DIRTY

 

I ran the FUNNEST race ever last weekend. The Dirty Dash. We loaded up the family and drove to Heber City Utah on Friday night, rising bright and early Saturday to head to Soldier Hollow, the site of the Dirty Dash.  I picked up my packet, pinned on my bib number and duct taped my shoes….to keep the rocks out of course. 

I unofficially named us TEAM DUCT TAPE.

Dave, Mark, Me, Shayna, BreAnne, Treg

The girls all ready to go with a little stretching.

The first part of the race was BRUTAL. This was an all out sprint, uphill, in the mud.  My lungs and legs were on FIRE when I reached the top of the hill. It took me the whole first mile just to catch my breath from that.  I’m used to sprinting at the END of the race and my lack of training regularly was apparent right off the bat.

I am the arrow on the far left.

I love Shayna’s face in this picture as she is being splattered with mud. She is number 649 in the middle.

After the uphill mud bath came hay bales.  They started off nice and easy and were soon taller than me.  After hauling myself over 4 or 5 of those and then jumping down I was thinking “I definitely did not train well enough for this race!”  Next came long  tubes we crawled through while they were hosing us down with fire hoses.  It was so much water I couldn’t see anything.  At the end of the tube was a huge mud pit that ended with an army wall…..I don’t know what else to call it.  Just a big old wall that you have to hoist yourself over.  I don’t have enough arm strength to pull myself up over that thing so I went feet first.  It was very graceful and athletic looking I’m sure. The mud puddle on the other side of the wall about claimed my shoe…luckily I had the duct tape.  That’s the only thing that kept my shoes on. There were two more walls after that and then a long stretch of just running.  Soon we came upon the tires.  It seems like it would be easy to just jump through the tires…you know, get into a groove.  In fact I ‘m pretty confident this is the case IF the tires are all the same size.  Ours were little, big, enormous and it was WAY harder than I thought it would be. I was laughing so hard I almost had an accident. We ran some more and then trudged through a swamp…literally. Next came an uphill run to reach the huge slip n slide.  The slide down was fun. And gritty. These next pictures show us coming down from the slide and into the final stretch.  The end of the race is the GIANT mud lake where all the spectators sit in the bleachers and watch.

That’s me on the left, number 650. Right about here I am thinking about how cold the mud is going to be.  And it was.

Another graceful and athletic moment as I plunge into the mud.  Awesome face.

At this point I am thinking there is mud in places that should never see mud.

WE FINISHED!!

We were not the only ones who got dirty.

The worst part of the whole race the the ice cold shower at the end.  It was so cold and no matter how long I stood under the water, mud just kept running out of my clothes. Next year I will remember to bring $3 for the HOT shower!

This race was probably one of the funnest things I have ever done.  I think the race would be fun for ANYONE, no matter what age or physical status.  I hope to recruit my whole family to run it next year.  It was the most organized race I have run in and the most laid back.  Here is the video they shot of the race.  All this footage was taken during our wave. Watch the video the first time for fun and then watch it again to check out all the obstacles….look how high those hay bales are!!

Dirty Dash SLC 2011

I think I may be addicted to obstacle course races.Look what I found- FOAM FEST. Coming to Idaho Falls Sept 2010.  Who’s with me? Check it out at http://battlefornobility.com/raceinfo.php.

Body for Life

I made a big change a few weeks ago. I decided to strengthen and tone my body as well as change my eating habits to fuel my body with foods that are going to give me the nutrients I need.  That is a HUGE deal for me.  I have spent my whole life eating whatever I wanted. I was refilling my Coke about 10 times A DAY.  I have wanted to do this for awhile but didn't have the will power or desire to actually do anything about it.  I just sat around thinking about exercising and eating better while I was chugging a Coke and eating a Ding Dong.

