Marine Mud Running

Okay, first of all, it was on a Marine Base (Camp Pendleton), but I'm sure what they have the marines do for training is much harder. So, really, it just makes me feel better to call it a Marine Mud Run. There were marines there... that counts for something, right?

Second (and maybe more importantly) of all, the above picture is not of me totally biffing it. I just wanted to make sure that that was absolutely clear.

So, around 5:50 this morning, Bethany, Dominic, Jen, and I climbed into the car and headed south for Pendleton where we met a long-time family friend, Matthew, and Beth's brother-in-law Jeremy and a friend of his. We got there and quickly checked in, then we were not so quick about getting to the starting gate. After we checked our bags in, and Jen was pinning on Dominic's number, Matthew said he thought he heard the cannon go off. We quickly headed over to the starting line, and after wading our way through tons of people (waiting for the team run to start) we finally were on our way.

They didn't wait too long to get us wet. They had a couple of trucks early on spraying water at us, and a fire hose going off to soak everyone. If you tried to avoid it, they'd take aim and nail you, often following you as you ran. I never tried to fight it, so I just opened my arms and embraced the water - I had seen that it was not worth trying to run.

About a mile and a half into the run people were backed up taking turns forming a single-file line to cross a narrow part in the stream. While moving up for my turn, I passed by a marine who was standing by watching over things. As I was walking past I said, "So is this where we tag team it, I give you my number, and you finish the race?" He looked like he had just realized something and said, "Oh, you were the one I'm supposed to put on my back and then run the rest of the race." I told him I liked his idea even better.

Here and there throughout the race there would be marines "barking" at us as we ran past. Telling us to run faster, push harder, etc. It was always followed by a smile and words of encouragement. I think my favorite thing of what I heard was, "If you're not first, you're last!" Well, I was definitely not first, but I still enjoyed it!

Now, perhaps I should have prefaced this by saying that I have gone running once in the last two or three months, and that was just under a mile last week. I've run 10ks before, and haven't had a hard time. And, actually, this one went much better than I could have anticipated.

What may have already been a long story, short - It was a lot of fun. I would definitely do it again, and, in fact, we're talking about doing it next year. I say - bring it on.

Now to finish - here's a picture of the last mud swim we had to do. Yay for this!