Pretty Muddy + Sweat Pink Sisters + Oiselle Gear = Pretty Awesome!

Saturday morning I set out bright an early from Emporia to head to Pocahontas State Park in Richmond. I was on my way there for Pretty Muddy Richmond, where I was a blog ambassador.

My race bib.

My friend from Emporia told me to allow about an hour and a half to get to the park. And Pretty Muddy said to get there an hour before start time. Well let me just tell you, I arrived with plenty of time. Got on one of the hayride shuttles and headed off to packet pick up. I had so much time that I hung around and watched the first wave of women before I headed back to my car.

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The first wave of women!

The first obstacle. "Better than a dirty martini"

I sat in my car for a while, answered some emails that needed attention, played a few games and then packed up my bag for the after-mud clean up.

Keeping warm in the car in one of my fave Oiselle 50/50 longsleeve tees.

At about 8:45am I finally decided I would head back to the race start, check my bag, potty and just hang out and watch. I was waiting for the next hayride shuttle and I happened to see a Sweat Pink tank coming towards me. My friend that was supposed to run with my backed out very early on because of work commitments. So I was thrilled to see two faces I knew. I met Darlena and Cara back in April at The Nike Women's Half Marathon with Team in Training. I knew they were coming and I was just hoping that I could find them.

We had to get a pre-mud picture!

We were all wearing our matching Sweat Pink tanks. I have my new Oiselle race singlet but I was not about to sacrifice it to the mud. I did wear my Oiselle Lesley Knickers though. They were the perfect choice. The longer leg kept my knee mostly scratch free and the fit kept mud of out of unmentionable places.

We headed towards the race start and waited a few minutes. Before I knew it were we off and running. We had to run 3.1 miles with 11 obstacles. Every obstacle had volunteers to give you the necessary instructions and to help you if needed. Each obstacle also had the option to go around it if you just couldn't handle the mud.

Here are the obstacles and the run down:

1. Better Than a Dirty Martini: A tunnel with bubbles.
2. The Original Mud Slide: A giant blown up slide with mud at the bottom. I lost my shoe in the mud and had to go back for it!
3. So Over It: A wall that kid of looked like a pallet on it's end.
4. Totally Tubular: Crawling through a muddy tube.
5. Over and Out: We had to climb over one wall with a small ledge, then got to another wall in the middle of a mud pit and climb over it. It had no ledge though. Thankfully Darlena gave me a leg up.
6. So Over it: Again.
7. Social Networking: A giant A-frame rope climb.
8. A Leg Up: High knees through a ropes section then under a ropes section.
9. Wood You Rather: We had to run/walk with a log on our shoulders.
10. Over and Out: Just like the last time, but we had to go under the second on submerging us in mud.
11. Mud Bath and Beyond: Crawling under ropes while the mud got deeper and deeper.

We were Pretty Muddy by the time we go to end but it was oh so fun! We crossed the finish to be greeted with a finishers medal, a drink and a protein bar.

PRETTY MUDDY!

And again!

They had cleaning stations with hoses set up for about thirty women at a time. The line moved pretty quickly. Then we headed to the changing tent. They had about 16 private sections to change your clothes in. There were some food and beer vendors set up for post race, along with pretty muddy gear. We decided to head home to our kiddos instead of hanging out though.

I was pretty happy with all of the race amenities. I only have two complaints about the entire experience.  One complaint was that we didn't see the photographer very often. We'll see what my pictures look like. Two, was that at the finish they handed us Propel water, it was strawberry kiwi. I asked if they had other flavors because I am allergic to strawberry. The only other flavor they had was berry so I opted to pass. This is only annoying because the non-flavored water was a really tiny cup versus a full bottle of propel.

My medal with my clean Oiselle distance shorts.

Such a fun race experience. I got to get muddy, which I normally don't do. I ran with two other girls that I don't know all that well but got a chance to have fun with. And I got to introduced them to Oiselle which they had never heard of. (By the end of the day I had worn four different Oiselle pieces. My long sleeve shown above to keep warm, my knickers to race in, my distance shorts to come home in and my runfinity scarf with my clean clothes after my shower at home.)

How was your weekend?

God Bless.