Mud Run

I had the most exhilarating experience this weekend! I have never been overly athletic, but I have always believed that exercise is important. In high school, I ran track. I ran sprints on the track team until I hurt my knee. Then I gave that up. Quitter!

Let's fast forward to the onset of my sickness. Losing weight so fast and feeling unhealthy really took a toll on my mental and physical health. Sure, I was thin and people told me how much they wish they could be as tiny as I am (this drove me nuts). As an aside - I even had people wish they could be "sick" like me so they could have my body. Really? I highly doubt that if you ever experience it. Anyways, I was gaunt and looked stressed and ill.

Two years ago I decided to try and gain weight by adding muscle. I wanted so badly to feel somewhat healthy and look like a human instead of bag of skin over bones. Curves was great. I toned my body and started to have muscle. I was feeling better and healthier. When I looked in the mirror, I actually liked what I saw. Who knew my abs could look like that!?!?! I kept this up for about 9 months and then took a break. It was summer, and I prefer to be outside instead of being inside on machines. I kept up being active with bike rides, walks, and playing with my son.

Even though I was active, I still didn't feel alive. So much in life was still draining me - work, eating stressors, health, etc. Then I started my new job in January this year. I met a woman (who is older than me) who told me about mud runs and that she was going to do one in August. My first response was "Not for me. I can't run since I hurt my knee in high school!" Same old excuse. Then I thought about it and realized that I told myself that 2012 was my year for change. This is my year to really start healing. I looked at the Dirty Girl one that my co-worker was going to do. Wow - a fun run with obstacles and no stress to it. No timing, no competition, heck - I don't even have to do the obstacles if I don't want to. Could I do this? Why not? I could walk the 5K if I had to. I am a chicken though when it comes to trying new things by myself. I asked a few friends to join me and a few said yes. Only one actually signed up with me.

I kept looking at mud runs. Here I am. A person who "can't run". I have no endurance. I have never run a 5K let alone done obstacles.  So what did I do? I signed up for 2 mud runs this summer. My plan was to train and do my best. I tried to run in town and through the park, and I ended up walking. My breathing was erratic, and my body hurt trying to run. Wuss. There's some positive self talk! All of the sudden time was up.  My friend who signed up with me and myself were faced with the first mud run this past weekend. I was scared and excited. Could I do it?

First, I couldn't sleep. I did imagine myself being a rock star and kicking butt in the run - even though it is not competitive. I woke up at 4:30 and my adrenaline was on high. Let's do this! We picked up my friend and drove to the mud run. We had our tanks on - "Superfly Mudpies" on the front and "Woggin' It All the Way!" on the back. Woggin' as in jog/walk because we didn't think we could do much more than that. Here is what happened.....

We are in the front lined up with our wave. They tell us to go, and we start jogging. We are in 2nd or 3rd position. Around the bend and getting near the first obstacles of tires we get passed by a mob of people. That's ok. We kept our pace and went through the tires. To the rope wall. Up we go and down we go and jog on. We look back and instead of the mob ahead of us, they are behind us. We keep going through the hot field, through the gross knee high river, under ropes in the mud, up hills and to the top of the slip-n-slide. Yep, the most gigantic slip-n-slide I have ever seen let alone gone down. This was so fun. Run and slide down on my belly and land in a splash of water, mud and grass. On we go and end up in the mud pit crawling in mud under ropes. After that, we are done. What? Done? We did it! Oh my God! We finished the run and in 2nd or 3rd place in our heat. What? I finished it, and I jogged and I did every single obstacle. I also finished with the biggest high of my life. I felt like I could run forever, but more than that, I knew that I had accomplished something I never thought I could. I told myself I could do it. I imagined myself doing it, and then I did it! I have never felt so alive or had so much fun!! I am healing in more ways than one. Life is amazing, and I feel amazing!

I want to say thank you to my wonderful and supportive husband and son who kept up with us at different points to take pictures so I could see myself doing it and for their never ending support and encouragement. I want to say thank you to my friend, Katie, who without her, I don't know if I could have done it. She is encouraging and supportive as well and together we accomplished this challenge. I can't wait to see what life brings next. I am ready for it, and I know I can do it because I believe in myself and that I can do anything that I set my mind to!