Some how she convinced some of her co-workers at the dentist office to participate. Mom signed Erika, Red and I up and Ben couldn't participate this time because he was on a 24-hour shift at the fire station in Tenino that day. It was a huge bummer because he really wanted to do a race like that. Maybe next year.
I prepared myself by running but since there really aren't any hills in our area I didn't get practice running up hills and whatnot. At least I could keep running though and was in somewhat shape to be doing a race like this.
I was really hoping it was going to be warmish that day but sadly it wasn't. It was the end of June so it could be warm and it could be really cold. It just depended on the year and the weather patterns. Last weekend I was in 80 degree weather and this weekend we were in 50ish degree weather with some wind. I knew once we got wet we were going to be cold.
Mom drove out to my house and picked me up so we could only have one vehicle we were responsible for, plus we had to pay $10. We had called Erika so we could go pick her and Red up in Littlerock so again, we would only have one vehicle and one fee to deal with. I had never been to the house she shared with Red so I relied on mom's directions. This was really out here. Their fence was locked so we had to call Erika to come let us in. I needed to use the restroom so I took a few minutes to do that as they finished getting ready.
They decided they would drive themselves because they didn't want to stick around for too long after our race and the $10 didn't matter to them. We also asked if we wanted to do lunch with them and they said they were interested but didn't commit. We left and thought they were going to follow us but we never saw them. We even turned around to see where they went. Erika wouldn't answer the phone so we just went to McCleary without them following us. They must have went another way we weren't aware of.
We arrived at the ORV Sport Park, just off of Hwy 8, a few minutes before Erika and Red did. We almost arrived too early. Kim had the day off the previous day so she went and picked up all of our packets so we all had our stuff so we didn't have to wait in the line. Mom handed out our registration "goodie" bags last night. We followed the parking instructions and found a place out in one of the many fields that will be filled up by tons of vehicles by this afternoon.
We changed into what we would be wearing for the race. We changed our shoes and I put my under armor (which I am glad I put on) before my ugly purple tank top. The office wanted everyone to match and they chose the disgusting purple as our "team shirt." If we do this next year I hope we wear a different color.
Mom convinced one of her co-workers daughters (who was not participating in the race) to take pictures of us running the course. We really weren't sure what kind of access they would have so this was a learning experience. We found out they could be on the course in certain areas. She only got the start and the finish pictures.
Anyway, we walked around, used the restroom, looked for the rest of our group before our 9 a.m. start time. Around 8:30 is when most of our team arrived. Mom really wanted a group picture before we ran so we rallied up everyone and got one.
I remembered that my former supervisor was also going to be here for the race with one of her friends. I thought it would be cool to meet up if I could find her but I had no idea which "wave" she was running in and if she was even here yet.
As it approached 9, we were all ready to go. I was getting antsy because I just wanted to start. I was getting bored waiting around. We all walked out to the starting line and they counted down through the mega phone.
….and we were OFF!
We ran up and down some short hills, climbed over a wall (I had to help mom so I decided to stay with her for further help along the race) waded through several mud pits and had several stretches of trail where we just ran. I told mom to just keep jogging. At one point during our trail run, a pair of guys ran by us and I watched one of them roll their ankle on a loose rock. Ugh, glad it wasn't me. He kept on and I think he received some medical attention at one of the water stations.
We hit some more mud pits, a couple of other walls, over and under pipes and made it to our first water station.
After that, were several really long hills and because we were under trees the trails were still damp from the last time we had rain and some left over of the morning dew. It made it really hard to run up the hills without sliding down.
Then we hit the surprise mud pit. It was so thick you literally got stuck. I had to be really careful because my shoes almost came off. I struggled and it exhausted me. To top it off you had mud cannons shooting mud at your face, head and ears. I immediately got shot in the side of the head and I could feel the mud in my ear and the corner of my eye. I figured out how to eventually get out of it without being shot in the face again. By the time I got to the end of it I was wiped out.
Then we had to climb another long hill. I was out of breath and dying. Mom and I trudged slowly up the hill, around and down to the water slide. For some reason we picked the lane that the hose broke in so we had to wait a few minutes for the workers to fix it. We slid down into a pit of mud and it was awesome!
We did a little bit more running and then to some climbing walls with ropes and cargo nets. I helped mom as much as I could with those. We did a couple more dirt mounds with mud pits down below, ran through a bubble tunnel, a tire swing maze and finally to the last obstacle, a giant cargo net with water squirting at us.
Once we got off of that and down a slide, we made our way to the finish line where a volunteer gave us our metals for finishing. We got our picture professionally done and then waited for the rest of our team. I knew now that I've stopped I was going to get cold. Within the next half hour everyone who were behind us started making their way to the end.
Erika and Red really wanted to go so they didn't wait around and left. Mom and I stayed behind a while with the rest of our group. When everyone finally was done, we got some group photos. We got cleaned up and made our way back to our vehicles to change. After I changed I went back up to the event to see if I could find my former supervisor. I didn't have any luck so I used the restroom and headed back to see if mom was ready to go.
We left just before noon and headed into Tumwater after making a quick stop at the BBQ place off of Hwy 8. We really didn't have a lot of time today to eat lunch there but I eventually want to try their food. We got a picture of the pig before moving on. We tried calling Erika to see if she wanted to meet us in Tumwater to eat burgers at Eagan's but she never got back to us. Doug was in town this weekend helping dad and we got a hold of them and they met us there for some lunch.
The food hit the spot. Mom and I went to the store afterwards for a few things since we were in town.
I could not wait to get home and shower. I had so much dirt in places I didn't want dirt anymore. I got home, stripped my clothes off and left them on the back porch. I took an extra long shower just so I could wash my hair and body twice. I cleaned out my ears and it seemed like the dirt was never ending. There was dirt in the bottom of the tub that I had to clean out. I went outside after getting some fresh clothes on and used the hose to spray everything down before putting it in the washer.
I relaxed a bit before starting some weekend chores. I am excited to run the race next year and I hope I don't have to wear purple again. Ew.
Next Adventure: Leaving L&I Just to Come Back to L&I: A Journey
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