My friend Eric was kind enough to run this one with me. Here’s us at the end, in all our muddy glory.
Well, I “ran” the Terrapin My Muddy Valentine course and lived to tell the tale! For being an inaugural race, I was really impressed by how pulled together and smooth this race ran, Terrapin knows what they’re doing.
You may remember from my recap how excited I was for the mud, well, they delivered on the mud and obstacles part of the race. The mud was INSANE, I found myself slipping down and up hills and rarely were we on flat ground. I loved this because I truly do love a challenge.
But, let me back up a little bit. On Saturday morning, the rain was coming down hard and the skies were gray. When Eric came over to my house so we could carpool (free parking, holla!) we both knew we were really in for it. We headed out for the race, my family in tow, and enjoyed the heat of the car while it lasted. Parking at Lee Farms was a total breeze and we got to see the shuttle busses, but didn’t have to ride them.
We got out and surveyed the scene, Lee Farms has the cutest country store and had a great packet pick-up area that seemed like a hot spot for all the runners. It was warm inside and all of the volunteers were working in sync together.
Lee Farms Rocks!
I did a serious rookie move and did not bring my purse which had my wallet, which had my ID, so no beer chugging or mimosas for me. OLCC was on their game, oh yeah, I totally tried the “I am over 21 bit, look at my kid!!”. Needless to say they didn’t bend the rules for me, which is fair.
We were pretty much soaked at this point, so we checked out the booths. PGE was there with their natural energy program and the Bone Marrow Registry was also there doing cheek swabs. I decided to duck into their tent and go ahead and get my cheeks swabbed to be entered into the registry. From there we just went ahead and camped out by the bonfire that made all the cold rain feel more like a bath, it was awesome.
We lined up at the start and enjoyed the emcee that was actually pretty funny and was making some good quips about the “power of love” and how rainy it was, and then we took off!
An ultimate Valentine’s Day workout.
First obstacle was the Mud Pit Limbo, which immediately got us into the water. It was awesome, I just love stuff like that. Then we headed to a crawl up and over, equally awesome. From there we kept going through the course and dealing with crazy amounts of mud on the uphill and downhill. My favorite obstacle was the ‘Sisyphus’, where we had to go up a crazy slick and muddy hill with balance balls filled with water. If that doesn’t sound hard enough, people were just throwing their water balls down the hill without seeing who was coming up. I saw a couple of racers definitely get taken out by these stray balls (TWSS).
Come on baby, light my fire.
We finished up and reunited with my family, my son was really entertained by the hay bale maze that was covered, perfect place for a very curious toddler. They had heated changing rooms and showers you could purchase for $5. A few women in the changing area came back and were confused by the seemingly “co-ed” showers, I didn’t sneak a peek, but it seemed like a shower situation that was not for the shy. Lots of jokes were being exchanged about that being the “speed dating” portion of the event.
A real Muddy Valentine!
We tidied up and headed back home, tired but happy. My favorite couple of the day is pictured here, they ran in a suit and dress – love it!
This race was an awesome day and a great event for the whole family that embraces the Northwest, come rain or shine. I hope to do it all again next year and see what new obstacles they come up with!
