the exit. We had hit major traffic (expected) and once we were off the exit hit even worse traffic. Here's the kicker - we didn't get TO the run location until 430 (yes, that's FOUR hours of traffic only about 3-5 minutes outside of the run location) it was THAT backed up. We ended up parking on the side of the road and walked about a quarter mile to where it was only to find there was tons of parking. Not sure why all the traffic, I guess because people were coming in and out the same spot, that's the only thing I can't think of (we'd thought it was because one in, one out at first but that was clearly not the case). Anyway, this made us late for our run time that was supposed to be at 257 since we didn't get to the location until 430. Luckily, they had done away with the start times because things were so backed up. We waited in the check-in line for about another hour.

Oh, let me back track. I left my shoes at home. Yup, you read that right - no shoes. For a mud run. (You can smack me... I know, I know). I thought I'd put them in there and Angel had thought she'd seen them but it was a different box she saw. Lucky for me, Angel had brought an extra pair of sneaks. Unluckily, she was a half to a whole size smaller shoe but hey it was something right? Something that started causing blisters before the run even started (bad sign, I know...) ok, back to where we were.

So, I hunted some first aid down to get band aids on my heals and then we jumped in the start line, which was about another 20 min to half hour. At this time, it is close to 6pm that we're starting our 4.2 mile, 32 obstacle run.

We start going and hit the first obstacle and Anne and I completely conquer it using tons of team work and we are all having a good time. We took a steady (slow?) pace (think Turtle and the Hare - slow and steady wins the race - right??) and conquered the obstacles as we got to them. We were having fun. We were getting muddy. Then came some obstacle, 10 maybe? And they started screaming at us to finish up, that we had 45 minutes left (45 minutes and 22 obstacles left...) to finish the course - they were closing. They weren't very nice about it (ok, ok I'm trying to keep my opinion to myself, just facts...) we kept going on but this had honestly put a damper on our moods and our motivation. A man on a four wheeler kept going from behind to in front and yelling how much time was left while also stirring dirt from the course into our eyes (ouch). We made it to obstacle 19 and were told the course was closed and were shown a short cut to the finish line. We didn't even get to get in the black mud, the last obstacle, and get completely covered like swamp monsters, pretty sad.

It turns out, about 4 teams behind us made it and then after that everyone else was cut off - they weren't even letting anyone else start. This is all because it was getting too dark. I can understand that and the safety, but I can't help but wonder if it were better organized or the parking issue had been solved if the run wouldn't have gotten so behind and so many people wouldn't have been hours late to their start times...

Afterwards we rinsed off and went to get our shirts, but by this time it was well after 8pm and dark and late and we were tired. And of course the shirt line was a mile long as well and we had a four and a half hour drive back to my house, so we scadaddled (no idea how to spell that, hopefully you know what I mean). So there ya have it, I did it with intention to finish, but I didn't finish (by no fault of my own) and didn't even get a shirt to prove that I was willing and able to finish. *Sigh*

I wish when people asked how the run went (because of course everyone's been asking, it's the only thing I'd been talking about for weeks!) I could say how fun and exciting it was but all I can really say is disappointing. I went to finish and couldn't do that and it pretty much breaks my lil heart. We did have fun in the beginning though, so I'm going to focus on the positive. And my body was feeling it the next day, so clearly I did something!

I heard that this was the first year they'd done it at that particular location, so hopefully next year it will be better organized and they will be better prepared to accommodate 15,000 runners. Yeah, I think I'm gonna try again next year, as upset as I was the night of the run (hence why I waited a few days before writing) I really really want to finish the darn thing! Anne's got a few pics of us before and after (yes, there are mud pics even though we weren't in swamp mud we were still super muddy) so I will post them once she does.

Oh and my favorite obstacle? It was this one where we had to go under logs in the mud (actually there were quite a few like that) but this particular one the mud was still wet and goopy. Oh. My. Goodness. It is HARD to crawl your body through in goopy, suctiony, stinky mud. I found it hilarious and had a hard time doing it because a. it was difficult but b. I was trying not to die of laughter at the situation. Pics to come!!