Man Vs. Mud

I once again participated in the Man Vs. Mud 5K and it was a muddy blast!!  

This year I did it with Kami, Tifannee, Kassie, and Brittany.

I was a bit nervous because literally zero training went into this.  Luckily this is a fairly easy race, with the excitement, adrenaline, and fun it makes it easier.  If you don't know what Man Vs. Mud is, let me tell you!  It is a 5K race with a twist!  There are obstacles along the way, things like trudging through muddy, dirty, mysterious, stomach deep water, balance beams, tunnels, rolling over hay bales, going down a slide on a tube, more muddy, dirty, mysterious water.  It is seriously fun!  The only down part for me this year was I got a bloody nose towards the end of the race after falling in water when I was trying (failing miserably) to cross a river going from one tube to the other.  I don't even know what caused it, I don't remember hitting anything when I fell off.  I headed over to the ambulance because I figured they'd have something for me.  They were able to give me some gauze.  I ended up missing two obstacles while taking care of it.  Which was good because in that second obstacle Kami and Tif wrestled like mad women in the mud pit.  I was happy to not be a part of that!

This race is definitely one I'll do again!

Before the race

Getting ready to start

This was after the mud wrestling that I missed

Man VS Mud

I did my second 5K on Saturday!  This one was the Man VS Mud.  It was so much fun!  Before it started I was thinking. . ."I don't think I know what I got myself into!"  It was great though, maybe I'll do it again next year!
I did the race with Alisha and my friend Holly.  Holly's tenant Jami also did the race with us.  She was very motivating through the whole thing, I'm glad she was there.
To start out the 5K you slide down this steep slide on a tube.  Then you have to run the tube back up a hill to drop it off for other runners.  After that you run around a bend in the trees and through a very small shower of water.  Then we ran over to something called the cargo net.  You had to climb up a robe ladder then climb over and make your way back down.  Climbing over was terrifying.  It was very wobbly up at the top!  We continued running and encountered our first real mud!  I very carefully walked along the edge of it and everyone else went straight through it and Alisha slipped!
We ran up a hill and they were handing out water.  Then we got to another slide.  This one had a rope to hold onto while you slid down because it was rocky.  The next part was the grossest of the whole race.  It was called the trench.  It was deep nasty muddy water.  It was super long and I was sinking down in mud all the way to my knees at some parts!  I am so thankful I didn't fall in that stinky water!
After this there was more muddiness and a hay bale tower we had to climb over.  So you can imagine how nice it was climbing over hay after being in the mud :)  Then there were tires we had to walk through.  After that we climbed up a slide with a help of a rope and we got to clean our hands at the top!
I can't remember what was between this point and when we got to the spider web.  The spider web was just a bunch of bungee cords creating a maze you had to climb through.  After this was a huge rope stretched across a river and we had to hold on and get ourselves over.  I just held on with my hands and let my feet float.  It wasn't as hard as I was expecting it to be.
The next part was not so great.  It was a very small swimming pool made out of hay bales and a tarp.  They had laid boards over the top and the water was ice water!  FREEZING cold ice water!  That was probably the fastest I moved in the whole race.  After I got out I tried running, but it hurt!  I was tingly from the ice water and it hurt my entire body to run.  It was just a little ways though until we were able to walk through some mud and water and it warmed us back up so I could run again.  We then got to the army crawl.  There were ropes strung low across a shallow stream.  It was hard!  I've never really army crawled before and had to figure out how to do it.  While trying to get across the worker was yelling into a megaphone and said about me, "Why is your hair still blonde?  It should be brown!"  and tried to get Alisha to throw mud at me.  Thankfully she didn't.  Then we went a little ways and climbed through a torturous tunnel.  I say torturous because you had to crawl and there were lots of rocks on the bottom.  After that you just ran basically to the end.  You climb up a hay bale tower and crawl or walk (or I saw one guy roll across) a rope bridge.  Then slide down a slide into muddy water!  I could not believe how fast I was going down that slide!  I didn't get my right eye closed fast enough and got gross muddy water in it.
After we slide down that huge slide you had to run up a huge hill then we were done!  We took some pictures and tried to shower off the best we could.  We all donated our shoes afterwards.  Then headed home.  It was really fun.  I was proud of myself.  I ran the entire time except when we were running through the mud and didn't want to get stuck or slip.  If I can I'll do it again next year!

I wish I had pictures of us doing each obstacle, but here's what I have.  

Before the race

Before going down the last slide

Going across the rope bridge

I'm sorry you were so muddy Holly

I did it!

Bike With Brent 2013

Avery and I did the bike with Brent again this year.  Click here for last years post.  It was at Willow Park again this year and it has really grown in the 3 years that it has been going on!  This year they had raffles, a bounce house, the police men and fire fighters competed in a bicycle polo game, they had lunch to buy, free drinks, and more.
We got there about half an hour early and got our shirts and then went to play at the awesome park they have at Willow Park.  Avery was in heaven and quickly made friends and went down the slide over and over and over.  She also got to do a teeter-totter for the first time and a merry-go-round, she loved both of them!
This year I did the walk with my friend Holly and her cute daughter Lucy and with Alisha, Jon, and Isaac.
Avery loved it!  She loves going on walks and didn't make a peep the entire time.  Thank you Celestial for letting me borrow your bike trailer to walk with.  Avery enjoyed it!  And thank you Teancum for leaving your sunglasses in there, Avery enjoyed wearing them!

Enjoy some pictures from the day!  We all had a great time!  If you're around Logan you should come out and do it next year!

 Policeman and fireman polo game.  It was fun to watch.  There was a lot of cheating going on!  Such as jumping off and running with the ball, and moving the goal up 5 feet.

 Avery looked so darn cute in her shirt that went down to her knee!

Avery and me

 First time on the merry-go-round!

 Having fun with her cousin!

And to end our fun day, I taught Avery how to dunk her cookies in milk just like her daddy!

Color Vibe

Guys, I did it!  

I completed my first 5K!

It went well and I finished. . .I did stop once and that was my mistake that effected the rest of the race.

I ran the race with two of my sisters-in-law, Kami and Alisha.  I was ahead of them and at probably about a mile and a half I decided to stop for them.  After I stopped I just felt done.  I didn't wanted to walk.  I didn't stop again after that, but I did walk a few time each time for only probably 30 seconds.  It was also a fast walk and I was able to pretty much keep up with them while walking.  

Alisha had gone on in front of us and Kami was a sweetheart and stayed with me.  Alisha waited at the last hill so we could all finish together.  It was a lot of fun.  

So my lesson for whenever I do another 5K is DON'T STOP.   I don't think I'll ever do anything more than a 5K, I still don't love running, but I enjoyed pushing myself and I definitely want to do another 5K and do it without stopping or walking.

Enjoy a few pictures from the day!