Day out with Brenden

A couple months ago Brenden was on the website called runningwall.com and he showed me a race he really wanted to do called the Mud Run. It is sponsored by the University of Iowa, but was two hours away in Des Moines, Iowa in Sleepy Hollow Park.   If you are unfamiliar with a Mud Run, it goes like this: 1 Mile or 3.1 mile course through fields of high grass, loose terrain, rocks, ruts, water, sand, thick mud, pond, obstacles like hay bales to climb, huge tree stump to climb over, tunnels to crawl through, ropes to climb over and under, and a very large steep ski hill to climb.  Originally we just signed up for the 5K (3.1 mile run) however Brenden and I both understood that the finisher medal went to everyone that raced, later we found out that we had read the registration wrong and that the finisher medal would only go to those who did the 1 mile fun run that wasn't timed.  So we ended up doing both races.  Only unfortunate things were these:  I am still suffering from a very tight IT band so the last 2 miles of my race were painful and I walked more than I wanted to.  Also the weather was only 50 degrees and a little breezy.  Very chilly for a day running through water and mud.  Great day overall.  I now believe I can run in absolutely any weather condition and through any course.
Our stats are as follows:
Brenden's time was 29:25.6    He placed 12th in his age group out of 41 and 79th out of 598 total people.
My time was 41:41.5  I placed 14th in my age group out of 28 and 410th out of 598 total people.

We both might have been a little faster had we not just ran the 1 mile mud fun run that wasn't timed.

Here is our first picture of the day.  Brenden and I before our Mudd Run race.  We were in the car staying warm because it was only 50 degrees out.

This was in our race packet with a brochure on poison ivy and that's all that was in our packet, guess it was a warning of what might happen to us.

Our 5K race was chip timed, but these chips were in special bracelets you wear on your arms.  We felt like power rangers!

Here is Brenden after the 1 mile race, he is proudly wearing his finishing medal and showing off his Mud Run towel.  He doesn't appear too muddy, but we were loaded in mud up to our knees.  Neither of us fell down so our mud stayed low on our bodies.

Not sure if you can tell but my shoes were super muddy.  My pink socks were now brown.  I should have had Brenden take a picture of my back because I had mud up my back.

close up of the shoes.

posing with our mud run towel.  This picture was taken after our 5K race.  Again,  I don't look too muddy, but I walked a bunch in places that could have splashed me so that I would stay mostly clean.  We had a long drive home so I didn't want mud all over me.

Here's a close up picture of me after the 5K race.  I had quite a bit of mud on me.

After we both cleaned up a bit we went to Bass Pro Shops that is located in Des Moines.  Brenden has always wanted to go there and since we hardly ever travel to Des Moines this was a great day to go.

Brenden standing in front of the 30,000 gallon aquarium inside Bass Pro Shops  pointing to a massive catfish.

Brenden with a stuffed bear.

Brenden with a stuffed cougar.

Our Mud Run towel.  Actually we both earned two of these each because we both did two races.

The finishing medal we both had to have.  Sometimes it's just worth it to run 4 miles!!!

Our Mud Run shirt

Now for the best part.  There was tons and tons and tons of food and the volunteers kept saying to everyone to come get more, so I took them up on that and kept getting in line.  here is just a sampling of what we received.  This picture is of the leftovers after we both had some bagels, chex mix and honey roasted peanuts.