Color Runs and Obstacle Races (Tuesdays on the Run)

On Tuesdays I am joining a link up with MCM Mamma Runs, Run the Great Wide Somewhere and My No Guilt Life. You can find out more about the link up here.

This weeks topic: Going Off-Road: Obstacle Runs, Color Runs, etc

Color Runs

I have been lucky enough to participate in four color runs – three via The Color Run (two in Philadelphia, one in central PA), and one through Color Me Rad (in Philadelphia). 

I enjoyed all of them, and had a great time completing a 5k with groups of friends. I really think that color runs are a great way to get people moving that wouldn’t otherwise complete a 5k. They are all about having fun and enjoying yourself. I always giggle to myself when I see people with headphones and GPS watches on – these races are not a serious race. If you do one, don’t worry about time- just enjoy yourself! In fact, at the last one I did, my friend was recovering from knee surgery so we just walked the whole thing and had a ton of fun!  If you want to read about my experience at The Color Run in Philadelphia in 2012 or the Color Me Rad race in Philadelphia in 2013 feel free to click those links.

Obstacle Runs

I have also been lucky to experience both The Warrior Dash and the Dirty Girl Mud Run. Both are mud/obstacle courses that are approximately 5k long but they are totally different experiences. Dirty Girl Mud Run has a “girl power” kind of feel to it. Lots of women do it in groups (there are very few men that I saw on the course) and there is lots of pink. It is great for a first time obstacle course because a lot of the obstacles are really fun inflatable things – like a huge slide!  My race recap of the Dirty Girl Mud Run is here.

 

The Warrior Dash is a little harder than the Dirty Girl Mud Run – the obstacles tend to be higher and more difficult. But in the realm of obstacle races I would bet the Warrior Dash is still much easier than the Spartan Race or Tough Mudder. However, for me, The Warrior Dash is about as difficult as I would get. My race recap of the Pennsylvania Warrior Dash in 2012 is here.

Overall, I think color and mud runs are a great way to have fun and have a race experience that will challenge you in ways different from road races. I totally recommend that if you haven’t checked out a color run or mud run that you do. There is definitely something for everyone!

 

 

Dirty Girl Mud Run Promo Code

Just a quick post to share a promo code I received!

If you are interested in participating in the Dirty Girl Mud Run Pittsburgh Race on June 14 I received a promo code that will get you $10 off registration. The code is BLOGFRIEND.

In addition, if you are interested in going to a Dirty Girl Mud Run race in a different location, you can contact Dirty Girl, let them know you read about this opportunity on Diary of a Slow Runner and they will give you a promo code for that location.

I loved the Dirty Girl Mud Run in Pittsburgh when I did it last year –> race recap is here, so I highly recommend checking out their race if you are interested in a fun, girl oriented mud run!

Side note: how appropriate to be sharing this on National Running Day! 🙂

I received no compensation for this post, and receive no compensation if you register using the promo code written above. I was contacted with the promo code and wanted to share it!

Dirty Girl Mud Run Revisited

Hey guys, I just wanted to share that my Dirty Girl Mud Run Recap has been published on runmudrun.com – a site by Competitor (the recap on their site is here). If you are interested in reading all about the different mud runs out there I highly encourage you to check their site out. They have some great recaps/pictures/etc to show you what they are like!

I was not paid for this post. I was contacted by Competitor and asked if they could use my content on their site for free. 

Dirty Girl Mud Run (Race Recap)

On June 8th I completed the Dirty Girl Mud Run in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This was my twelfth race of my 13 in 2013 goal!

I signed up because my friend was signed up to do it with a team and she invited me to join in. There ended up being 23 of us on our team! Since I had previously done the Warrior Dash, I was excited to see what an all-female mud run would be like.

We got to the parking lot and were bussed to the race area. We were signed up for an 11:30 wave and I think got there around 10. We had plenty of time to take the bus, check in, go to the bathroom (twice), and wait around.

The check-in was a little jumbled and I think could probably be streamlined. There was one line to check in with ID and get your bib. Then another to get your shirt and necklace. Then another where you had to show ID again to get a wristband for the post-race beer. Though at the finish, you needed your actual ticket in addition to the wristband to actually get the beer. All of the check-ins didn’t take long, but I do think it could be streamlined a bit. Really though, that’s my only complain, and it’s a minor one.

We got in the start corral right before our wave went off. The announcer did a good job of getting everyone pumped up, and then we were off.

The first obstacle we came to was sort of like a tire run. Except it was one big pink inflatable with holes in it. We ran through it like you would if you were running over tires.

The second obstacle was a pink inflatable thing that you climbed up and then sort of bounced down.  (picture from the Dirty Girl Mud Run Facebook Page)

It was really fun to bounce down the other side!

The next one we came to was a simple wall. It had “rungs” on each side so you could climb it up and then down. There was one part of it that was shorter than the rest in case you wanted a little less of a challenge. And it was pink. 🙂 Compared to the walls at the Warrior Dash, I would say it was about 1/2 to a 1/3rd of the height. I had no issues going over it.

The fourth obstacle is what Dirty Girl calls the “funky monkey”. Basically it’s a horizontal cargo net. For me this was probably the most physically tough obstacle on the course, because I sort of had to figure out how to scoot along the cargo net without having my feet fall through or get caught. Having knee high socks really helped for this one too. I didn’t have to worry about much rope burn. Overall though, I wouldn’t say it was hard.

