Just do it #16: Get a little dirty

I'm hoping that the title of this post doesn't sound like I'm taking stripping lessons or something raunchy, a la Christina Aguilera "Dirrty" circa 2007.

Uh... no.

Nope, I mean this goal was to actually get dirty. You see, I can be kinda prissy. My Halloween costumes are always decidedly cutesy and I don't love doing yard work and I once won a superlative in my sorority as being "Most likely to carry a purse."

So two months ago, when I heard about a 5K mud run that the Dominion extreme sport festival was putting on, and I thought it might be a good excuse to get a little dirty.


I recruited my muddy buddy Mali to do it with me 'cause she's always up for anything. She agreed, but insisted that we join the costume contest for the mud run. I love Mali for many reasons, one being that she'll always up the ante on stuff that is already crazy.

What does one dress up as when you're about to be dripping with mud? I'll give you one guess...

Is this commitment, or what?? She put these entire costumes together, pig nose, homemade ears, pink shirts, and even curly tails on our (soon to be muddy) asses.

Our husbands drove us to the festival, and after registering and praying that it would not start pouring again and limbering up and oinking for strangers, we finally started the run.

Here's a little virtual tour of the three mile course.

We started by running over the interstate and through Belle Isle, a nearby island overlooking the city.

Then, we jogged to the river and skipped rocks, like the ones below. Except imagine them covered in sludge and puddles and mud from over 2,000 people scampering across them:

We climbed up this rusty ladder (the same one in the photo below, except we are not as hardcore as that dude. He kinda looks like he could outrun a truck.)


The path eventually brought us to the river, where our group of mud wallowers (the slowest group) had to wade into water up to our armpits and crawl up a muddy bank.


Then, we looped back and ran over this suspension bridge. At first, I thought I was about to faint because a wave of dizziness washed over me. Nope, I was fine; it was just that the suspension bridge was swinging from the 100 other people tromping across it...



Then, we run about 1/2 a mile more and crawled through this mud pit. By the time we got there, it was dark so you can't see us crawling, but these people give you a good idea of how it was set up:







Dan and Mali's husband did catch this photo of our triumphant finish (about an hour later- ha ha)!

Afterwards, we went (wee, wee, wee!) all the way home for beer and barbeque.

And showers. After all, there's only so much being dirty this girl can take.

Pictures of Dirrty girl, Belle Isle and mud run from here, here, here, here, and here