No Pain, No Gain. Right??

I'm just about 24 hours post my first Mudathlon and my arms are so freakin' sore! But... a good sore. The kinda sore where you feel like you got something done. Alicia and I have been talking for years about doing a fun, obstacle-course type of race and we finally signed up for this one a few months ago. The Mudathlon, in particular, is a 5k race that advertises 40 obstacles. And although it was certainly a lot of fun (and VERY muddy), they were a little short on obstacles unless they counted every water-filled creek we had to jump across. It was a chilly morning (in the 50's), and had rained for the 24 hours preceeding this event, so it was sure to be an interesting race nonetheless. We met at 6:00 a.m., grabbed some breakfast, then headed to General Butler State Park about 45 minutes away. I'm not sure what got into us, but at some point one of us mentioned that it may be an even better race if we were a little "tipsy." Keep in mind, Alicia and I do like to partake of the occasional adult beverage, but have never done so immediately prior to a race - or at 7:00 a.m. for that matter. But, it sounded like a good idea at the time so we stopped off and each bought one of those new energy drinks that includes 6-8% alcohol by volume. Sitting in her nice, heated car before headed to the start, we drank our drinks, duct taped our shoes, donned the new, matching tank tops Alicia had bought us specifically for the race (Hey, even though we like to have muddy fun, we're still a little girly-girl like that), and headed out for what was sure to be a cold, sloppy, interesting mess. It was a fairly small start, with maybe 20 of us going out in our wave. The first mile mainly consisted of jumping over multiple creeks and repelling down small hills with the help of ropes. Seeing as how the rain really muddied up the path, it was extremely slick in some places, and it didn't take long for Alicia and I to both get good and messy. At one creek crossing, I was hesitant as it was a little further jump than I had expected, and the muddied banks provided enough slickness that one could easily bite the dust (or mud) once landing on the other side. With the help of a guy on the opposite bank however, I swiftly bounded across, grabbed hold of his hand, and was pulled to safety. Ah, success! We continued on to mile 2 and met up with another pack of people who also helped us through most of the obstacles. Jumping over large bales of hay, crawling along in the mud under plastic partitions, speed-sliding down a sheet of plastic into a pool of watery goodness, and climbing over walls - this was turning out to be all the fun I expected and more. Near the end of the mile however, we came across a tall obstacle in which you had to climb ropes to the top, and then climb back down via muddy, slick planks of wood on the other side. Now, I'm all about having fun, but the possiblility of slipping on one of the planks and falling to my death was too much for me to bear, and I walked around instead. I know, I know, call me a wuss - but I quite enjoy my limbs, my life, and the ability to walk. And no fun run is worth risking any of that. Maybe next time.... Regardless, we kept on til the end of the race, and were a couple of scratched up, wet, filthy, bruised, sore, tired messes by the end. It was definitely worth it, though. And the swag to this race was just awesome. For $80 we got an entry to the 5k, a shirt, beer coozie, glass mug, bandana, nice finishers medal, and a free burger and beer at the end. All in all, the race got two thumbs up for me, and I look forward to searching out more of these obstacle-style races in the future. Until that day comes, I will continue to move forward on my Insanity journey, and a healthier me!