We entered into the nastiest race of our lives last Saturday- the Swamp Romp. It's a muddy 5.5 mile course set up by the Marinesthat changes every year to keep the challenge high. Up at 4:30 am, geared in all the attire to keep us from chaffing and dirt clods out of our clothes, ready for the mud! On the drive over Ashley said," Why do you keep signing us up for this stuff?" She's not a morning person, in case you didn't know. We had teamed up with my friend Debbie and her two boys. The race had two qualifications to finish- keep your shoes on and finish together as a team.
We started off just fine, running through little muddy puddles. The kids were pretty much sprinting and splashing- a dream come true for all kids- to finally play in gooey mud! Let me tell you, one of the first things we did was get stuck in a mud pit and literally had to be pulled out by Marines monitoring the obstacle. Everyone coming through was stuck- they put the thickest, hardest mud to get out of at the beginning to see who will make it through. In the second mud/clay lake Hunter lost the entire sole of his shoe. It was either quit or run on a taped shoe for the remainder 4 miles. Hunter chose the tape. On a side note, electrical tape, which looks much cooler than duct tape since it's black, has NO holding power once it is wet. Unfortunately for most of the race that was all we had. So, Hunter continued to run with a boot on one foot and a ballet slipper on the other....with a trail of unraveling tape following him all the way.
We ran on roads, trails, gravel, through swamp and mud. There were also obstacles that had to be crawled through, under, over and jumped- which was pretty funny to see since all our clothes weighed an extra 10 lbs from the mud and water and were trying to fall off. We would have to hike up our pants, hold on, get a running start, and jump over. We even had a frog join us for the race through one of the swamps- couldn't resist adding his photo!
When we thought the end was near (no posted markers), we came around the corner and saw the mile of beach that we had to run on! Through the sand, a swim past a buoy, back on the sand and through more obstacles. We were dog tired. This is when we were able to get the Marines at a station to duct tape Hunter's shoe. His toes were sticking out the front and his heel in the back. I really felt bad for him, but the little dude wouldn't give up.
We only had about a mile left, so we dug deep, cheered on our team and made it through to the finish line- arm in arm. I am so proud of the team. Two almost-40 moms and 4 kids- there weren't many other teams like ours. We passed teams near the finish line who hadn't stuck together and were giving eachother a hard time that they were being passed by a bunch of kids and moms. Most of the teams were made up of military men.
We pondered when we got home what it would have been like to run with Jason on our team. He was our inspiration (knowing he's been doing this kind of stuff for the last 18 years for work) and we are looking forward to having him on Team Tuten next year! I'm sure our time will be much faster. I have included a few pictures and if I get more will post those later.
