Mud Run!

I ran my first race! Today, I completed the Irvine Lake Mud Run--a 3.5 mile race (it was over a 5k and under 4 miles) that contained countless obstacles.

I was on a 4 person co ed team with Scott, Ali (my running buddy that I've mention a billion times on here:), and her boyfriend Grant. Also known as Team JAGS (Julia, Ali, Grant, Scott). None of us have ever had any experience in running events (besides high school track a few years ago), so the experience was really new to us. Which means Ali and I we were really nervous.

The great thing about the Mud Run was that everyone was just running for fun. There was no way to know your times (well, know them easily... I heard you could look online), and your team had to finish the race locking arms. Meaning that the guys had to stay at our pace ;)

I had SO much fun! One thing that surprised me was actually how muddy we got (you would think the term mud run would have given that one away) and how difficult the run was. I did not account for how heavy tennis shoes are when they are completely caked in mud. The run was really physically challenging for me, but with the exception of walking through water stations and a quick break during a hellish stretch, we ran the whole time.
Also, I thought it was interesting how the majority of the obstacles (and all of the mud pits) were at the beginning and end of the race. Within the first minute of the race, we were already knee deep in mud, and setting out on countless obstacles (like tires and wood fences) that were ahead of us. However, the majority of mile 2 was just a really hot, dry stretch (did I mention it was 80 degrees?) that felt like trudging with all the mud drying on us. The end of the run was really fun with tons of mud pits and obstacles. My favorite was definitely army crawling through the mud.

After the race, we took our after pictures, and went to get cleaned off. The lines for the showers was super long, so we decided just to get hosed off instead. And by hosed off I mean hit with two high pressure hoses by two guys standing above the horde of muddy runners. That little experience on its own was actually a really fun part of the experience.

I'll probably go into more detail about today when the professional pictures from the race go up, but for now here are some of my pictures from today. I particularly love the before and after ones.

Before

Starting out super clean

Showing off how ready we are for the mud run (yes I'm super short and squatting)

Team JAGS!

After

Team JAGS after the run

This picture is ridiculous. I have never been more dirty in my life.

I feel so proud and exhilarated that I ran the mud run today. It was a lot of fun, and I'm very happy. I'm also very sore already. My legs are killing me.

I would love to do it again in the future, and was super lucky to have such good friends to run it with.