Nature's Real "Mud Run"

 If you haven't noticed, mud runs and obstacle races are becoming increasingly popular among Americans. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for jumping into sub-zero degree ice baths, army crawling under barbed wire and leaping over smoky bails of fiery hay. Seriously. I am.



I have completed two Tough Mudders over the last two years. The first started at 9:00 a.m. on a cold April morning in 2012 -- the temperature was a 32-degrees. The first obstacle was the Artic Enema, a cargo container filled with ice and frigid 34-degree water. Shear pain and pure disorientation are understatements.

The second Tough Mudder was on a beautiful August day in 2013. The sun glistened on my dye-stained skin when I climbed out of the cargo container filled with blue icy water. The warmth of the sun made the enema more bearable than my first experience. As I climbed down the ramp on the other side, my best friend was peeing her spandex (literally), a grown man was hunched over throwing up his breakfast, and my better half was gasping for air as I reached back into the container to assist. It was intense, but it also brought on an indescribable level of camaraderie between my teammates and me.  That's why I love these runs.



TM team, 2012

Artic Enema, 2012

TM team, 2013
 

Often in life we are incredibly busy, filling up each day with as much as possible so we can flop into our beds at night utterly exhausted in hopes of sleeping well.  Trail running is true escapism.  The Rachel Carson Trail Challenge (RCTC) is a different kind of "mud run."  A run where the spiritual veil is thin, the earth feels quiet, and the true challenge comes when your sanity begins to evaporate in the sweltering summer air. MC's shouting "Ooorah!," loud music and large crowds won't carry you through. Your spirit will.

While the Tough Mudder boasts in its greatness and level of badassery, the Rachel Carson presents a  more primitive yet humbling experience.

"While the trail is blazed with yellow blazes, there will be an occasional missing blaze where a tree has fallen or when you are following a logging road, a power line or gas line; there will be blow downs, washouts, poison ivy, nettles, bugs, loose gravel and rocks, gullies, and wet stream crossings. There are no switchbacks on the trail; all hills — some are quite steep — are traversed directly up and down. You must be prepared to expect the unexpected and think the unthinkable." - RCTC website

Credit: Random Rachel Carson Blog

For my 28th birthday, my partner signed both of us up for the Challenge.  The selection process works like a lottery of sorts. It operates on "karma points," points that you earn through volunteering to clean up the trail. Although I love the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and all of the trails in Pittsburgh, I have yet to volunteer to maintain the Rachel Carson trails. Despite our lack of karmic point collecting, we actually got into the Challenge! We recently received this super awesome email: 

At this point panic would typically set in. I would freak out, over train for a few days, and inevitably injure myself.  But the one thing that I've learned over my last few runs and challenges is that you truly do need to enjoy the journey.  Don't panic. Prepare.  Inevitably I will experience a myriad of emotions (kind of like this) during the RCTC.  I will definitely crash into the dreaded "wall," when my brain is saying you're a big giant loser and you can't make it, like "Run Fat Boy Run" -- one of the best running movies of all time. I still get chills and sob like a small child who just wrecked her banana-seat bike every time I watch this scene. I hope you enjoy it too.



What are you waiting for? Go tie up those laces.