Mud Hero!

Back on July 6th, I participated in Mud Hero.

Okay, it's been more than two weeks ago now.  But I only started this blog this afternoon!

I signed up for it because it was for charity, and it looked fun.  I even raised $100 for cancer research instead of only paying the $55 to register.  I know it wasn't much, but I've never been much of a fund-raiser.  But I opted to raise more money for two reasons: I had nothing better to do, and I lost both grandfathers to cancer within the last couple years.  I also have known several people with various types of cancer; I'm even related to several of them.  It seems like every month or two someone else I know gets diagnosed with some form of cancer.  I want to help increase their chances, even if it's only with a tiny contribution.

Anyways ... I signed up thinking "some people walk it in an an hour and a half, some people run it in half an hour minutes.  I can walk six kilometres in forty-five minutes!"  Well, turns out I walk 6Km in just under an hour and when I try to run for part of it, I knock it down to fifty minutes.  That's on a nice country road.  Hills, but nothing crazy.  There was no mud, no obstacles, and no ski hill.

So maybe I should have trained for it.  I tried to walk six kilometres a day for a few weeks, but that's about it.  In the end, it didn't matter.  I came in at 4321 of about six thousand over all.  I walked most of it but ran some to get past slow moving groups.  It was about thirty degrees Celsius before humidity, and I don't function well above twenty-two.  I managed it in eighty minutes and seventeen seconds according to the chip tied on my shoe.

Most of the obstacles wouldn't have slowed me at all, but I had to wait for others to get out of my way.  Except for "light at the end of the tunnel".  I had trouble with that one.  Basically, it's a culvert without the ridges.  Inclined, while you're coated in wet mud.  Once I was inside I couldn't move my legs, so I had to sort of wiggle and hope I was really moving up.  But once my fingertips got to that top end, I pulled myself out.

It was incredibly fun and I can't believe I couldn't convince anyone to come with me.  Well, I did, but one wound up in the hospital with heat stroke the night before and there were communication issues resulting in me not meeting up with the others.  So I showed up alone and 'ran' it alone.

And next year I'd like to do it again.

But I'll train for that.  I want to be able to run it.