I am doing a Tough Mudder. Unless one of you would like to stop me…

That's not a joke. You actually sign one.

I am the type of person who is always up for a challenge. Especially after a few drinks, when everything seems like a great idea. Yoga moves? Right now? SURE! The next thing you know your nose is broken, but you have shown yourself to be a woman who is not afraid of anything, least of all looking like an idiot.

So clearly I was drinking when I signed up for this little ditty.

The Tough Mudder. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. A 13 mile endurance race, designed by British Special Forces. 24 obstacles, involving fire, ice water, and yes, 10,000 volts of electricity.

JUMP! For my love. JUMPING! You know this heart..can fill you up.. JUMP IN

There are 12 foot walls to climb, 15 foot drops to jump from, and underground tunnels to wiggle through. There is a DEATH WAIVER to sign before you start.

Sounds like the perfect way to spend a Sunday.

Casey’s stepbrother is the person who started all of this. He signed up for one in Indiana. It was in the low 40s. He spent the entire race wet, as several obstacles involve water, and at least two involve ice. Multiple people had to drop out due to hypothermia.

Casey got interested and decided to run one, too. IN TAMPA. I don’t want to call him a wimp or anything, but it’s probably less jolting to get wet when it’s 80 degrees than getting wet at 41. Just saying.

I was very proud of my boo. He is the boo in the middle. The other guys are other people's boos.

They both loved it. Hot, cold, didn’t matter. Tough Mudders are fun. And they are not, as his step brother reminded me, races. They are CHALLENGES. And the only way to get through this particular challenge is team work.

Believe it or not, this could be the hardest part for me. I am super competitive. It’s not in my nature to not want to win. My brain is going to think I’m in a race, so right now the biggest part of my training is practicing helping people when I really want to elbow them the hell out of my way.

I also did a technical trail run the past weekend with some friends of mine. My friend Kelly is training for her first ultra, and since an ultra is also on my list of shit I want to do that when I tell people I am doing it they will all look at me and be like why in the hell do you want to do that, I decided to tag along on one of her training runs.

An actual picture from my run. You don't see that shit from a treadmill.

And I LOVED it. Technical trail running is super fun. It was cold and snowy, but that just made it better Tough Mudder training. I was slipping and sliding and dodging branches, but I loved every second of it. Also, there were DEER. Lots of them. At one point there were a group of deer that not only didn’t run from us, but actually stopped and gave us a look as if to say, ‘You know, if we had opposable thumbs instead if hooves, we would be in a nice warm house right now, eating people jerky.’

So ya. April 16^th I will be in Ohio, getting ready to get wet, shocked and muddy.

This is from an obstacle called The Mud Mile. In which you run through...yes. You guessed it. A mile of mud.

I think I have a leg up on my male competitors, though. I have given birth. Twice. Once without drugs. I’m already a Tough Mother. I think I got this Tough Mudder thing in the bag.

Yours in a possible body cast,

Bethany