Pizza.
Yesterday was... I dont even know. An experience. Terrifying. Exhilarating. Hilarious. Insane. All of the above plus any synonyms I've forgotten.
I woke up around 6:30 bc my brain just said GO. So I was dressed, fed, and ready to go when rachael got here. Needless to say I fell asleep mid-conversation at one point in the drive up. I guess up and over and down would be a better description, bc Mechanicsville is abt an hourish below DC but the fastest way to get there is to go to DC and drop down. It's a five hour trip which is a hell of a way to start your day anyway.
We got to the park where the event was being held and sat in like to get in for foreverrrr. What's the first thing I see? An ambulance leaving, lights and siren going. Yeah. That made me feel wonderful. Haha. But. We got in, used the bathroom (in quite possibly the most horrifying port-o-potties I've ever seen, which is a bold statement considering I go to the b.county fair), checked in and got our bib number, timer, tshirt, and Viking helmet. We then met up with people we were going to run with, my former editing professor from college and one of her friends. We got our gear together, i wrote everyones names who contributed to st judes on my arm and took aome pics We didn't really have too much time left before we had to GO.
It's bizarre to not only see a mix of ppl walking around covered head to to in mud, some clean, and a bunch in costumes. I saw a lot of kilts, some school girls, some fairies, storm troopers, and a District 12 Tribute. Next time I'm totally wearing a costume. And working on my weenie girl arms.
So we get to the starting gate which is a clusterfuck bc a couple hundred ppl run each heat. The starting bell and fire (not kidding) go off and it's a slow start bc it's bottlenecked with so many ppl. The first thing we did was go into the muddy woods. You run about a mile through that before you even get to an obstacle and jebus , that alone nearly killed me. There were twelve obstacles in all. The most terrifying was the straight up and down cargo net you have to climb. If you recall sometimes I'm afraid of heights. This reinforced it. Haha. The most painful one was one I fell off of and bc of that technically got disqualified from being "officially timed" as someone tryin to win the race (which I wasn't anyway). There was flat board surface and you had a rope with some knots in it and you had to climb/pull yourself up and over it. I actually got to the top which let me tell you is amazing to me. I had my hand and a toe over the top. When I fell off. I guess I just lost my balance. Luckily it was enough of an incline that I slid down it and some dude at the bottom caught me. I scraped the holy hell out of my right butt cheek. I decided fuck it, I made it to the top, I wasn't going up again and I didn't want to hold the group back. So we kept going. My favorite obstacle was the giant slip-n-slide. The hillside was huge and steep with a giant puddle at the bottom. The only thing I can compare it to, for people who know where I live back home, is the power line hill. It was great and we got soaked. Jumping over the fire kinda made me feel awesome. It wasn't a huge fire but enough that you could feel the heat of it. And then came the mud pit. Good lord. You felt like you were trying to move through grainy pudding that smelled like literal shit. It weighs you down and you can't get a good grip on anything. I cut the hell out of my arms and knees. I got to the end of it after forever and went to climb out but my shorts stayed in the mud and I immediately dropped back in. I suppose I could have kept going and just lost them as I did have compression shorts on underneath. But your brain doesn't process that. You process, oh fuck I've lost my pants in the shitpile. So I got readjusted an crawled out and crossed the finish line. I've never felt so ridiculous but badass in my life. Our professors mom was there and took lots of pics of us (any mud pic I post is courtesy of her) and then we made it up the hill to the fire truck to get hosed off which doesn't get you really clean at all but better than nothing.
Some other friends were running thr next heat so we watched their dog and ate giant turkey legs and rested. I was still running on adrenaline at that point. I got sunburnt bc it didn't even occur to me that I might need sunscreen. So btwn that, being dehydrated, and just going through the most ridiculous mental and physical exercise I've ever felt, I got a stage five headache. We went back to our friends' house to shower and eat (though I skipped the eatin and just laid in the dark with my pounding head until rachael decided we might as well just drive on home bc she was still awake and jazzed. So we got here around 2:30 this morning. I don't even want to think abt that laundry. I haven't got out of bed yet bc I just hurt all over. I'll take a pic of my knees to post at thr end of all the photos.
Am I glad I did this, yes. Will I do another, absolutely. But I will train better and harder for it. Now that I know I won't die, I feel more confident in myself. Would I have liked it of someone had been standing at the finish line waiting for me, yeah. But we don't always get what we want. All in all it was a really great experience for me. This time last year there is no way in hell I could have done it. This time next year I'm going to do it better and faster.
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