"Hoo Rah!"

United States Marine Corps Mud Run 2011: We came, we persevered, we conquered! Let me just shout out a loud, "Hoo Rah!" to any marines out there! Of course we had no idea what we were really in for, but I'm proud to say our team pretty much rocked! There were only two obstacles we couldn't do and our time was a fair 1 hour 55 minutes (pretty much in the middle of the other 1200+ teams).

That morning (Saturday, April 16th) Justin and I loaded up the kiddos at 6:00 a.m. and drove down to Jayne and Seth's house in SC (a 2 hr. drive). There, I nursed Beckett one last time (we weren't sure how long we'd be gone and I didn't want to be half-way through the race with an exploding chest) and we prepped the baby-sitters (yep - we hired TWO to handle all six kids :), said our good-byes, and set out on the hour long drive with Seth and Jayne to Columbia. We arrived at the course an hour before our start time (11:13 a.m.) which gave us time to change our clothes and get checked in. The weather was very ominous... Huge gray thunderheads, strong winds, and it had just poured right before we arrived. The weather forecast for the day: 'Severe Thunderstorm Warning' (which later turned into a 'Tornado Watch' alert), but we were not deterred!

After checking in (which essentially consisted of us having our team number written on our arms and being asked if we were allergic to bees), we found our place in line and waited. They let one team go every minute (hence the specific start time of 11:13 am) so we were in line for a while - just chatting and laughing about some of the other teams we saw.. (For example, one of the men on the team directly in front of us had a huge tattoo on his back that said, "Rooster". In the middle of the 'R' was a huge mole with several huge hairs poking out of it. Awesome.) There were a few teams (that we saw - I'm sure there were many more) who dressed up in things like tu-tu's, mullet wigs, sweat-bands, cut-off jean shorts (think Tom Sellick circa 1980-esque), and more. (Sadly, those in jean shorts didn't have a clue what a mistake that would turn out to be!) The overall feel was anticipation and as we were waiting to begin we could see several teams that had just crossed the finish line since their start time was earlier. Seeing them we all began to realize that when they said 'Mud Run' they meant, 'head-to-toe-inside-and-out-drenched-in-mud'.

Team: Mudblood (Harry Potter fans should appreciate this :)

Team Captain: Seth

See the above photos? Yep, we're happy, excited, maybe a little nervous... But oh, so naive! We had NO idea what we were about to get ourselves into!

When our time came we were pretty anxious to get our Mud Run on! We started out jogging and came to our first obstacle pretty quickly. For those of you interested in seeing photos and descriptions of just a few of the obstacles here is a link.

Some highlights:

* Realizing after the first few obstacles that there was no point in even trying to wipe mud off of our hands or face and embracing that realization!

* Mega leg and arm chafing on wet, sandy/muddy logs.

* Getting to maybe the 12th obstacle thinking we were over half-way done (not knowing how many we had left) and the marine stationed there letting us know we were only 1/4th way through the course.

* Crawling through mud and water using elbows and feet (and sometimes having to hold our breath and swim under logs allowing all sorts of fun dirt and debris into our ears).

* Using awesome teamwork to get over walls/bars/logs.

* Justin's classic full-body plant into a large mud pot after he took one running step and was sucked into the deep mud.

* Walking through a fresh-water river for about 1/8 or 1/4 mile. So refreshing and beautiful!

* The awesome smelling black mud pit. Think soupy mud made with local cow-pies. Luckily my recovering sinuses (I had a wicked cold/sinus/ear infection a few days prior to the even that I was overcoming) still couldn't smell that well.

* Being told to get off of the course with only two obstacles left because there another storm started with severe lighting (there was only one strike, but it seemed like it was ON the course! But we were too close to the finish to just leave then! So we just milled around with the other teams who were at that point and after 20 mins. they opened the course back up.)

* Crossing the finish line!

This was actually 'clean' compared to what we had been before the river-walk.

When we finally got to change we found bark, sticks and mud in our sports bras, shoes, and yes - our skorts, too. Our socks - which were brand new (we bought the suggested non-cotton socks to prevent blisters) had holes in the toes, and there was easily a cup of sand/rocks in each of our shoes.

The best double-date ever!

Love Justin's dirt goatee! It took several showers to be completely clean and even then I STILL have dirt (two weeks later!) stuck under my toe-nails.

We can't wait to do this event again! We couldn't walk very well for a couple of days and the scratches and log burns are still healing, but overall it was a wonderful sense of accomplishment and pride! Only now we want to do it and actually TRAIN as hard as they suggest to prepare for it. (Admittedly, I was only doing a workout DVD and some elliptical training to prepare. Justin was doing much less... I'll leave it at that. ;) I know we can do much better next time, but we were pretty happy with our first-attempt. :)