Sometime during the summer I noticed that people from Twin Town Crossfit were putting together a team for the MS Twin Cities MudRun. Blinded by my desire to be THAT muddy and scramble over obstacles for a few hours, I abandoned my common sense and marathon planning, and signed up. In hindsight, I recognize the foolishness of competing in such an event a mere three weeks before one’s first marathon.
On the drive there I kept reminding myself to keep a lid on it during the race and to take care of my body. Then the gun went off and all my adrenaline took over. Luckily I rolled my ankle fairly early on which was extremely painful and just enough to remind me that I had a marathon to be thinking about and I would NOT be impressed with myself if I got injured. After that I focused hard on staying safe and tried to balance my desire to be fast with the knowledge that I needed to stay healthy. I have to say, CrossFit really prepares you for an event like that. I didn’t even have to think twice about most of the obstacles because I knew my body could handle them based on what I put it through on a normal day at TTCF. The whole team had a great time and finished easily and feeling pretty good at the end. While I recognize that it might not have been the most prudent move I’ve ever made, I emerged relatively unscathed and actually a great deal more confident about my ability to complete the marathon (which won’t have walls I have to climb over and logs I have to crawl under). And besides, life is short, and check out that happy, muddy face in the picture. Totally worth it.
