A Sweet Personal Victory

Good Early Morning!!! I have vowed to squeeze this blog update in before the weekend, even if that means typing it at 6:30 a.m. with my morning coffee. Excuse me in advance if my thoughts are a little groggy.... I stayed up past 11:00 last night and well that RARELY ever happens!!!

My creative juices haven't quite started flowing yet so I am just going to jump right into what everyone is probably wondering..... THE MUD RUN!! And I will not beat around the bush here... FREAKIN AWESOME!!!

Morning wake-up came at 4:45 a.m.... Y'all know I have to have my coffee and the news before I start any day and a race day is no exception here. Even if this means the wake-up time must be before 5:00 a.m. After my little morning routine we quickly got our butts in gear and out the door by 5:50!! It was recommended by another veteran mud run racer that we leave early and get to the base right when the gates open or we risk getting stuck in traffic. So that is exactly what we did and boy am I glad!! We got in quickly with no problems but that was not the case for most of the racers. The traffic was so bad and moving so slow the race was actually delayed a bit to give people a little more time to get into the base! CRAZY!!

GETTING READY TO WALK TO THE RACE

SHOWING OFF MY NUMBER

READY TO ROCK IT OUT!

We were scheduled to take off in the 4th wave which was about 15 minutes after the first group. I will not lie, when our turn came around I was a little nervous. We had checked out the course map on the flyer but I still wasn't sure what was ahead. And more importantly I was anxious about hanging in there for 5 miles. "I can do this" " I can do this" "I can do this" repeated over and over in my head as the gun signal to start rang through the air. We took off for a mile on the beach....but little did we know that 90 percent of the race that lie ahead of us was also almost ALL SAND!!! Running in sand is a bit tougher than running on the pavement..... this definitely made it more of a challenge!!! But I was in kick butt mode (as I usually switch to in any form of physical challenge) and I was not going to let the sand beat me!! I was not going to walk!! I was going to run (jog at a steady pace is my definition of running here)  the entire course!! So no fluff here people..... THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE DID!!! We rocked this race considering it was our first race ever! We ran the last stretch towards the finish line holding hands as observers cheered us on!! Strangers were hollering for us and commenting on how great it was that we were finishing together hand in hand!! The support was amazing.... the feelings that came over me as we crossed the finish line were um amazing!!! I didn't know if I wanted to cheer, laugh, or cry.... to be honest I think I may have done all three!!! Out of 143 couples we came in.......... 24th place!!! AND we looked where I would have placed if I was running in the women's only wave..... I would have come in 16th place!!! I could not be happier with our performance and those results!! Now where we placed in comparison to other people is not important to me, although we impressed ourselves! What matters here was how far I have come. My challenge was with myself and I could have come in last place and still been happy because I did it!!! Simple as that.... I gave it 100% and I did it!!! Last year this race would have been extremely difficult for me. It is magical what a difference a year can make!!

CROSSING THE FINISH LINE.... BEAMING WITH EXCITEMENT!!!

ALL WASHED OFF.... FEELING GREAT!!!

Feel free to check out more pictures on the link below... Just type in 1881 as the bib number and voila!! I must say I got pretty lucky with the candid shots!!

Check out some muddy pictures here!!

We are so pumped to run more races....we are getting ready to sign up for the TOUGH MUDDER that is coming to Virginia Beach in June. This race is designed so that you must complete it with fellow racers.... so we'd LOVE to complete this with some of our friends. What do you think... are you up for the challenge?? Any races you think I should check out now that I've caught the racing bug??

Until Next Time,

Tatiana