We Mastered the MUD!

We did it! We went to our first race as a couple. The World Famous Mud Run is held every year on the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California. Mike has done it once before but this was my first time. It's actually only my 3rd race ever. I started running in January 2008 to prepare for this day... blame it all on my sister-in-law Christine! It was her idea to help us motivate to get back into shape after having a few kids =). Good idea! My first two races were only 5k in length, so this was twice the distance and much harder due to the obstacles. The best part was the swim. SWIM? Yes, we had to swim across a lake! It was a nice break from the mostly uphill dirt run interspersed with MUDDY obstacles. Problem was that we didn't leave our house early enough and got caught in this traffic... we had no time to warm up run or stretch and started the race at the very back. That caused us to WALK and slow run with the CROWD of thousands for the first 20 minutes. Not until the first HILL was I able to run at the pace I wanted. By then I was flying passed people by the hundreds....not that I was running so fast - but they were walking or going really slow. Lesson learned - next time arrive early and get in the front. Mike had the same problem and had to pass up about 500 hundred people to get into the VERY front where he belonged. If we'd gotten there on time he would've won!!! Sorry babe, next year!

I wore a white shirt so that we could see the dramatic difference at the end... and boy was it! It's now my official MUD RUN shirt and I'll wear it every year we do the race.

BEFORE
& AFTER!

Steve Baker got some good actions shots... mainly of Mike.

He thought these other hot girls were me and Christy (thanks dude!) but they really weren't =). Nice try though. Lee was one proud mamma!

YEAH BAKER SISTERS!!!!

Happy group photo after finishing...Evidence of a muddy run well done!

We all hit the showers before the award ceremony... this was my LEAST favorite part! It was freezing! I screamed the entire shower - ha ha! Thanks Christy for bringing the shampoo =)

Owen enjoyed the award ceremony... he was clapping!Yeah Mom and Dad - Jackson said, "you run too fast in the mud!"
Mike finished 5 th overall and 2nd in his age group with a SWEET time of 47:44 minutes.
My time was not that great (1:14:12 - 677 overall and 37th in my age group), but next time I'll make sure to get in the front so I'll have a shot at the top 10 females =).

we were all very tired at the end of the day... the boys crashed out before we even left the parking lotYUMMY pizza as our great reward!
We had a blast and mastered the MUD... see ya next year for even better results!