Hi friends!

I’ve put this post off long enough. Well, not “put it off” but just haven’t had time! But it’s Sunday, and after an entire day in Charlotte (church-brunch-screaming our heads off at Panther game), we are now back home in the country (<—my favorite place to be after a day in the city) and I have a few minutes to type! Eleven minutes, exactly. According the timer on the oven. Peach cobbler is in the works over here.

So, shall I tell you about THE MOST FUN RACE I’VE EVER COMPLETED?! 

Yes, I shall

The morning of the race, I woke up with a TON of energy. Maybe it was excitement/nerves that had me singing and dancing all over the house? Poor Jason. He isn’t a morning person, especially on the day of a race. It’s hard to live with me sometimes, haha. He was a good sport though! Didn’t even complain when I blasted “Rock You Like a Hurricane” from the computer speakers at 6:45 a.m. Te he

We arrived about an hour before the race began. I wanted to get there in time to find our teammates and get our goody packets (which, we would later find out, only consisted of a t-shirt). After a few phone calls/texts, we finally found our other two team  members among the crowd:

My good friend, Anitra, and her brother-in-law, Heath How do you like our team name, by the way? Clever, huh? Hehe. We got a lot of comments like “Mud Lights, haha!” or “After you run this, you can have a bud light!” I loved all of the response we got for our name – credit to Heath for thinking of it!

The beginning of the race was unlike any other I’ve ever been to. Here is what happened:

The  announcer has everyone line up. He then tells us to spread out enough so that we can get into push-up position without hitting anyone. We stay in push-up position while he tells us the rules of the race.

Then he tells us to get on our backs. And we do leg-raises while he acknowledges each and every sponsor! I loved it. The best part was that we had to do everything as a unit, if we weren’t all together with our movements, then we had to start all over.

There was a lot of groaning and complaining, and the race hadn’t even started yet!

So anyway, after all of that, we move closer to the start line. The race began with a 50 ft. duck walk, two teams were allowed to go at a time. After about 5 minutes of waiting to get to the line, it was team “Mud Lights” turn!

And the race began! To say I was psyched is an understatement. My body was ready. I wanted to burst through the other runners and come to the first obstacle already!

The way they had it set up was:

Run—> obstacle—>Run—>two obstacles—>Run—>three obstacles.

After running/doing lunges/climbing over walls, we finally arrived at the dreaded “400 ft. duck walk of death”. We knew that we had to get it right, because these Marine’s weren’t kidding! If you mess up, or don’t do it right, they really do make you do it again.

An 800 ft. duck walk? No, thank you. I’m good.

Luckily, Jason and I had practiced an actual 400 ft. duck walk three nights before the race. We took it slow and easy. A lot of people sidelined this part. I was surprised at how many teams quit on the sides. Not our team! We duck-walked the crap outta that sidewalk! Woot woot! Especially Jason. He didn’t cheat the whole way. (I occasionally put my hands on the ground when the Marine’s weren’t looking )

Right after the duck walk, we had to run down a hill and then army-crawl back up it. And once we got to the top, we had to bear-crawl back down the thing. Backwards. I’m pretty sure I swallowed a few ounces of grass during this period of the race.

Everyone’s shoes were kicking dirt and grass in my face, but I just lowered my head and tried not to inhale any of it <—unsuccessful.

The race went on like that, and around mile 5 I started wondering “Oh yeah, where’s the mud pit?! Isn’t this supposed to be a mud run?!!”. I began thinking the race was such a rip off, and that if I didn’t “see mud soon” then “I’m gonna be really mad!”

Spoke too soon.

Once we hit the 6 mile marker, we turn the corner-out of the woods- and there it was. Excuse me, there they were. The mud pits. The glorious, shimmering mud pits.

The crowds cheering, the marines yelling, the runners looking utterly confused about where they are supposed to go and what they’re supposed to do.

