Recap of my very dirty, very muddy, very fun run

As I mentioned on Friday, I disappeared to Georgia this past weekend to run the Dirty Girl Run with fellow (read: awesome) FitFluential bloggers. I stayed with Madeline and very early Saturday morning, we met up with the hilarious Victoria from Victoria Runs to make our way down to Atlanta for the run. I've never met the two of them until this past weekend but our 3 hour road trip ended up flying by because we were having an absolute blast. The three of us clicked immediately and I knew the run would be off to a great start with these two silly ladies by my side.

After arriving to Atlanta, the three of us made a very necessary pit stop at Trader Joe's before making it to the amphitheater to register for our wave. I had a little trouble finding the registration line for my last name since there wasn't anything after "T" but it all worked out when another lovely blogger/runner/new friend Carrissa, pointed me in the direction of a woman registering "randoms". With that minor fiasco out of the way, it was time for the other bloggers and I to meet to prepare for the run.




There was fun music blaring, tons of people cheering, and everyone was all smiles and laughs. It was a crazy atmosphere and seeing everyone dressed up and covered in mud was getting me super pumped up to hurry and start the run. I really wanted to get dirty, pronto!




After what felt like forever, the DJ finally announced the start. While everyone else sped off, we took our time getting to the first obstacle course. Since the run isn't timed, we chose to enjoy the run and the company, and spend as much time at each obstacle course getting as dirty as possible.

And that's exactly what we ended up doing.




Madeline and I promised each other that we would utilize each mud pit and get as much mud on us as possible. Free facials, right?

We had so much fun rolling in the mud, not having a care in the world about what we looked like at the moment, or at how dirty we were getting. We were there to have fun and to get absolutely ridiculous. Clean clothes be damned.




We approached each obstacle with the mindset that we were simply there to enjoy the experience. To not have any pressure to compete during the run was such a huge weight lifted off our shoulders and it felt nice just being able to try something new and different with friends. 



And because there was no competitive edge during the run, we were able to take a ton of hysterical photos - though some are not suitable for the blog ;)

 
After posing for a few safe pics, we tackled yet even more fun obstacles like the Utopian Tubes, a wall climb, and the rope climb to name a few.



We conquered the rope climb like a beast and then made our merry way towards the last part of the run.


 
 We had to go through another mud pit, Pretty Muddy Stuff, this time while getting water sprayed on us by various firemen. It was a super hot afternoon so getting hosed down with ice cold beer (I wish) water felt awesome and was a fantastic way to end the run.



And even more amazingly, we all held hands like long lost BFFs while crossing the finish line. I had so much fun during the run that I honestly did not care one bit that we may have just taken the cheesiest run picture ever in the history of run pictures.



And in even more cheesy picture fashion, we also posed with firefighters who wanted nothing to do with our dirty selves.
 

But there was free, ice cold beer waiting for run participants so we didn't waste too much time getting butthurt by the stingy firemen.

We grabbed our delicious, well-deserved beers, kicked off our dirty sneakers to get recycled, and then posed for one last picture as a group before sadly parting our separate ways.

It was an incredible experience and one that I'm so thankful for having the opportunity to experience. I met great new friends, got dirt in places I've never seen dirt before, and laughed so much my abs burned the next day.

This may not have been the hardest, most challenging run I've ever done, but it definitely brought me out of my comfort zone and opened my mind to the possibilities of trying out even more mud/obstacle runs in the near future. And just like it says on the web site, it was definitely a day I'll never forget.