The run took place on April 25th (yes, I'm a bit late in reporting it...so sue me) at Lake Needwood Park in Derwood, MD. It was a beautiful day, though a bit hot. I had first heard about the concept of a mud race from my friend Jason, who had run one or two before and had really loved them. Usually in mud runs you can run in regular running gear or they offer you the chance to dress up in your craziest costume and make a total spectacle of yourself.
Hmmm...tough choice.
Nick first told me about this race, and from the start, we planned to dress up. After some slight brain-storming, we came up with the idea of going as super heroes. But which ones? Superman? No way. Batman and Robin? Please... X-men characters??? That's SO 2007. We came up with our own superheroes...ones that paid homage to our respective lines of employment. So I was "Fire Man" and Nick was "Captain Computer."
I'll give you a minute to catch your breath, wipe the tears from your eyes and give your hands a rest from the standing ovation you no doubt just gave us. :)
Anyway, on race day, we met up with some friends who were going to be watching us and cheering us on (Nick's girlfriend, his girlfriend's brother, a friend from NC, and a few other folks from MoCo). Another friend of mine was doing the mud run with some friends of hers. We tried to talk her into dressing up with us, but she refused. However, when her friend suggested they dress up, she accepted! I still haven't forgiven her for this (KIDDING!!!). They dressed up as "Baywatch" life guards, which was a really cool idea, especially how they did it.
After some drama with my costume (I forgot a large part of it back at Nick's house and had to rush back to get it), we prepared for the start. We took lots of pictures and many other people wanted our picture as well. How could Fire Man and Captain Computer resist showing love to the citizens they serve and protect?
Eventually, the gun went off and away we went! The race course was actually farily challenging, with some really tough hills. The sun was out in full force by then, so it was blazing hot. We jumped over some obstacles, ran through some tires and climbed over some hay bales before coming to the first mud pit. It was actually a long stretch of Lake Needwood, so it was just more water than mud. However, at the next pit, it was mud galore! When we entered that one and experienced the soft, squishy mud trying to swallow our shoes, Captain Computer decided to attack me! A full-on wrestling match broke out, and we were covered in mud. It was great!
When we reached the third and final mud pit, the wrestling continued and we were covered in slop. I ended up losing my cool fire bandanna and my cape, now soaked with water and mud, weighed about 20 lbs. But I still kept my hat and sunglasses! Unfortunately, we still had to keep on running, so we trudged our way to the end and finished strong.
When it was all done, we headed to the guy whose job it was to rinse everybody off with freezing cold water. It was actually pretty refreshing though. I cleaned myself up the best I could, changed and waited for our other friends to finish their race. After they got cleaned up, we took some final pictures and headed back.
This was tons of fun and I can't wait for the next one!
