Dirty Girl Mud Run

Oh Dirty Girl, you did me dirty and did me well.  What a fun event!  Fair warning – this post will be long and picture heavy.

When I was first approached (along with a group of other local bloggers) by Dirty Girl about being a part of the Dirty Girl Mud Run here in Tampa, I admit that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to participate as an “ambassador” or not.  I had just had the pleasure of being a part of the Pretty Muddy series mud run and almost felt like I would be cheating on Pretty Muddy by doing the Dirty Girl mud run.   After some talks with Pretty Muddy though, as well as some other bloggers who participated in Pretty Muddy, I decided I would do it.  And I am so glad that I did.

From the Dirty Girl’s website:

Dirty Girl is a 5k mud run for women of all ages and athletic abilities. Don’t worry, it’s not a “race” in the traditional sense.
It is an untimed obstacle course designed to push you slightly out of your comfort zone, but only as far as you are comfortable going. Forming teams is encouraged, and so is helping your fellow Dirty Girls get through to the finish. At a Dirty Girl Mud Run you’ll find excitement, laughter, and camaraderie—as well as lots of music and even some adult beverages. It’s a day you’ll never forget.

 I was excited to take part in this event since I had had so much fun at the Pretty Muddy event in November.  I was interested to see how the courses would differ, especially considering they were being held at the same location, Little Everglades Ranch in Dade City, Florida.  My husband was in town and came along, so this time, I knew I would get some great pictures (you might remember I had lost my camera on site for Pretty Muddy and it wasn’t found until later).  You just can’t beat having your own personal photographer follow you around the entire course!

I was scheduled to participate in the first wave of the morning, 8 AM, along with all the other ladies of the team dubbed, Dirty Bloggers.  I arrived about 20 minutes before the start time.  It was a foggy, cool morning with promise of gorgeous blue skies.

Check in was a breeze and after I was given my race t-shirt, commemorative necklace and bib, I headed over to gear check.   At an event like this, you always want to be prepared for post race! I made sure to bring a changes of clothes, flip flops, baby wipes and a towel!

Once I checked my bag, I met up with the other bloggers and made my way to the start.  They had some Zumba instructors there leading the ladies through some zumba moves to get us warmed up before the start.  As you can see, I was really enthused by the zumba.

I can’t Zumba….I just don’t have the ability to make my body work out all that coordination….so I happily watched everyone else and kept my dignity intact by standing in the back and not subjecting others to the hot mess of me trying to Zumba.  After the Zumba warm up, we were off!  We ran a short distance through a barn and around to our first obstacle – a bubble slide (see me in the middle near the top):

photo credit

The bubble slide was fun, took a second to figure it out but wasn’t as had as I thought it would be.  Next up was our first opportunity to get dirty:

Just a little walk through the mud.

Next up was a chance to clean off those muddy shoes:

 

My husband was so amazing and, as I said earlier, followed us around the entire course.  At one point he had to run along in front of me – such a good sport!

Next up was one of my favorite obstacles – the slide!

It was easy to climb, high and a fast slide.  The only complaint I have is that the bubble at the bottom pretty much “caught” you and kept you from ending up in the mud.  In a mud run, you kind of want to get muddy.

 There was one girl in our group that landed “just right” on that blue bumper – and she was bounced head first into the mud.

Next up was an over and under and another mud pit.  Finally, it was one that required us to get down and dirty! No need to make us just walk through it – we came to have to crawl through it too!

Finally – we got to be dirty girls!

At this point in the race we came out into the open fields and sort of zig zagged back and forth with several obstacles.  The hubs got pictures of most of them.  He did miss a wall we climbed over and a tire high step obstacle.

The obstacles were fun, but I was wishing for more “mud” – and I got a little bit of it toward the end.

This one obstacle was frustrating:

You either had to crawl on your hands and knees, which really hurt the knees.  Or crawl hands and feet, which was not a very flattering position – thankfully no one was behind me for that view with my butt in the air!  I was glad to jump off that one and move one!

The grand finale – a quick run through the mud.  I just couldn’t bring myself to just run through it though…so Misty and I crawled through it.

 

That was fun!

The ladies I finished with: Caitlyn, Misty, Jacqueline and Genna.

The rest of the Tampa Bay Lady Bloggers caught up with us at the end and we got a few group shots.

From L to R (I am so sorry I didn’t get the name of the girl between Mary and Jessica):

Margarita, Mary, Jessica, Meghann, Nicole, Genna, Caitlyn, Jenny, Me, Denise, Jackie, Raffi, and Caroline.

One thing that Dirty Girl did that I loved and appreciated was the clean up tent!

Inside the tent was a long row of fencing with water hoses on rolled out carpet grass and plenty of space to change.  It was nice having the ability to strip down and hose off in a semi private environment.

I really enjoyed doing this run with the the Tampa Bay Lady Bloggers and Dirty Girl did a great job of putting on a fun and safe event.  Thank you to Dirty Girl for allowing me to be a part of this event.

**Disclosure** Although I was contacted by Dirty Girl and given a free race registration, my review of the race and all my opinions are my own.