My first double race weekend was about to go from super sweaty and hills to super muddy really quickly. I love the fun of runs that involve mud, but I’m nowhere close to being in the shape needed to complete a Spartan, so sign me up for the ladies only, no judgement if you skip an obstacle races. I loved the two Dirty Girl races I did and I miss that series. It looks like Muddy Princess has stepped up to fill the void and I was so happy they were finally coming to Atlanta.
By Atlanta, I mean Conyers, which is quite the haul from the north side of town. After an early wakeup the day before for the Braves Country 5k and being out the night before dealing with the debacle of the lawn at Lakewood for Hootie and the Blowfish, I was on the road before 6am for the Muddy Princess. You know how I like to be early? It’s a good thing I was as the cheaper parking option ($5 vs $20) which was 3/4 of a mile away from where everything started. It also involved hills. By the time I realized how far it was, I wasn’t going to have time turn around and try for expensive parking, so I went with it.
By the time I hiked (downhill) to the start and got checked in, which meant receiving a wristband that was color coded for your wave time. I save all my race bibs, but they end up getting in the way or falling off on mud runs, so I was fine with just a wristband. I was bummed that it didn’t come with a t-shirt, though. I did find a cute shirt at the merch tent, so I rectified that situation. Honestly, I would have bought it even if I had gotten a t-shirt. Finally I get in line for bag check to lighten my load. Another $5 later for that, I was ready to go. Can I just say that I’d prefer to pay the extra $5 up front than have to fork over all the cash on race day? I’d believe most do a bag check for this kind of event, so it’s not that much of a stretch to ask for that.
I still had time to kill as it was a good 30 minutes before the start of my wave, so I made the way over to what looked like a swanky porta potty area. Like a lot of porta potties, they get labeled men or women, but you usually don’t notice. This time, all the men’s ones appeared to lack toilet paper. I was having flashbacks to the South Carolina welcome center in 1998 that was out of TP. I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to fork over more cash for TP, but there were ones with TP. After watching the 8am wave take off, the start line opened up for the 8:20 crew.
We were led in a super fun workout and the overachievers were off and running. I was all about walking this course after my 5k yesterday and with it being rather warm. After a flat-ish portion over grass, we came up on our first mud pit. The mud pits had to be the most fun because of the sheer laughter of everyone as they tried to climb up and over and slid back down into the cold water. I tried to climb up, but saw people were getting no traction, so I climbed over as close to the edge as I could. I managed to only get the lower half of myself muddy.
After another short walk, a mud pit you had to crawl through came up, but it wasn’t a full body crawl. That ended up leaving me more muddy. That was more like it. The next obstacle was a very shaky feeling angled wall of wood logs. Y’all, I’m going to keep it real and admit that it scared the crap out of me. I am not a fan of heights unless I’m strapped into a roller coaster and between the fact I do not trust my balance as I am a klutz, I climbed off and said peace out.
Thankfully the next obstacle was more my speed as I like low to the ground items. We crawled under some tires in mud. Don’t get me wrong, these take work, but I’m also not scared shitless while doing them. I think we had our first water stop somewhere in here and I was very grateful for full size water bottles. I have actually read complaints about that and I do not get it. It was hot and humid and I was happy to carry it with me. I stick water bottles in my sports bra all the time when I run the Peachtree, so I just did the same for obstacles.
Next up was a series of balance beams. I only fell once so I considered that a win. Then we had two walls to climb up and over that freak me out as I’m always worried I’m going to fall. I love that some other ladies waited with me to make sure I finished okay. I hope it was because I looked terrified and not that I didn’t look strong. Either way, I’m glad for people looking out for me.
Next up, was a lovely pool of cool muddy water to navigate under a cargo next while also battling beach balls. I certainly was not complaining about the water temperature because it felt fantastic. Next up was an obstacle I tried, but ultimately couldn’t do and likely the one I blame for my still sore tailbone. Five single looping chains don’t look intimidating until you realize you can not put both feet in them. I tried to make the transition between chains and my legs went different directions and when my tailbone started hurting on the way home, I think this was why.
After this, we had a good hiking section. We had a lot of obstacles pretty close together and then we faced a massive hill. I saw lots of ladies struggling here, so as I was able to encourage some others. Not that I wasn’t huffing and puffing my way up the hill, too. So much so that the balance beam/teeter totter obstacle scared the crap out of me. Apparently, not only would I suck on Survivor because I’d get hangry and eat the other people, but I wouldn’t be able to do one of their favorite parts of challenges.
Finally, things started looking up as a low to the ground over under obstacle was upon us. The next obstacle was pretty funny as it was a sack race. Yep, the sack race from field day in elementary school was in this race. I thought it was silly and don’t blame people for skipping, but this was an obstacle I could actually do, so I was getting my money’s worth. I did enjoy the small beam crossing, though!
After getting over laughing, I started hearing laughter which usually signals a good, muddy obstacle. I finally turned the corner and I found a sweet obstacle of redemption. It was another set of mud pits to climb over! I was determined to try, but mud is slippery, y’all. Suffice to say, there was a laughter involved and got worse when I almost couldn’t pull myself out! Next up was another muddy pit that wasn’t super deep and you just pulled yourself across holding onto pieces of chain link fence.
I rounded the next turn in the course and saw the straight up wall of tires and said hell no without a second thought. There were tons of volunteers helping guide women through obstacles, but I know I suck at climbing and I suck at heights. Nope nope and nope. I did attempt the next obstacle, which was an angled wall followed by climbing down the wood logs like in the other obstacle that terrified me.
Rounding the next corner, we were told only two obstacles left, one of which was a mud pit crawl under netting. The second was crossing big pads over water. When I came up, all the ladies were crawling across and I thought this made perfect sense. We were slow moving, but finishing the obstacle.
A short run later, and I was done. I was handed a medal and then it time for a quick photo for the official photographers. I normally don’t buy photos let alone pre-pay and this is definitely why to never pre-pay. I can not find a single photo of me. I’m looking at the times I was at the various places, so you should be able to find me somewhere. This is where not using a bib is a very terrible thing. Most races you can look yourself up as photos based on bib number at the very least. I’d be curious to hear their photo sales were.
After taking a few more muddy photos, it was time for the camera to get put away and figure out how to get unmuddy, change into clean clothes and get back up the hill to the car. Thankfully the changing area had a hose with decent flow as I was able to get much of the mud off between that and pulling off my clothes. I used my towel for the rest. Once I was ready to go, I had to re-distribute the goody bag as it was heavy as contained some large, heavy items. Had I thought more about it, I probably should have dumped this to save carrying the weight back as my wet, muddy clothes were already dragging me down. I don’t do energy drinks and I do not use Vagisil, let alone two bottles of it!
Would I do this race again next year? Probably and as long as I didn’t have to pay an insane amount before I got there knowing all the extra day of charges there are. It was fun and I got my money’s worth, but I don’t know how much more of a price increase I could justify.
Gator Girl Runs 