Losing It...... 3.1 Miles At A Time: Mud Factor!!!!


Losing It Sib Lena before the event. OH NO WHAT AM I DOING!!

On Saturday June 30th, 2012 Losing It Sib Lena and Losing It Momma headed to Millington, Mi for a little bit more than your normal 5k. This race was not really a race as much as a challenge. The first ever for Lena and my first obstacle course we both were a tad nervous.

I started getting nervous the night before. It wasn't so much that I thought I couldn't do it but I always get nervous when I think I will be the largest woman there. I have never had anyone say anything to me but I always imagine that I will hear "go get a twinkie fatty" or "what the hell do you think you are doing here". Basically I bully myself a bit before anyone else gets the chance. I had trouble sleeping the night before because of all these negative thoughts and trying to figure out how I would deal with this situation if it did come up.

The morning of the event I had to drive Losing It Little to his grandparents house since Losing It Daddy was taking care of the other two children. I just thought the stress would be lessen if he only had two children rather than all three. I also had to pick up Losing It Sib Lena so it wasn't an out of the way trip. Lena and I headed for Millington around 7 am to make sure we had plenty of time to get signed in before our wave at 10 am. Had I looked at the map and not listen to my GPS I would have known I had PLENTY of time and would have gone another way. I wasn't sure where Millington was but I knew Birch Run and it was only down the street from the outlet mall.

We arrived around 8:30 and the first wave wasn't set to go until 9:30. We decided to get signed in and walk around to see if we could see any of the course. I could see the large slip n' slide.


The white piece behind the trees is the slip n'slide at the 1.5 mile mark

We could also see a few other man made obstacles. The up and overs (or for me the help over one, roll under one) and the cargo net/wall climb.

I was also starting to feel better as I saw a few more "larger" women. No one was as large as me but the fact that there were not super fit people attempting this made me feel a lot better about my decision to try.

At 9:30 the first wave was off. Of course everyone started jogging at first. I then started to see people slowing down and walking (YAY! I won't be the only one!!) It took a good 15 minutes until we could see anyone again ad when we did my heart sank. I didn't notice before but in the distance was a board propped up on a hill. To get to the top of the embankment you had to run up as fast as possible and grab for the top, pulling yourself up. I saw many people try it many times only to slide back down and try again. Those same "fit" runners were having issues I figured it would next to impossible for me, but I was going to try each thing 3 times before continuing so I was going to try when it was my turn. We were able to watch most of the people make it through to the slip n' slide before it was our turn.

The 10 am wave started to line up around 9:55 and getting pumped for what we were about to do. When we were told we could go everyone started into a jog. We got about 100 yards before we started to hit small hills (this was on a dirt bike track so they were small jumps for the bikes). We got over the hill and noticed a line an the entrance to the woods. Once we got there we saw why there was a line. A small path through the trees with sticks and fencing were only large enough for people to go in a single file line. When we got through the woods we came to a ditch with a stream through it. We had to get in the water and wade our way out. This would be the shallowest stream coming up to my calf (1 foot or so). Getting out of the water we were back onto the course and had a few more hills and ditches to climb in and get out of.

We started coming to larger hills but since we live in Michigan these were much different than the sand dunes up north. The main thing to remember was to use the foot holes someone else had already made. Also a little jog up helped getting to the top. After about 15 minutes we came to the board I saw when we watched the first wave. There was a line of people running at it, reaching for the people at the top, missing and sliding back down. A few of the other male runners stayed behind to lend a hand at the top of the ramp for the rest of the group. I let everyone have a shot before I tried to get to the top. I ran, tripped on the bottom of the board and only made it one foot up before sliding down. Most of the group had made it up to the top but 3 of us were still trying. Lena, being as small as she is, was very easy for the guys to grab ahold of and pull up, but she still had a few tries before she got to reach the guys. On my second try, being the only one left, two guys made a chain so I didn't have as far to go to reach them. I still had about 2 - 3 feet to get up to reach them. I ran, reached and grabbed hold. Then as they pulled, I walked. I DID IT! I was so happy since that was the one I feared the most and it only took two tries.

We had some more water hazards that were deeper and had more mud causing us to slip as we tried to climb out. It really became a team effort on a few of the mud slicked embankments as Lena and I would help push some people out and then they would in turn pull us out. At one point I told someone Lena only weighed 95 lbs so he could just rip her out of the valley. As soon as I got the words out, I saw my sister go flying through the air. It was quite funny to see this big guy basically throw her a good 2 feet. She landed safely and we kept moving.

It was very hot and we really needed some water. We were very happy to come up to the water station and water slide. After downing 3 glasses of water we jumped on the slide. I lost my bib on the way down but found it in the water, shoved it in my bra and went on. Cooling down helped as we got to a 15 foot, steep hill side we had to climb. We stayed behind some people to kind of spot them as they made their way up and they, in turn, helped pull us up when we were close enough. We had a few more water hazards to swim through and climb out of. One I saw a frog and living in my house it has been engrained by Losing It Daddy to yell "FROGGY" and try to catch it. After a few seconds I thought about it and would not know what to do with it when I caught it, so I kept going.

We started to come back to the crowd and that meant more man made challenges. We had to climb over a cargo container with a wooden fence on one side and a cargo net on the other. Crawl on our stomachs to get through the mud under "barbed" wire. The most fun we had was the up and overs. I couldn't get over the lowest one because of my height and size. I tried a few times and almost made it but couldn't get enough of a jump to get it. Lena said she wanted to go over all of them, even the ones you could crawl under or go over. So she got on her hands and knees and I used her to push over the short ones and I did the same for her on the tall ones. She got her wish of going over all 4 fences and I was able to complete the challenge. We also had a tall, maybe 20 foot, cargo net climb and fence climb down the other side with a 5 foot drop.

We did the whole event in 1 hr 10 minutes and enjoyed every minute of it. The obstacles were challenging but nothing someone couldn't do with a little help. Not once did I hear a remark about my size, which is usually more in my head anyways. I felt so good (and sore) from this challenge and would love to do it again next year.

Here are some photos from after the race and people in the following waves completing the end of the course.