hiking without happy meals: dirty dash day

The bag is packed. Running shoes with socks, second shoes with other socks, garbage bag, wet wipes, towel, water proof camera, zip lock bag for my camera to be put in it, 2 cliff bars & a banana, running clothes, second set of clothing...what am I missing?

Oh yes me, my race number, my ah too-tight-shirt, & the 6 AM wake up call. Of course this guy one of my best guy friends known here as BJ.

Good morning Dirty Dash!

The starting line with frost still in the grass.

The big slide & the ambulance on the hill

The last mud before the end

The finish line

We carried a water proof disposable camera with us. I'm not holding not much hope for the quality of the pic's. After the first real mudding I licked the lens clean but was unwilling to do that twice and at that point nothing was clean I mean nothing. But if I get them they go here where the mud holes were, the sprinklers, the fire hoses, and the giant mts of straw, the tunnels under the snow makers, the four walls, the pipes in the mud hole, the long muddy river wade, the WTH rope climb thing (scary), the balance beams, and the rope swing. All leading to the big slide and the final mud pool at the end.

We picked the 10k option but little old me fell apart at about 6k (shrug who really knows where we were) After the freezing water blasting on us & my stubborn need to go over all 4 walls I never could catch my breath & I couldn't get my muscles to listen, & light-headed was sort of an understatement.

Following a good long attempt through the muddy river masking my seriously messed up state I finally answered one of BJ's inquiries into how was I doing honestly. "Not great". I wanted to finish even if it meant walking it but not if it meant holding him back. He's a good friend & like I asked him to do he left me behind, a little reluctantly running off on his own. So see you at the finish line.

Except he came back. Showed up at the last big hill to help urge me on. Okay maybe all he wanted was to do the big slide twice or splash me in the final mud but he is the same guy who will rough-house with me & yet never forgets to open doors. I have to thank his beautiful wife again for sharing him and for keeping Beach all morning.

I don't think my time will entirely stink (oh but my clothes do!!!). For a Type I Diabetic that little hitting zero moment reminds me of why taking care of myself is important...because EMT's sitting in lawn chairs don't want to have to rescue you from a swamp just because you can't do math well enough to not crash in the middle of a race...

And 'whatever' was bringing me down vanished on the slide (although the blood sugar number I drew at home was enough to stop my heart- literally. [49 mg/dL after a sweet cup of coffee, a 1/2 a banana, and a slice of bread. Being cold really tanks me!!!]) We finished the race running, oh well running then sort of swimming kind of crawling or falling through the last mud pool.

After showering in the free cold showers & changing clothes in the parking lot we went back to watch other heats come in. It got crazy crowded.

The showers got friendly...

The mud got muddier...

The starts more crowded and the people watching was out of this world.

Here is the big slide in action

The rope swing. Don't worry it is even harder to see it through all the water they are spraying when you are standing there.

Oh the mud!

Our early start time had advantages and disadvantages. Notice I am in a jacket and a ski hat still....brrrrrrrr!!!!! I didn't include the pic of serious road rash BJ received trying to win his wife a t-shirt before we started because I didn't ask him if I could & decided to error on the side of caution. So you will just have to trust me (unless you are his friend on fb, it is posted there) when I say his whole back is well, road rashed. But he is smiling...and bleeding.