Heath and Anitra were right behind us, so Jason and I chose to dive in first.(Allow me to take a second to point out how happy my face looks in the above picture, right before we are about to get in the mud ) 

(The following photos are courtesy of my lovely uncle, who drove an hour just to see us compete!) <3

First mud obstacle- swimming under a pole, through the mud. (It’s Jason’s butt that’s in the air, by the way)

Going under this pole was a bit of a shocker. I hesitated. A marine saw me hesitate and proceeded to yell “Whatchoo hesitatin’ for, girl?! You better get under that pole! NOW! GO!”  So I did.

While going under that pole, mud sloshed over every part of me. It went places that it should not. Let’s just leave it at that.

Once our whole team went under, we came to mud obstacle #2 – climbing over a wall. Easy enough. We completed it, with minimal yelling from the on-looking Marine’s

The third mud obstacle? Climbing up and over a ramp. Much harder because I’m a shorty and could hardly reach the top of it. And might I add that the ramp was backwards.

Heath got down in the mud so that I could use him as a step, which I appreciated very much. The Marine’s were beginning to yell again, haha  “What’s taking you so long?! Get up there! “

I got down and, for a moment, I forgot that we were supposed to wait for our team(!). So I started running. While my team was still trying to get over the wall. Do you see what this is leading to?

The whole “mantra” of the race is to NOT leave your team behind. You must travel together, do exercises together, just like the true Marine’s do.

So I’m running, tra-la-la-la, when an angry Marine starts shouting in my direction. Then two more. And I’m all “What? What’d I do?!”

My uncle was able to capture the look on my face when the Marine’s stopped me. It was something like this:

Utter confusion.

“Curly! WHERE YOU RUNNIN’ TO?! YOU BETTER GO BACK AND GET YOUR TEAM! YOU GONNA LEAVE THEM BEHIND? GO BACK AND GET YO’ TEAM!!”

Me: “Uhh! Uh, okay! Huh?! Okay!”

So I ran back and waited for my team like the good girl that I am (I felt like apologizing during this whole race, lol)<—That’s the people-pleaser in me.

When we were all down from the wall/ramp thingie, we began running (AS A TEAM) to our fourth mud obstacle- push ups in the mud.

Oh boy. And I thought I had been “yelled at” for leaving my team….

We get down in push-up position and begin counting them out.

Except, we aren’t all together and there are two Marine’s next to us counting differently than we are. So we are all screwed up. Not knowing who to listen to, or when we’re supposed to be down or up or in between.

The Marines are getting aggravated (or at least it’s their job to seem like they are) with us because when Jason’s up, I’m down. We all look like a bunch of piano keys being played

I begin laughing <—not a good idea when there are two buff men yelling at you from the sidelines. I just couldn’t help myself though! I thought (and still do think) it’s hilarious. Just the confusion of it all..and how it’s captured in the photos below.

**Notice in the first ‘push up’ picture, you cannot see the marines that are beside us** Now take a look at the one’s below:

(yelling, but not in our faces)

"Down, up! Down, up! Come on, Mud Lights. GET TOGETHER. Down, up. Down, up!”

(in our faces)

(We still aren’t together in our movements – check out Anitra looking at the rest of us like “what are ya’ll doing?!”. The marines see our uncoordinated moves and a curly-headed girl laughing her ass off, so they move in a little closer to try and get the point across more clearly)

“What’s the matter? You don’t know how to count?! You can’t get it together? It’s not hard- DOWN, UP. DOWN, UP.”

We finally passed their standards of what a mud push-up should look like, and they allowed us to leave the mud pit.

At this point in the race, I was having SO MUCH FUN!!!  I’m the weirdo that actually likes being yelled at while working out.

Wanna call me a sissy? Go ahead!

Wanna tell me to go back to the kitchen, where I belong?  Okay! Just make sure you get right in my face while doing so.

Weird, I know. But I thrive on that sort of thing.

We were out of the mud and on our way back to the finish line. One more mile to run, a few lunges to complete, a frog hop, some jumping jacks, and one last duck-walk before crossing the finish line arm-in-arm.

Crossing the finish line felt good My legs didn’t hurt that much. I felt stronger than I have my whole life. I felt like I could keep going <—if only I felt that way after every race!