Now the obstacles sort of blend together, so I may get the order wrong. But I belive the fifth obstacle we came to was “under over.” There was a wall to go under, which was low enough that you had to get on the ground. Then there was a wall to climb over. It was graded more so it wasn’t quite vertical, and had a rope and rungs. 

 (picture from the Dirty Girl Mud Run Facebook Page)

After under over, we came to the bungee maze. This was a pretty unique obstacle that was fun to get through. 

 (picture from the Dirty Girl Mud Run Facebook Page)

After that we started getting nice and muddy with a good old-fashioned mud pit. A couple of my teammates sort of belly-flopped in, I opted to walk my way through. It wasn’t too deep but I got pretty muddy from it splashing around.

From there we had to wait in a line (for probably a good 15-20 mins) to go through the H2OMG. I have no idea why there was such a line here, but we took the opportunity to people watch and enjoy ourselves. It wasn’t about our time, afterall. The H2OMG was basically a pool of COLD water that went about to the top of your legs. It wasn’t hard, just cold. I’m not sure why it was so backed up. But it was fun to run in our squishy shoes at to the next obstacle.

The next obstacle was a cargo climb. Basically a vertical cargo net that you went up and down. It was pretty high. There was a bell at the top that you could ring too.

The only obstacle I skipped was the next one, called “utopian tubes.” Basically they were black tubes on the ground that I assume were filled with mud. You had to crawl through them. I skipped them because I am claustrophobic so I knew that if I got in behind someone and someone was behind me blocking my “way out” I would freak. So I walked around it (you could easily walk around any of the obstacles) and waited for my team.

The last obstacle was probably my favorite. A giant pink inflatable slide!!! You climb up the back, and they had a volunteer instructing you as to when you could slide down into the mud pit at the bottom.

You can sort of see me in the far end of that photo, I’m the one sitting in the mud. haha. My friend managed to land on her feet, I didn’t have that kind of luck. 🙂

From there we all ran/walked/slipped our way to the finish line. You really couldn’t run much at that point because it was just so muddy. When we crossed the finish there was a professional photographer who took our picture (that we can buy for a price, of course).

From there my friends went to find their husbands with their bags to get their drink tickets. I didn’t bother because I didn’t feel like slip sliding my way around to get a drink ticket for a beer.

After a few photos we made our plan for getting cleaned up. I donated my sneakers and then just walked around in my socks (which were pretty padded to protect me from the ground). Dirty Girl actually has a hose-off tent and a private changing tent that I thought was pretty cool.

The hose off tent was just that. A tent with garden hoses of COLD water. But it did the job to rinse off thoroughly enough. Ladies, I’d considering wearing a swim suit under your clothes so you can really rinse off effectively. The other tent was a public/private changing tent. Meaning, I found a corner and changed as effectively I could. We had towels with us too, thank goodness. So we were really able to get pretty clean, given the circumstances.

I have to say though, I am pretty impressed with the hose off tents and changing tents. It’s not something I expected to even have the (minor) luxury of having.

Overall, I would do a Dirty Girl Mud Run again. For fun. It is NOT a “hard” mud run. I found it to be easier than the Warrior Dash. But it is a lot of fun – I mean, they have INFLATABLE obstacles. How can that not be fun?! It’s a blast if you are going with a large group! The girl-power thing is especially prevalent which I enjoyed, but if you don’t like that sort of thing, I’d stay away.

Crazy four days

Hey there! I hope you had a great weekend. As I suspected I couldn’t fit in the time to check in over the past four days. It’s been a little crazy.

On Wednesday evening I had a happy hour for a conference that I was attending. So Wednesday after work I went home, changed and went back out.

Thursday I was at the conference. I did my first conference presentation ever. It was super nerve-wracking but once I started talking I felt good! I won’t go into too much (boring) detail, but I work on websites, so my colleague and I led a two hour work shop on ways to do user testing, sketching, and tools to do it. 

Considering we had a two hour slot, I was pretty impressed we had about 25 people come, and only a few left at the half way mark when we gave them a break.  

Thanks to my husband for these awesome pictures.

Our workshop ended on Thursday around lunch time, and to say my brain was fried for the rest of the day would be an understatement. I went to a few sessions but didn’t really absorb much information.

Thursday evening they had a networking thing with an open bar. Yea. Lets just say I got home at 10:30 that night but it felt like 1 am. 

Friday morning came too early. Friday was day two of the conference, and I was already feeling pretty sleepy. I did a poster presentation in the morning for an hour (yes, I know I over committed, lesson learned). The rest of the day I attending sessions and took breaks to get some actual work done. 

After the conference ended on Friday I high-tailed it out of there and headed to Pittsburgh to meet up with my friend from college. We did the Dirty Girl Mud Run on Saturday and had a blast! I’ll be getting a race report up soon but for now, here’s a teaser.

Yup. We got super MUDDY! 

After the race I drove home (it was only about an hr and a half away), and spent all day Sunday catching up on bills, cleaning, laundry, and prepped my lunches for the week.

whew!

With all that went on, I was pretty happy that I got in most of my workouts early in the week but I did manage to squeeze in EA Active on Thursday morning before things got really crazy. I took a rest day yesterday because I was a little sore and figured there was no use in pushing it.