I’ve been trying to post these pics ever since last night but things keep coming up and I’ve had to erase each write up that I’ve attempted because it’s too long!! So I’ll give you the short version. 🙂

Tommy and I were able to run a mock Mudder up in Dog Canyon which is a pretty steep hike that is 10 miles from bottom to top. We ran to the middle, jumped in the creek and then ran back to the car so it turned out to be a 6 mile ordeal that was pretty damn crazy. First off, we were totally unprepared as I didn’t think that we were going to attempt to do it on this day so all I had for breakfast was a cup of coffee. We had been training hard for 4 straight days and were exhausted from the altitude and cold. I know, I know – lame excuses, but it’s the truth – and they were kicking our ass. So we showed up and plowed through the first mile or so that was pretty much straight up and then tried to do a little running only to be completely shut down. We were both in the middle of the trail heaving. Tom said he felt light headed and I just couldn’t catch my breath. I was reminded of a wise man’s words that were spoken to me a mere 2 months previously – “Remember the 6 P’s!! Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!!” It was ringing in my head until we got to the creek. There is a meadow that you have to cross in order to descend down to the water. It was covered in roughly 3 inches of snow and it took us forever to cross. When we finally got down to the creek, there was a big pool that was half covered in ice that we chose to dive in to. Our feet were already wet and frozen from treking across the snow so it wasn’t too bad until we got completely soaked. Of course it was FREEZING and I was instantly unable to feel my hands…however since the water was colder than the air and snow, I felt warm otherwise! Ha. Then Tommy took his plunge and we hauled ass back up the trail and through the snow. I started getting cramps in my shoulder and chest area but that was because I was so tense. My hands were still frozen and I almost dropped the camera a couple times. (Oh yeah, Joe wasn’t able to take pics of us because he was out on a motorcycle ride…which made it even more ridiculous since we were trying to document this insanity!) After about a mile and a half, I actually started sweating again but my hands were completely gone. I realized that if we had to do the monkey bar obstacle at this point, I would have fallen off from my inability to grasp anything. Tom said he was doing fine and when we finally got to the end, most of our clothes were dry and we felt pretty good. Granted, it was mostly flat or down hill, but that actually made it worse since it was hard on my knees and difficult to do quick feet jumping on and over rocks. I did feel pretty happy coming away from it though – our clothes dried in a timely manner and other than my hands, I had warmed up enough that I didn’t risk pnuemonia or hypothermia! So…the event was a success and we are really looking forward to the race in two weeks. We’ve got our hotel booked and I made sure that the hot tub was working for our soak in it afterwards!!