I don’t run. Well I can…but my kids always shout, “Oh gosh! No! Mom! Please! Don’t run!”
Apparently my arms move 3 times as fast as my feet and if they aren’t yelling at me to stop they are doubled over laughing. I’m a wimpy girl. Sports wise, I’m a woos. I can talk a mean challenge game like, “Heck yeah I play tennis!” (I may not know the rules, but I can hit the ball! …up over the fence…really high…in no direction in particular.) 
So when my sister suggested I do the Dirty Girl Mud Run in Chicago, I didn’t hesitate shouting into the phone, “Heck yeah! I’m flying in!” Course a few weeks before the event I was a bit nervous and had so many questions: What is this run? Will I get hurt? Will I look ridiculous running through mud in public? How do people run in the mud anyway?
I went to the Dirty Girl Mud Run Website and even called the national headquarters (who knew a Dirty Girl could have a headquarters – this is a serious thing) and spoke to a girl who calmed my fears:
1) No one runs…everyone walks. If you run the event is over that much faster and girls want to spend 
time together laughing and talking so they just walk. (Whew!)
2) Sponsors are there with drinks and goodies so I wouldn’t dehydrate or starve.
3) Lots of girls form teams and the teams all go around together.
4) If there is a ‘challenge’ (like a pool of mud) you do have the option to walk around it…(hopefully without ridicule from other teammates). 
Okay….I was calm….and excited again.
My sister and her girls (I was walking) with all created a T-shirt (I can’t do t-shirts – only tank tops) (so I look like an oddball in all the photos where everyone is wearing the same thing but me). Weeks later I was in Chicago and on that hot and sunny day of the Dirty Girl Mud Run (our time was 8:50) I walked with 15 other girls.
It started out fine…till we got to the first mud challenge. To be honest, I was scared. Touch mud? Ew. It just seemed so silly and gross specially since there were so many options to just walk around it. HOWEVER. I promised myself I would do every single challenge.
I don’t promise anything very often…and when I make one to myself, I don’t ever quit. So. I went through every mud obstacle with my head held high and my body deep in wet, disgusting, heavy, dirty blackish yucky mud. (Don’t people pay hundreds of dollars to sit in mud? Ha. Not me!) Each challenge had it’s own reason to use your brain on how to attack it.
But accepting you were going to have mud in every crack in your body (and I do mean every crack) is inevitable. Watching the ladies I was traveling with and seeing what I was about to climb through was often so funny, I couldn’t stop laughing.
At one point I laughed so hard I cried…and when I went to wipe my nose, the mud on my hands got into my nose and my eyes! 
There was no where to wipe my hands to clean them so I could wipe any part of me! Which made me laugh even harder. By the end the mud was completely dry on my skin and the line for the shower was at least an hour. One of the girls noticed a hose with a leak and together we lined up to use that tiny little water sprinkle to wash our bodies down as best as we could.
My shoes were so covered in mud I knew I’d never wear them again. Thankfully they have a booth to donate them right there (socks too!). I had brought flip flops in case this had happened.
Best part? Laughing and experiencing each step of the event with a bunch of my sisters pals. Worst part? Showering at home and finding hard mud stuck in…well…lots of places. (making me laugh all over again!) “How did mud get in there!
Bottom Line: If you get a chance to do this…do it. Gather every cool, fun girl you know – even the older ladies (like 80 years old) and give it a go! It’s fun and funny and the experience of climbing through mud is so weird, unique and laughable, it just makes a new memory for you! It was for me!
REAL Bottom Line: The real bummer is Dirty Girl Mud Run is under new management and the Los Angeles Event has been cancelled. Oh well. When you hear it come back again, make sure you sign up. And email me to be on your team!