Lather, rinse, repeat

Have you ever said to yourself, “Marathons are too easy, and Triathlons are for sissies?”

I haven’t either…those races are really hard. But...

I have found my new guilty pleasure. Part 10k run, part military boot camp, and part 4-year-old in the mud fun. You start off as a normal, clean, person. Well, I started out that way. There were so many people in costume I actually felt out of place in my regular running clothes. There were pigs, jail birds chained together, brides, men dressed as women, and even a team of supermen - tights and all. In fact, tights were a theme of the day. Stripes were really popular, but polka dots and waves had their share of followers.

The 100 yards of the race were up hill in the mud. My sister-in-law lost her shoe in the first 20 steps. The mud sucked it off lickety split.



Then we hit a series of switchbacks. On the fourth hill (I stopped counting after 10) a snow machine blew freezing cold water in my face. Really? Who thinks of this stuff?

We then faced a series of one-ton hay bale hurtles. I did great on the first three. Going over the fourth I miscalculated the landing and sprained my knee. Don't worry, I persevered. I had to, there was a giant slip-and-slide at the end calling me forward, ever forward.

I crawled through two sections of tunnels, over three walls (one of which I went under for the photo op.) and through staggered tires. After all that, we ran directly through a swamp. A real swamp. It had stinky mud, not like the clean stuff we'd been crawling through all day. By now my knee was toast. But the longest slip-n-slide in Utah was next so I couldn't back out.



After our last obstacle, a swimming pool full of mud, we had the hardest challenge of the day. An outdoor, glacier cold, shower with 40 other competitors. I've never showered with 40 people before. It was...an experience. Let's just say, some people took the word shower a little too literal.

Now that it's over, I have to ask: Would I do it again? HECK YEAH! I would do it tomorrow morning with my bum knee. Alas, I have to wait until the spring. They have a 5k version in May. If you want on the team, leave a comment below - including the costume you'd like the team to sport.