Before “showering”, we found my mom and uncle in the crowd. They greeted us with a ton of support and said “it was the coolest race they’d ever seen”

We made plans to meet up for lunch, but first we wanted to get a few muddy post-race photos taken!

Anitra and Heath were so much fun to run with! I hope we can all do this as a team again next year (because I’m definitely doing it again next year )

Fun fact- Anitra is going to run the half-marathon of the Rock-n-Roll Savannah, GA race! I’ll be completing my first marathon that day, so we will be accomplishing another fitness goal together come November!

After grabbing our towels, we headed over to the “mass shower” <—NOT! that was promised to us. Turns out, it was just a few hoses that had their water turned on. Three hoses and a really long line.

While they waited in line, I ran over to the charity shoe pile.

–Enter the saddest moment of race day—*Cue melancholy music*

I knew all week that I’d be letting my running shoes of three years go in this pile..but I still wasn’t prepared for how sad/reluctant I was to leave them.

My treasured Nike Vomero’s were my running companions for three years. We’ve had countless miles together- But the past few runs, I’ve noticed a few rips and tears on the sides of them. I can’t run 10 miles in them without feeling uncomfortable because of how low the tread on the bottom has gotten.

I knew this race was the perfect chance to have one last “hoo-rah” (<—pun intended) in them. And the fact that they were going to charity made me feel better about letting them go.

Dear Nike Vomero’s,

You have been wonderful shoes. I remember when Jason bought you on Valentine’s Day as a surprise for me. I tried on many shoes that day, but you…YOU were the one’s I wanted. You supported my high arches when no other shoe could. Your cushioning allowed my ankles and knees to feel less of an impact from the pounding my feet did.

You took me through my first 5k and 10k. You were supported me through my first marathon, and again on my second when I took you through the woods and made you do 16 miles instead of 13 (my bad). You’ve protected my feet during sudden torrential downpours, and you didn’t even complain when I took you – as worn out as you were- through one last run through the mud.

You’ve been a good shoe. I hope the next person that gets you loves you just as much as I do. Thanks for getting me through my training for the past few years. I wouldn’t be the same runner, if it weren’t for you.

Here’s to all the miles.

Love,

Stacey

*Cue music off*

What a sad/happy day! I stood there with my shoes for a moment or two (no, I didn’t cry! Geez…you think I’m some sap or something?!)    I may have cried a little tear. But who’s counting?                   and then joined the rest of my team in the shower line!

It took a while, but we finally made it to the hose. Brrrrrrrr! The water was freaking freezing!!!! And everyone in line is watching you, so I just did a quick rinse off (“Is there still mud on my face?” “Do I have muddy boogers hanging out of my nose? No? Okay, good. I’m done”)

Squeaky – kind of- clean!

And a celebratory kiss, duh!

We said good bye to our other teammates, and met up with my mom and uncle for lunch.

First order of business-

A Bud Light Lime Gotta live up to our team name! (It was 11:30 in the morning, but that’s okay) Sometimes races require that you have a beer post-race…even if it is only mid-morning on a Saturday, hehe

I somehow managed to inhale four slices of delicious pizza while downing this beer as well. Girl can eat.

I loved having my family there to support me Seeing my mom right when I was about to dive into the mud pit really made my day And seeing both my uncle and my mom at the finish line kept me going. Family is awesome.

It was a wonderful day. Easily the most fun race I’ve ever participated in!

Will I be back next year? You betcha’.

Jason really loved it too. Our team was such a great one, such a fun one to have! Heath was making jokes the whole way and Anitra is so determined It was definitely an experience I’ll remember for a very long time.

As for that marathon coming up in…eh hem…6 weeks (!!!!!!!!!!) I’d say I’m ready, Freddy.

“Brang it onnnnnnnnn.”

HOO-RAH.

PS. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my Facebook page! It’s my way of staying connected with readers when I’m “in-between” posts (read: life gets too busy) And as always, thanks for reading!

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