You So Dirty, Girl!

So I bet you thought we'd packed up and left, didn't you?  Sorry for the lengthy silence, it's been a slightly crazy month.  But summer is in full swing and we've really missed you!

Since you heard from us last we completed our Bikini Series with Tone it Up and took part in the Dirty Girl 5K in High Point, NC.  What can we say?  We've been on a bit of a fitness roll.

Final thoughts on the Bikini Series:  If these girls say do it, do it!  They know what they are talking about.  This eight week challenge was not always easy to keep up and seriously took some discipline and commitment, but it was absolutely worth it!  I lost a total of 15 inches.  No, that is not a typo.

So go on over to Toneitup.com and check out their weekly workouts.  You can't go wrong following these ladies.

Right in the middle of the Bikini Series we thought it would be fun to get a large group of girls together and run an obstacle course through the mud.  The Dirty Girl 5K Mud Run, supporting Bright Pink (a non-profit organization dedicated to early detection and prevention of ovarian and breast cancers), took place on May 31st and it really did live up to its dirty little name.

Here's a nice little picture of us before we took to the course.  That's me, third from the left, in the obnoxiously huge glasses I borrowed from Rachel.  She's all the way on the far right, in her sassy pants!  Get it, Mama!

Courtney over at The Funky Dot hooked us up with t-shirts and tanks sporting our team name (All American Mudflaps) on the front and our last names on the back. You can see a better picture at the bottom of this post.  Courtney makes all kinds of awesome things--shirts, cups, metal signs, koozies, ornaments and tons more.  Go check her out on Facebook and Etsy!

The day started simply enough, without a ton of mud involved.  I was actually a little surprised at how long it took for us to get nice and nasty.  But once it was on, oh goodness, was it on!

There is nothing quite like wading through knee-deep, muddy water and then crawling through it to duck under a sign to get you covered in goop from shoulder to toes.  And let me just tell you, there's something about your hands being covered in mud that will simultaneously make something on your face itch.  Good luck with that.

Throughout the day, we trudged through muddy water, crawled through muddy tunnels, climbed muddy cargo nets and slid down muddy slides.  There were walls to get up and over and a giant, inflated bouncy pyramid-type thing that took me two tries just to hop up on the first step.

Really, you should YouTube this stuff.  Each course is a little different but this video shows pretty much the same obstacles we did.

The best part of the day was in the just being together as a group.  We definitely pushed each other to keep moving and I've never been a part of a 5K where you heard more laughing, singing and all out merriment than I did with this one.  The ladies all around us were having a blast and were cheering each other on.  People I didn't know were helping me over ladders and making sure I rang the bell at the top of the cargo net.

This one wasn't for bragging rights or prizes.  It was for the pure enjoyment of it.  Because really, getting dirty can be so much fun!

Here we are, all muddied up.  Don't we look just darlin'?

We did learn a couple of things from our experience acting like piggies in slop.  First, it is imperative that you wear some type of eye protection.  One of our dirty girlies got a pretty mean scratch on her eye from debris in the water.  She was wearing sunglasses, like the majority of us, but when muddy water comes at you from out of nowhere, things happen.  One of our girls had actually suggested goggles a few days before and we laughed.  After the eye scratch incident, no one was laughing.

Be prepared to say goodbye to your shoes. And possibly the majority of your other muddy clothes as well.  The people that put on the Mud Run will take your muddy shoes, clean them up as best they can, and donate them.  Do it.  You don't want to worry with them and someone else needs them more.

You will find mud on your body for days later.  I'm not sure how it was possible to take two showers and still have Steven look at me the day after the mud run and say, "Um, is that mud in your ear?"  But that's what happened.  I think I carried ten pounds of mud home with me that day.  And that was AFTER rinsing off in the makeshift garden hose "showers" you can use at the end of the run.  Bottom line?  You're gonna be nasty.  For a while.

If a Mud Run comes to your area, look into it.  Go get dirty with your girls!

One of our Shirts / Courtesy of The Funky Dot!  

The back a fellow Dirty Girl's shirt!