My sister started talking about the personal trainer she had lined up and something clicked in my brain. I decided right then I was going to do something about it.  I grabbed the Body for Life book in my library and read it in 2 days.  I asked my co-worker, Shayna if she wanted to be my workout partner and I got Kenny on board too with a 12 week program.  I set up everything in 1 day.  I don't know what it was, but once I made up my mind, that was it.

Now before those of you who know me freak out saying, " you're so skinny, you don't need to lose weight...." just know this-  I am not trying to lose weight, in fact I will be happy to put on some muscle weight.  I am not "dieting"  I am just replacing the processed junk I was eating before with foods that are good for me. I quit drinking Coke and replaced it with lots of water. I am determined to get rid of my bat wings (arms), back roll, sagging bum and my muffin top....yes I have all of them. When I take my after pictures in 9 more weeks I will post the before pictures proving that I had one.  I mean, come on. I had 4 kids. Basically instead of being squishy everywhere, I will be toned and strong.

I meet Shayna at the gym 3 days a week at 5 am.  That was always one of my excuses.  That I didn't have time.  But I know if you want something bad enough you will make the time.  And I did.  It was rough getting up the first week and brutal the second with daylight savings....my body was screaming, "you know it's like 3:30 am right??!!".  That first morning I sat in my car in the parking lot and didn't want to go in because I thought I would be so out of place with my scrawny, weak, flabby self. But I just thought, "everyone in there started where I am". And so it began. Now, the more I go the more I want to go back.  There isn't a day that goes by that I am not SORE and I mean like walking like an old lady sore.  But it feels good and I am getting stronger.  The last few days I am just starting to notice the muscle building in my arms and legs.  The belly is going to take awhile....and lots of crunches. OUCH. I run the other 3 days and am training to run another race at the end of the summer.

The food change is amazing.  I can't believe how badly I was eating before.  Now I am always thinking about what kind of food is going to fuel my body to help it rebuild.  Before the diet change I was having headaches daily and taking Excedrin Migraine almost every day. My digestive system was going haywire and I was so tired all the time. I am 3 weeks in to the new diet and I have not had any headaches, my digestive system is not giving me any problems and I have more energy than I can remember having in a LONG time.  I am so excited to watch the changes continue as I work through the next 9 weeks.

The Dirty Dash

That’s right.  ME.  MUD. JUNE 4th. BRING IT!

Have you ever said to yourself, “Marathons are too easy, and Triathlons are for sissies?” 

We haven’t either…those races are really hard. Think about it…the first person to run a marathon actually died.  HE DIED!...and he probably didn’t even have fun along the way!

Well let us introduce you to the new race in town…THE DIRTY DASH.  This race puts all other races to shame.  The Dirty Dash is a mud run obstacle course where a military boot camp meets your inner five-year-old’s fantasy and subsequently converts boy to man and then…man to swine. 

You’ll need endurance to trudge up mountains of sludge, courage to overcome uncompromising obstacles, a complete lack of shame to wallow in pits of mud and a smile to show through at the end!

So let this mud run obstacle course become your new guilty pleasure. Go solo or with some of your dirtiest, filthiest, & uncouth friends. On either accord…you will be able to look at yourself in the mirror and say “I am a Dirty Dasher!”… and then proceed  to clean yourself off.  We now have 5K & 10K Mud Runs in Salt Lake City, Utah, a 10K Mud Run in Boise, Idaho and a 10K Mud Run in Seattle, Washington!

Check out the website www.thedirtydash.com

This is Kenny’s favorite part-

CAN I JUST COME AND WATCH?

Feel free to walk around and view the race course. We will also have water balloons available for purchase.  All the money goes to charity and you get to throw the balloons at the participants during the “HOG WASH”!

 

 

The month that nearly did me in PART 3.

Let’s wrap this up shall we?

15. Drivers Training.  We signed Kelsey up to take drivers training through the school district.  We headed off to the DMV to get the proper credentials.  Do you think she is excited?

