By Nikki Golden
Men came for the free mud wrestling. Women came for the empowerment of completing a non-threatening 5K obstacle course. Both groups got their wish this weekend as the Dirty Girl Mud Run came to town.
This past weekend, the Lake County Fairgrounds were transformed into a 5K track with obstacles such as One Ugly Mudder (a mud hill you had to both scale and descend), Get a Grip (a 12-foot-plus cargo net you had to climb up and down), H2OMG (a water pit you had to crawl through) and the final obstacle, PMS, which stood for pretty muddy stuff, a mud pit you had to crawl through like a snake.
As someone who has never done a 5K or obstacle course in her life, it was daunting to think about. Now that I’m done, I wonder what all the worry was for. The atmosphere was celebratory as women of all ages, shapes and sizes cheered one another on to complete an obstacle or to just make it through. There was no time limit or really even any one keeping track of time – or distance, for that matter.
Disclaimer: I was a big fat chicken and skipped the Just Get Over It (wall climb) obstacle. It was the one I had been dreading since I lack upper arm strength. What I hadn’t anticipated was how high in the air it was, playing on my fear of heights. Once at the top, I couldn’t for the life of me fathom how I’d get my legs over the other side without passing out, so I climbed down and went around. But at least I tried.
At the end, everyone was so mucked up, you couldn’t tell your teammates from the rest of the crowd, which seems only fitting for an event that’s meant to make women feel the camaraderie of accomplishment.
Here’s a taste of what it was like, via YouTube user gretchin78:
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Nikki Golden edits This Week in the Beachwood, which you can subscribe to over there on the right. She welcomes your comments.
Posted on July 2, 2012