The Photo Album.

	The night before, we pinned our numbers to our outfits.  Min's number is SO fitting =)
	Upon arriving in Camp Pendleton, we got checked out by security. Little did they know that I was checking them out too. Hehehe.
	Posing before the race. Check out those biceps on Min! And keep your focus on them! Try not to compare them to the skin flapping off of my arms. =) L-R: Min, me.
	Stretching prior to the event.
	One of the cool groups in attendance. I believe they made it through the entire course with the Mickey ears intact. Not an easy feat.
	This is the back of someone's head. Guess he has eyes on the back of his head, hardy har har. =)
	L-R: me, Peter, Min. This is before the race, before any water or mud.
	The start / finish line.
	What does 3500 people look like? This isn't even close - this is only part of the group.
	In the spirit of "Where's Waldo?", where's Min, Caroline, and Peter? =)
	I see Peter ...
	At the beginning, I was still smiling.
	Still smiling - note that this is early on in the race, prior to getting acute sharp epigastric pain, prior to finding out the running in sandals was a bad idea, prior to my legs turning to goo ...
	Here's a shot of lots of people swimming through the final mud pit. I'm glad that I was lagging so far behind ... as you will see later in the action-packed video, I needed help getting through the mud due to temporarily losing my sight ... had it been crowded, I probably would've drowned there in the mud =)
	Like pigs, us participants took pleasure in submersing ourselves in mud to cool off. (I actually found myself looking forward to upcoming mud pits!) Some people looked more like pigs than others. =)
	Not smiling anymore. My whole body was screaming, "You idiot! What do you think you're doing?!" This is just prior to entering the last, thickest mud pit (as pictured above), maybe 50 yards away from the finish line.  By this time, Min had left us far behind to fend for ourselves. =)
	I'm only smiling cuz I had good company. =)  L-R: Peter, me. Behind us is the final mud pit. There were wires running across about 1.5 ft above the mud, thereby forcing you to swim in the mud instead of wussing out and walking through it. =)
	(1 min 35 sec video clip, 1.01 MB, you'll need Windows Media Player.) We're traversing the final mud pit (Peter's in front).  Look closely - at the 16 sec mark of the video, I dunk my head into the mud. What you can't see is that even though I closed my eyes going under to protect my contacts, I could NOT open my eyes after re-emerging, and so I had to go on cues from Peter to complete the course: "Left! Straight! Left!"Also, listen to all the comments from the side, and the final comment from our designated photographer, Dave. =)
	We emerge from the pit, looking pretty atrocious. =) Hey man, that's what I paid $30 for! L-R: me, Peter.
	Just so you know, mud tastes pretty grody. L-R: me, Peter.
	Can you spot the victorious Min? =)
	I wonder if mud can act as a natural hair conditioner ... if so, my hair is going to be soft for the rest of the year.  And perhaps the abrasive power of the dried mud can whiten my teeth too!
	Silly pose 1! L-R: Peter, Min, me.
	Silly pose 2! I love Peter's pearly whites! And his sunglasses imprint! L-R: Peter, Min, me.
	3 muddy people =) L-R: Peter, Min, me.
	Waiting for the showers. Am I the blackest one or what? I couldn't see what I looked like at the time ... and now I know why everyone was looking at me and smiling, and people just tended to strike up spontaneous conversation with me about why I was muddy from head to toe. =) #3839 = Peter. Min is looking down at him, and I'm to the right of Min.
	My grody elephant arms - a direct result of copious mud drying upon my skin. Eww. L-R: Min, me.
	Them pearly whites of Peter again!
G	A posterior shot of my supreme muddiness. No, that guy does not have big breasts, that's someone's arm! I was so muddy that people took pity on me and let me go ahead of them to at least get my face rinsed off. =)
	Finally, my turn!!! The mud just would NOT come out!!! And it was EVERYWHERE. And I mean everywhere. Yes, use your imagination. =)
	I was scrubbing HARD. Let's just say that my shower at home proved that the outdoor rinse was extremely cursory. =)
	I'm finally smiling again at the prospect of becoming semi-clean. =)
	This is the state of Peter's shoes after taking some extraordinary abuse.
	Min gets rinsed off.  As you can see, she is not half as dirty as me or Peter. So she finished before us. So what? No mud, man! What's up with that? Wuss! =)
	Scrub, Peter, scrub ... you're gonna have to scrub WAY harder than that ...
	Hard to believe we were able to go from this ...
	To this ...
	And this ...
	Here we are all together at last. Clockwise from bottom left: me, Dave, Peter, Min. Thanks to Dave for taking all of the pics! There is no way I could have taken the camera onto the course, hehe ... I'm pretty sure that the warranty doesn't cover immersion of camera in mud. =)
	Bonus pic: Before and after!
back to home