I ran the Dirty Girl mud run in Tampa Saturday at 8am. That meant I had to be somewhere an hour from my house around 7am, translate to I had to get up really early on a weekend and it was my own idea.  Geez, sometimes even I wonder about me. I don’t think I’ve ever signed up for a run before 10 am because well, it would be before 10am. But check out the payoff.  It was beautiful and foggy when we got there.  Sadly the fog lifted quickly but Little Everglades Ranch is always beautiful.

It seems that Tampa is a saner place than it’s reputation, the early run wasn’t very crowded. Even if it had been it wouldn’t have mattered because they had the sign in process and everything set up really well. This is the first mud run I’ve ever done where I didn’t have to wait to spray the mud off AND there was actually enough water pressure to rinse off.  Nice!

I had originally planned on running this one by myself but I ended up running with a couple of fellow Tampa Bay Bloggers members.  This isn’t one of those races where the obstacles are so difficult you need to run with a team so everyone can help each other, but I had way more fun than I would have running by myself!

I was excited about this race because it is the first obstacle run I’ve done barefoot.  I stashed some running shoes in my backpack in case it wasn’t allowed but the few comments I got were all positive.  I knew Little Everglades Ranch would be a good place to try it though the run did start with a gravel road, I ran beside it in the grass.

Also, this pond is full of pointy rocks on the bottom, that was fun.

The only part I was really worried about was the rope net – I was afraid it would hurt and it did.  Of course I had to pause for a picture at the top just to prove that I had actually done it.

I realized I’m starting to like the walls that you can climb (without a rope), I think because going over the top used to be so scary and now it doesn’t bother me. Any and all progress makes me happy!  Oh, and yes it seems there was a bit of muddy water on my camera lens and also the waterproof camera bag I had it in slipped to the side so several of my pics had a lovely black ring on one side or the other. Someday I’ll have to invest in an actual waterproof camera, but today is not that day.

A fun thing about these mud runs that aren’t crazy hard is you seem to get much, much muddier.  There was a mud pit where you had to crawl under a net to get through, there was just no other way and also some long tubes to crawl through full of nice, dark coffee colored water to go through. I can’t pretend I wasn’t thinking of water moccasins crawling through there. You can’t tell in the pictures because I was wearing black but my clothes  were soaked in thick muddy water. It required quite a bit of scrubbing to get clean afterwards!  There IS a reason they call it the Dirty Girl mud run.

I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about this run.  The parking was close, the organization was stellar and the run itself was a lot of fun.  I would have liked more obstacles but I think that about every run, I love the obstacles!  There was even the mandatory complimentary ice cold beer afterwards (yes, I know it wasn’t even 10 am yet.  don’t judge). I was a little bummed they gave out necklaces instead of the usual medal, but this is a lot more wearable and it IS a women’s run so it fits.  And on that note, my also mandatory showing off of the bling.

After the run I did a couple errands and then headed out to Riverview to visit some friends.  They took us to Sakura for saki and sushi.  I like sushi OK but there are usually maybe 2 vegetarian choices so it’s not my favorite.  I had the AAC roll (asparagus, avocado and cucumber) which was the same ingredients as usual but honestly better than I’d had before and also sweet potato rolls.  These were outstanding!  I also had a seafood salad that was pretty good, it was oddly florescent though which made me wonder why. I also tried saki for the first time. I can’t say it was my favorite. It wasn’t horrible or wonderful, it just was.  I know there are lots of different kinds so I’ll have to try it again.

All in all a pretty great day; Sunday I did as little as possible and enjoyed that as well!