16. Snakes.  It must be the time of year….or the fact that we live in the mountains.  I don’t know, but we have had a ton of snakes!  They are only garden snakes but they still freak  me out.  This one in the picture was blocking my way to the car. I was walking out the door to work and there between me and my car was a snake.  I went to the right and so did the snake. I went to the left and so did the snake.  I called Kendall and he caught the snake.   The best was when Kelsey was using the net to clean insects out of the pool and there was a snake swimming in there!

17. Freshman Orientation.  We entered the gym where the  band was playing, the cheerleaders were performing and the bleachers were full of kids.  It was so strange because I remember being in high school like it was yesterday!  I loved high school, so I hope Kelsey has a good 4 years.   Annoyingly and predictably, the senior boys were all there to check out the girls.  Senior boys look REALLY old compared to my baby!…..and since when do high school boys have MUSTACHES?

18.  First day of school.  Kenny was out of town this week so I tried to be super organized.  In order to get everyone where they need to go I have to leave my house at 7:20 AM!  Here are some pics of the kids.

19. 1/2 Marathon. Two years ago I decided to run a half marathon with my sister, Becky.  She was living out of state and was planning to drive to Pocatello to run the race with me.  She had to quit training and couldn’t run the race.  I ran anyway.  But not the 1/2.  She is living here in Pocatello this year while her husband is deployed to Iraq.  Since they will be moving away when he gets home we decided to train and run our half marathon this year.  Training has been interesting.  With 8 kids between us, the training was crazy.  Some nights we were able to get away and get our run done quickly.  Other nights we brought the whole crew with us to the track.  Those runs took FOREVER.  There were messy pants to change, clinging children….you name it, it probably happened while we were trying to run.  It was pretty humorous.

 

Training for this race was a huge time commitment.  The long runs on Saturday usually took a couple hours.  It was nice to train with Becky.  She is a good listener and was able to help me work through some things I was struggling with.  I grew to admire and respect her insight and am so thankful to have her as a sister and friend.   Before I knew it, summer had flown by and race day was here.  It felt really good to know I had stuck with the training and was prepared to finish.  The race started well and I felt really good.  Things were moving along nicely until about mile 7.  I got a really bad stitch in my side that lasted the rest of the race.  I ran through the pain but I think it slowed me down a little.  The last 2 miles were ROUGH!  I wanted to die.  We only trained to run 10 miles so after mile 11 I could feel my body shutting down.  Becky is the only reason I finished my race.  Our original goal was to finish in 2 hours and 15 minutes but we really wanted to finish under 2 hours. I was slowing down and she said, “If you want a finish time under 2 hours you have to run faster.  I know you don’t care right now but you will after the race.  You want to leave everything you have on the road.”  I am so grateful I had her with  me to push me and encourage me.  If I had been by myself I would have stopped and walked those last few miles.  I can honestly say I left EVERYTHING on the road.   Now all we need to work on is my race finish….  They had our timing chips embedded in our race numbers.  When we started the race we ran across an electronic bar that activated the timer.  As we came to the finish line we were sprinting as fast as we could. I could see the electronic bar ahead and as soon as we crossed it we stopped running, only to see a second bar a few yards ahead was the actual finish line.  So we walked a few steps before realizing it and then ran to the second bar.  What a glorious finish!  Also note to self: Quit talking and smile when you come to the finish line so the photographer doesn’t get spastic pictures like this and this AND this.   Ya, that last one is a beaut!  I was so excited when they posted our times and we finished in 1 hour and 59 minutes!  Here are the pictures of the race.

Up before sunrise.

 

Riding the bus up to the starting line.  There is the electronic bar. :)

Don’t we look happy?……and sweaty?

WE FINISHED!!!

Back at mom’s.

20. Pizza Party.  We celebrated with the kids at Pizza Hut.

 

Zoey made sure to lick her plate clean.

And that is the end of my report on the craziest month ever.  Here’s to hoping September is nice and relaxing.