The Survival Race Recap

Saturday was the Survival Race - which is basically an obstacle course with mud. Lots and lots of mud. My sister and I had planned on doing it together, but her ankle/heel is still bothering her to run on (she hurt it during the Rock N Roll Dallas half marathon), so she decided to listen to her body and not do the race. I missed her, but still had a good time.

I always laugh at the people who go into this race and say, "Ew! I don't want to go through the MUD!" or who go around obstacles instead of doing them (and I'm talking about the easy obstacles, not the hard ones). Isn't that what you paid for? And really, didn't you know what you signed up for??

My shoes *after* they were cleaned off

I survived the Survival Race!

Anyway, overall the race was fun and I did indeed feel slightly challenged (both physically and mentally - wading through waist deep brackish water was definitely a mental challenge for me!) - and I ended up completely muddy. I would say, though, that this was not as well put together or as challenging as the Warrior Dash I did last year in Seattle. But it did have a more 'down home' feel and was a lot less commericalized than the Warrior Dash.

I ended up losing my shoes in the first obstacle. It was a pit of mud that you had to run through, and I felt my shoes getting sucked into the mire within the first two feet into the mud pit. I did everything I could to get free, but every time I did, I would end up stuck again. After struggling for what felt like an eternity, I just took my shoes off, dug in the mud for them and walked out in my socks. Then I put my shoes back on and mud just squished everywhere. I tried running but it was SO slippery. Like insanely slippery. I half-ran, half-stumbled to the next obstacle. The first obstacle and one other obstacle really stood out in my mind.

It was a big wooden slatted climbing wall that you had to climb up and over and then back down. I made it up to the top, and swung my leg over to the other side, and realized that I was terrified. I am not a "heights" person and I especially hate climbing down ladders. There was a guy there who helped his girlfriend/wife down and he saw that I was stuck so he offered me some help. Really he just came over and stood next to me and encouraged me and I was able to do it on my own - but, I don't think I could've done it without him! So glad he was there and offered help! So many people were just going up and over right next to me without even glancing my way. I felt really alone at that point so him offering to help was very, very appreciated!

There were a few water obstacles too - wading through a little lake, wading/walking up a creek (about knee to waist high water), and swimming in a little pond. It was really brackish water and the bottom was all scummy. I cannot imagine going into that water on my volition. It was really hard for me to do it for the race. I just kept imagining snakes or bugs biting me. And when you are tripping over submerged tree branches and roots, it really feels like something has got you!

After the race, they had an older farmer hosing people off - literally. They had showers set up, but someone said that there wasn't water coming out of them. I didn't stick around to try them out and instead just got hosed off by farmer joe and looked like he had about 8 million other things he would rather be doing. The t-shirts they gave out were nice and they did have a little necklace/medal. Again, overall, a pretty fun event.