Dirty Dash!

A few weeks ago Dave, Josh and most of my siblings and my mom had a unique Saturday morning.  They participated in the Dirty Dash.  The Dirty Dash is a 10K race.  Now it is not your typical race because this race is all about the dirt.  Wet dirt to be exact.  MUD.   

The course is mud, slides, water, marshes, snow, and other obstacles all wrapped into 6.2 miles of fun!  The race took place in beautiful Soldier Hollow where some of the Olympic events took place 9 years ago. 

  

Mitch and Haley were voted most creative for their costumes.  Of course I was the only one voting.  

 Here is Mitch as Superman!  Notice the cute curl!

Here is the clean crew at the beginning of the race.   The t-shirts say We're Great but No One Knows It.  It was our family theme about 30 years ago.  It came from a Girl's Camp song.   Please notice Jacob's short shorts.  Very 1980's Jacob. 

 You start the race by hiking up a huge mud hill which was very slippery.  Apparently Josh was tackled in the first few minutes by Andrew.  At the top of the hill they sprayed all the racers with a fire hose.  So you were cold from the very beginning.  

Not too dirty yet.  The middle kids.  B. Rad, Alli and Andrew.  (Tricia doesn't count as a middle because she thought she was my twin from the very beginning)

 Tricia is doing some kind of Dirty Dash strut here.  They were hiking through one of the muddy rivers.  

 A big mud hole in the road.  Part of the fun was you never knew how deep the puddle was at any given point.  You could be walking next to someone and they disappear up to their neck.  See how muddy Andrew is compared to Brandon.   

 Alli with some stylin glasses.  She was the brave one who took a camera in several ziploc baggies so we could have some pictures of the actual race.  Thanks Alli.  

 Here is one of the least favorite obstacles.  You had to climb through the mud filled tube.  That wasn't the bad part.  

The bad part was that on the other end they were spraying out snow from their snow maker machine. They were freezing cold at this point.  

 They look happy here.  You will see that in the background there is a woman running.  Some people took this race very seriously.

 Here you had to either climb over or under these walls.  This is Alli going under but trying to keep as clean as possible. 

 Here are the boys.  You can see that even when it is not an obstacle it is still a big mud slop of a road. 

 This was their least favorite part of the course.  These are sewer pipes that they are crawling over.  Thye determined this by the horrible smell all around them!  Of course this is the place that Alli slipped into a hole and went in over her head!   NAAAASSSTTTYY!

 Here is the snack station.  Yum!  Muddy jello.  

One of the last obstacles is the giant slide.  Only Dave flew down this thing.  Everyone else had to inch their way down.  (This isn't actually Dave flying.  People can't fly.)

 The kids waited at the big mud pond at the finish line. 

 They collected water balloons to throw at their parents.  They were so excited! 

The racers all waited for each other at the slide so they could finish together.  The first ones in were Josh and Jacob.  (Of course)

 Jenn, B. Rad, Tricia, Andrew, Brandon and Dave were next.  I love how Tricia seems to be trying to be careful going in.  She didn't want to get dirty I suppose...

 The last ones in were Haley, Alli, Mom and Mitch.  

 Wow.  Mom.  You really do not fit in with this crowd!  They are all smiles though except Dave.  

 You see Dave couldn't see.  He was completely blind.  He didn't even know which way to go to get out.  

 B. Rad, Brandon (Who lost a contact)

 Jenn, Mitch,

 Josh,  my baby,

 Mom and Tricia

 Dave still blind.  Mom.

Mitch, Alli, Tricia

 Jenn, Andrew.

 Mitch and Haley

Here is the after photo.

What a fun day for us all!  Thanks Sara and B.Rad!   

Now I am going to post the full video (3 minutes) on youtube for the family to see how lovely they look.  It is too big for blogger.  But I need to preface by telling you that I was holding 2 cameras.  One took all of the pictures that you see above.  The other was my attempt to film but it was really more of a chest cam.  The video camera just rested on my chest and whatever it captures is what you get.  I edited out my running because it would have just made you motion sick.

Running Around

So since the Chunky Challenge or the kinder, gentler, Lose for the Cruise, started Dave has taken up running. In the last few weeks he has run a couple of 5k's. Josh, Aaron and Jonathan ran both of them with Dave!

Here they are getting ready to start.

The first one was with Dave's work and they ran through This is the Place State Park. We all got up very early to cheer them on.

Joe-Joe pretending to be asleep. "Take my picture, Mom. It will be cute." He was right. Josh at the starting line...

Josh had been sick the day before so Aaron got to beat his big brother which was exciting for Aaron not so much for Josh.

Aaron in the middle of the race. They said it was a very picturesque run.

Aaron in the final stretch.

Josh in the final stretch.

Jonathan stayed with Dave all the way through and then beat him by 1 second!

Here they are right before the final turn.

Aaron came in 1st for the 18-29 age group because they didn't have a younger category. He was so funny though because when he registered his time, like the typical student, he just wrote down Aaron. So that is what they read during the awards. "Aaron? No last name."

The victorious runners at the finish line!

The second race was the Centerville 4th of July 5k. Tricia and her 2 boys ran in that one also so that was added fun for the boys. Alli, Haley and Mitch were at the bottom of my Mom's street which was on the route and they gave the kids and Tricia some much needed water.

They all had much better times in the 2nd race.

Josh with Aaron right on his heels at the finish line.

Josh placed 16 in the 14-16 year old group, Aaron took 2nd in the 8-11 year old group and Jonathan placed in the top 30 of the same group. I totally missed Jonathan and Dave because I took a picture of Jacob and watched him finish not realizing that Jonathan and Dave were right behind him! Sheesh. Dave finished alive and 3 minutes faster than his first race so he was pleased. Here is the crowd at the end of the race. What troopers! I am so proud of my running boys!