I Did It All By Myself: The Dirty Dash

Yesterday I competed in the first annual Dirty Dash competition up at Soldier Hollow. It was SO much fun! It was hard, but so much fun.

Basically, it was a 10k (6 miles) obstacle course in the mud. I didn't realize it until the race started, but alot of it was uphill. It was harder than I thought it would be, but it was still fun. Granted, I didn't think it would be a piece of cake, but it was even harder than I thought.

First, we had "The Big Pig Climb", which was basically running up a mud hill. It was slippery and muddy, but fun.

Then we ran for a while until we came across one of the snow machines that you see ski resorts have, but this one was spraying water. That water was awfully cold.

Then we ran for a little while again and came across a bunch of bales of hay. I was kind of jealous 'cause alot of people were able to basically run and jump up on to the bales, but I wasn't able to, so I did the tuck and roll over the bales.

Then, we came across a couple of tunnels we had to crawl through. That wasn't bad at all. It would've hurt less if I didn't have a scab on my knee.

Then, I believe the next thing we came across were walls we had to climb over. It was awesome! There was one guy that was dressed up as a superhero. He had on blue tights and he was wearing superhero underpants and he knelt down in the mud and let the ladies use him as a step stool to climb over the walls. I remember saying to him "are you sure?" and he said "I wouldn't be down here if I wasn't".

Then we came across tires we had to step through. Good Lord that was difficult. You know how you see football players run/step through them so fast? Man, I wish I could do that, but I knew if I tried to do that, I'd do a giant face plant, so I just walked through them.

Then, we had a "mystery" element that we didn't know about until the morning of the race. Over by Deer Creek Reservoir, which is right next to Soldier Hollow, it was just a bunch of eewy gooey mud that was about as deep as your calf. The announcer guy said that he lost a couple of shoes in there. Haha! It was disgusting, but fun. After we got done with that part of the race, it was like trying to run with 100 lb blocks on your feet. There was one part of that where I hit a sink hole and got down in to the mud all the way up to my thigh, but only on one leg. Haha!!!

After that, we headed over to the giant slip 'n slide. The slip 'n slide was kind of a disappointment. They did really well at keeping it watered down, but it wasn't very slippery. I ended up just running down it.

Then, last but not least, we headed over to the "Filthy Finish". They gave us specific instructions that we had to CRAWL under the flags on our hands and knees. It was so filthy, but so fun.

They had these makeshift showers for us after the race, but they didn't do very much good. I ended up donating my shoes after the race.

I can't wait to do the race again next year. I think what I loved most about the race is that it wasn't really a race. I don't think anybody was in it to win it. I think everybody was in it to have a good time and play in the mud. If you needed help along the course, everybody was helping each other and cheering you on. It was awesome.

I think next year though, the only thing I'd change is I'd get a hotel near the race for the night before so I don't have to wake up so god awful early to get up there and then I'd be right close so that as soon as the race was over, I could go to the hotel room and shower and get cleaned up before making the 1 hour drive home. Now granted, a 1 hour drive home isn't too bad, unless you're soaking wet and covered with mud. :)

Here are pictures I got from the race:

This is a picture of the "filthy finish" before they filled it up with water.