Gotta get a little mud all over you! Pretty Muddy 2014 Race Recap

Okay I like mud, I have to admit it. I am a country girl who grew up making mud pies, mud ball fights and making a slip and slide out of ... yep, you guessed it. Mud! SO when I got the opportunity to run the Pretty Muddy again this past year, I was too excited and looked forward to letting the country girl out to have a little fun.

Okay now for the fun part, where to begin to talk about this awesome race? There are a few things about this race that I would change this year but for the most part, it was absolutely fun. First off, I will tell you about all that I liked about this race then I will get into the “oh man” part of the race review.  Well, the announcer this year was totally awesome and she kept us all in the mood to want to hurry up and get us on the course. While we were waiting at the starting line she was cracking jokes and making us all laugh. The funny part was actually right as she was doing the count down. 3 girls started running before she got to 3 and she made all kinds of funny statements about that. About how in all her years she has never had anyone get so excited they started before she said go.  That had us all laughing even after the color tunnel.  What can I say? We all were eager to get our behinds on the course and get a little muddy. Which if you look at the video at the end of this post you will see the order of the obstacles and see them take off.

This year I had the pleasure of doing the race with my friend Jacqueline, Joylynn and a friend of Joy’s. Joy and her friend ran it together while Jacky and I walked it due to injuries and such.  I am not going to go into all the details because I believe the video will say it all but I will say that this race gets better with every single one I do.  Now to talk about what i was like "oh man” about. The few things they changed happen to be the obstacles that I actually quite enjoyed. Like the long muddy hill that you had to use the rope to pull yourself up with. They had one this year but it was a lot shorter and was dry instead of muddy like it was last year. I thought that was a bummer but of course I liked it because it gave me more mud time. I also wish they would have kept the foam and made it colored foam so it would last on our clothes a little longer in the mud.  Another thing I didn't quite care for was the gravel in the tubes. As you can see in the video, the tubes had gravel in the bottom of them and I ended up scraping my leg on it. Not sure if the gravel was supposed to be in their or if someone put it in their as a joke but it hurt and wasn't that funny.  I also was a bit upset that they took out the totally ballsy. That was the most fun of them all. Being able to play around with a bunch of beach balls was absolutely fun.  Hope they decide to bring it back next year because that was the best!  Other than that, it was totally awesome and for the best cause. The charity that they support is the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer.  This hits really close to home for me because this past year I had my own Breast Cancer scare and so this made me even more eager to do this race and support this cause.  Going through such an ordeal like this is very scary and I can only imagine what I would have felt if the doctor would have come into the room and told me it was cancer. SO to see these wonderful women at this race who have not only survived the results but have beaten the cancer and are alive and well today is so amazing. These women are such an inspiration to me. I can only pray for those who have not been so fortunate and have lost their battle. That is why I am such a strong supporter of this race and will continue to support it for as long as there is still breath in me.

Now without further delay, here is my little video from my race experience. 

Chocolate chocolate everywhere and lots of drops to eat!

Chocolate drops that is! Sorry it took so long to get this post out. I have had a few deaths and injuries in the family that have kept me away. I am back now and playing catch up for you guys.

As most of you know, earlier this year I had the honor of participating in the Hot Chocolate 15k/5k. I have to be proud of myself because I did my longest ever race.  I am not going to sit here and say I was not scared because I was. I know this took a bit of time for me to get this out to you guys but life has hit me hard with so many curve balls and with deaths and injuries it has kept me from doing a lot that I love to do. Including write to you guys.  Well, the Hot Chocolate race was my very first non-obstacle/color run I have ever done. It was my very first full blown road race.  I would go into step by step on this race but then I feel it is best for you to sign up for yourself and experience it yourself.

As you guys know I won’t recommend a race to you guys unless I liked it so when I recommend this race to you guys it means I liked it. Granite it was cold, wet, icy and I ended up getting injured I still liked it. I went to the race with a friend Peggy and Joylynn and Peggy’s niece, I was still scared out of my mind. I mean I had signed up for the 5k not the 15. I had only switched the night before. I have to say I loved how well they were organized and set up. They made it fun for everyone even though it was sleeting that morning and everyone was freezing their behinds off.  After crossing the start line I noticed there was no way I was going to keep up with my experienced running comrades and that became confirmed when I fell under the first over pass I had come across. I slipped on ice and hurt my ankle making the rest of the race a bit hard to run. I was last on the course, so I thought, which for me scared me more than the distance I was partaking. See there are a few things that really scare me when it comes to myself.  The one that scares me the most is being in an unfamiliar place alone with no one around that I know. I have made my life all about fitness but when it comes to running on a road alone with no one around but complete strangers passing by in their yard or walking down the street scares me more than anything.  That is at made is race so scary to me.

I am a country girl by brand by choice. City life scares me to shreds. Which is why even though I loved this race, I don’t think I was trained enough to do this race distance. I bet I would have had a majorly different feel afterwards if I had done the 5k but other than feeling the since of accomplishment that I felt after passing the finish line, I was crying. I had been on the course for 2.5 hours and my legs where spasming so bad but at least I had finished it. Some were not so lucky and dropped out of the race before mile 4. For the remainder of the year I will train my hardest to try to do the 15k again with better outcome. One of the police officers that where there had done multiple marathons and that was some encouragement that helped me push myself harder but one police officer made me feel down on myself because they kept telling me to quit because I was the last one. To be honest it upset me yet made me determined to finish the race and prove that officer wrong.  Other than that, I really liked the staff and the support from the volunteers and staff alike. They were so encouraging and supportive that it made you not want to give up and gave you a second wind. This is why I recommend this race to you all. Most races I have heard of give up on their racers who fall behind and don’t meet their minimum requirements. This race didn't. We actually had one of the directors follow behind us for a bit to make sure we were okay and to let us know we were not alone. To me that meant a lot considering how bad the neighborhood we were running through was. Don’t take this the wrong way but when you go from a nice rural neighborhood to a neighborhood where there are guys dealing in front of their apartment, makes you just a bit nervous.  It is not the race officials fault by any means but it was a relief to know they cared enough about us to follow behind to make sure we made it to the finish line safe.  I also loved how a portion of the proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald house to help children. As you guys know I am a stickler for charities and if I know the race is for a good cause I will do whatever it takes to help show my support.

Don’t take my word for it however, sign up for a Hot Chocolate 5k/15k near you and share your experience with me. I am sorry I had a bit of issues with my GO PRO and didn't have the race course recorded but here are some pictures I took of this awesome race.