Day 357

I think I have dropped the baton in sight of the finish line on The Simple Year.

Damn

But it wasn’t entirely my fault.

I blame my bad influence friend, Lisa.

Actually, if you knew Lisa, this would confuse you.  Because Lisa is one of the nicest and most upbeat people I know.  On close consideration, it’s surprising we’re friends, since her genuine kindness and perpetual cheeriness is a stark contrast to my…oh, you get the point.

This story begins several months ago, when I posted on my Facebook page asking if anyone wanted to get a team together for a Dirty Girl Mud Run in April.  If you aren’t familiar with these runs, they are five kilometer “non-competitive” races  in which the participants stagger from one obstacle to another.  These include embedding gravel in your knees while crawling through a mud filled tunnel, sliding down  a giant inflatable slide into a waiting pool of mud like you are at some alternate universe filthy Chuck-E-Cheese, and crawling over a grid of ropes spotted with trapped bodies giving it the appearance of a massive muddy spider web.  In fairness, that was at the end of the race, so they might have been just taking a break.

Sounds fun doesn’t it?

Actually it is.  And it is even better with a group of friends.  Plus they have beer at the finish line.

Oh, and if you are interested in this race, might I suggest your internet search include the entire phrase, “Dirty Girl Mud Run” instead of just the words, “Dirty Girl”, especially if you are at work.

There are things you just can’t unsee.

Anyway, like most of my fire-and-forget ideas, I posted the call out on Facebook and promptly forgot about it.  But not Lisa, who incidentally works at the front desk at my health club and has access to all kinds of fit and fun women.  She messaged me one day that she had a group wanting to run and asked if I’d already registered a team.

Oh right, yeah, I was going to do that tonight.

So that is how I managed to field a team of ten for this race in which I actually only knew one other of my teammates.

It is traditional for the teams in this run to don some sort of outlandish uniform.  When we first started the discussion, I just said that anything I did would have to be recycled or homemade. Since we have already established that I am perhaps the worst team lead in the history of all mud runs; it will probably not surprise you that I completely dropped the ball on that as well.  Lisa picked it up.

Well, I think she forgot about my not buying anything new parameters.

I know; can you believe that my self-imposed rules don’t pervade her every waking thought?

A couple of days prior to the run, Lisa told me that the “uniform” was to wear black running tights and a tank and they had purchased tutus and funky socks for everyone for the smoking deal of $16 each.

Then, I think she remembered.

So, she quickly added in her sweet and sincere way, “Except you, we’ll just cover yours.”

Then I felt bad.

So, on the day of the race when she gave me my finery, I just handed her the money.  I’m not sure if I am proud or horrified that the first thing I have purchased new in a year (OK, nine days short) was an adult sized hot pink tutu and a pair of skull and crossbone socks.

But, that is how life goes sometimes.   And we had a great time.