The Dirty Dash

I still need to get pictures from all of my family who had a camera up at Soldier Hollow on Saturday, but I figure that I'll at least start talking about what I did this weekend.

The Dirty Dash was hands down the most fun event that I have ever participated in! The weather couldn't have been better, the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful - with all of the trees changing into their fall colors. And the mud? It was everywhere!

What started out as a solo event for me several months ago when I first heard about a mud run in Utah, quickly morphed into two teams of family and friends. I would mention this race to friends and family members, and they would immediately want to do it too. I am so glad that we did it as a team, we encouraged each other and it only added to the fun.

The organizers of the race certainly didn't skimp on the mud! The race started off with a scramble up a muddy, slippery hillside that was kept muddy and slippery with a fire hose continually spraying it down. Then we went into switchbacks through the beautiful fall foliage. I need to mention here that I absolutely love trail running! Two years ago I would tell anyone who even looked like they may be listening that I hated running - it was of the devil - but all that changed this weekend.

Just about the time we were enjoying the nice peaceful trail run, there would be a new obstacle; a snow making machine spraying out ice-cold water at high velocity onto the course, big hay bales that we had to climb over tunnels that we had to crawl through, tires we needed to step through, and walls that we needed to scale - all served up with a generous helping of mud.

The organizers said on the website that there was a "secret" obstacle, and we soon found out that the course took us through the swamps at the north end of Deer Creek reservoir. Some of the blackest, stickiest, and nastiest mud I have ever seen. I'm certain more than one person stepped into that muck, and didn't come out with their shoe still attached to their foot.

After we extracted ourselves from the swamp, we had just two more obstacles left - and I feel reasonably confident in saying that every competitor was looking forward to these obstacles the entire race. After a short run up the hill, we got to slide back down on the world's biggest slip-n-slide! It was so much fun that some people went back up to slide again. After the slide, the final obstacle - which you can see behind us in the picture - the pig sty. No one was coming out of that clean!

I went into this with only two goals: have fun, and get as dirty as possible. I'm happy to report that both goals were met. I'm not going to show any of the after pictures now. You'll just have to come back when I post those - which will be soon.

A big thanks to the organizers, and volunteers who worked very hard to make this such a great event. And a huge thanks to Lizzie, Hunter, Kim, Greg, Mandi, Pricilla, Katie, Seth, and Tracy (who flew from California just to run with me - thanks cuz!!) who are as crazy as me, and were willing to do this with me. Every one of us had a blast, and said repeatedly that we're coming back next year for more!