It's been an embarrassingly long time. For crying out loud, we haven't even posted the damn Gobi (half) marathon pictures on here. I should make it a goal to run at least one event every month. But, I know how I am, and that will never happen. So, enjoy this post while it lasts-- it's a good one!
On Halloween, I did the Madison Mud Run with some friends.
After a lot of begging, pleading (and probably crying on their end) we ended up with a great group of seven misfits. Why I look like I'm half in the bag, I have no idea. The bench we were standing on was wobbly...Anyway, the woman on the right in the back row was the only other person who wanted to do it initially. She and I recruited everyone else. 
Our costume theme was "death angels." That meant wings, tutus and a red/black color scheme. Everything else was up for grabs. These are my colleagues from work, Angela and Will, who braved it with me. Naturally, Angela agreed first. Will's initial response was "F@!* NO I won't do it." Of course, I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it the most-- at least the costume part. 
Of course it was FREEZING at the time of the start. I was outvoted, and my team opted to accept a 5-minute penalty to avoid having to run through the waist deep water. I'm embarrassed to even type that-- we were death angels. What was the worst that could have possibly happened? Oh yeah, we got booed at the water crossing. Obstacles consisted of: jumping over hay bales, crawling through tubes, and an inflatable slide (my personal favorite).
Oh yes, of course there was the mud pit.
Some of us embraced the mud more than others, but we all made it through. I got a wing caught in the final rope and almost broke my neck, but all in all, we had a great time. One of Angela's other children is interested in running with us at the next event, and Mr. F@!* NO is already trying to get us to agree on costumes for May. At one point he said something about swimsuits, but I'm vetoing that one now... 
Lastly I cannot finish without any injury report. While this is almost to shameful to write, it actually makes it all the better. Naturally I had no chance in hell of making it unassisted over the SIX FOOT WALL. The woman standing by it refused to give me a "leg up"-- but shoved me over by heaving my butt straight up into the wall. The result, the bruise below (located daintily on my inner thigh). It's actually pitch black in color, and you get an idea of the size by the quarter I put next to it. So, not only did my fat thigh jam into the wall once, but TWICE. I would guess the reverberations were felt a mile down course--. At least I managed to keep my pants from falling down upon leaving the mud pit. I guess that counts for something.
