the muddy weekend.

i feel like my life has been in fast forward since the beginning of summer.

everything has been go, go, go. and i pack a carry on sized suit case about once a week for one reason or another. i'm just constantly on the go. and it's pretty tiring. but i suppose that's better than doing nothing at all? 

this weekend garrett and i drove to columbia, sc to see my sister and brother in law in the USMC Mud Run. they told us they wanted us to come up to watch my nephew while they did it. but as it turns out it was actually just a dirty move and they really just wanted us to see it and be surrounded by it so we would be sold on the idea of doing it with them at the next one. 

it worked. 

we're now planning and super excited.

(team 423. freezing.)

but while we were there, we got to watch baby Gavin and take a butt load of pictures.

(i will apologize in advance for the bad lighting in these pictures. it was early morning, super shaded or overly bright. it was tough for this sub par "photographer")

(garrett and baby gavin. also freezing.)

well, that was the plan.
to take a buttload of pictures.

except that garrett and i qtarted walking the course backwards and ended up getting our timing all sorts of wrong. and in an attempt to catch up with the group we were supposed to be photographing, we, too, ran.

fully clothed in two shirts, a sweater, north face jacket, jeans and chucks-i tossed gavin and his stroller over to garrett, tightened the crap out of my camera bag and ran on the "sidelines" (otherwise known as thick, forested terrain with fallen tree limbs, uneven soil and a thousand other ankle twisting obstacles.
 for a visual reference, please go watch the hunger games.) to catch up to them.

and at one point, i did.

but keeping up with them was not easy.
remember how i was having to duck under branches so as not to be slap chopped by a tree?
that slows you down.

i stopped at each obstacle on the course just in time to see them finishing.
and then i realized i was the hungry wolf from The Sword in the Stone.

so i pulled up my jeans that had slid at least a third of the way down my booty, ripped the jacket off and ran some more. by this time,garrett had caught up to me. i was still running but i could hear gavin laughing so i knew garrett was near by.

and let me paint this picture. 

garrett- holding a semi-collapsed umbrella stroller hanging in his right hand, a two year old baby gavin thrown up over his left shoulder (the way you would carry a sack of flour) and the jacket i had (accidentally) dropped wrapped around his arm, running on the actual course next to the muddy runners.

and i had to laugh. i mean, we looked ridiculous. nay, redonkulous. and i wanted to take a picture of this more than anything else. mostly because gavin was loving it. with every bounce he laughed harder and even the runners were laughing at him and shouting things like, "you need to get some mud on that kid!" it was tempting. but i was there for another reason. 

after stopping at another obstacle to find the group, we switched off, i took the stroller and gavin and garrett took the camera and set off again to find them. 

we were moving like we were about to miss a flight.

i threw the stroller open, strapped gavin in, handed him a bag of pretzels that were in my jacket pocket, wiped the embarrassing sweat from my forehead and pushed that umbrella stroller through deep sand/dirt and didn't stop until i saw garrett wating over by the last obstacle (the fireman carry). 

and when i got there next to him, i caught my breath and we waited for my sister and her group to round the corner. but they didn't. and we waited. and waited. and then we shook our fists in the air and cursed their names for making us run like fools to catch up with them. 

(as it turns out, they had about 4 other obstacles to go through before they got to the part we were standing at. we didn't know that.)

i got bored and took pictures of garrett's sweaty forehead.

(and for the record, this is a fairly accurate depiction of my view of garrett. he's like a giant.)

and then that got boring, too. so i took pictures of other people.

it was sort of entertaining watching other people struggle uphill with another muddy human on their back/over their shoulder/ wrapped around their waist like a human belt.

and then finally, after we had considered the possible death of one of the team members, Team 423 finally rounded the corner.

and then the race was over.
and they all went to take a communal shower in freezing water.

it was a lot of muddy skin.

the rest of that early afternoon was spent watching the Kid's Mud Run--which was entertaining, but not nearly as entertaining as sitting down on a tree stump and watching people swim through the Mud Pit and climbing  slipping out of that pit looking like they had been dunked in chocolate...or like they were wearing mud leotards. guys, trust me. it was awesome. and the running course right after the pit was a hot, hot meqs of mud and slip and i watched several people fall on their bum bums or slip and hit a tree or stumble and try to catch their balance.  

(and it reminded me of this runway model in her high heels.)

and i laughed just as hard as those news anchors.

and it was a good day had by all.

love,

kate.

lyrics: slow it down, we are wild and young. we have just begun.