Squirelly Tail Twail Wun Half Marathon 2018

Race Details


Cost : $25 plus processing
Goodies : post race food, race magnet and mud to take home *
Weather: light drizzle at the beginning, 45 degrees, cloudy, 90% humidity.
What I wore: compression socks, shorts, short sleeve shirt, sleeves and a raincoat for the first 2 miles.

* it was impossible to not take mud home.

Last year Roger and I did this race, and he was very excited to run it again this year. Unfortunately, he couldn't run it, because he had a very important work meeting on Monday and didn't want to be sore for it. Anyway, we ran it last year and I complained about the mud... but, boy oh boy! That mud was NOTHING, NOTHING compared to this year.


I knew it was going to be rainy, I knew it was going to be muddy, but I had no doubt in my heart about running it.

The Clean before picture

It is not an exaggeration when I tell you that 85% of this trail race was mud and water, the other 5 were ankle deep water, and even a knee high creek crossing. I ran through so much mud and water, that my legs didn't know how to move on solid ground.

The first .50 mile, we ran through ankle deep muddy water, and my feet felt cold. I told myself to suck it up, little did I know, the entire course would be this way.

A little bit before mile 8, a young woman  asked me if I knew what mile we were in. I was tired, so when I looked at my watch and it said 8.6, I couldn't process how to say 8.6 for a whole minute. In my defense, she was asking me this as I was shaking mud off the inside of my shoe. When I finally gave her the distance, she asked me "How much longer do we have? I can't do this much longer, the mud and my shoes... my shoes keep falling off!" I genuinely felt bad for her, so I told her, we are more than half way, less than 5 miles to go.  I didn't see her again.

I enjoyed this mud running for the first 9 miles or so, then everything started to hurt. Then I tripped on a root and fell. Which lead me to start thinking that this mud was going to have flesh eating bacteria, and my knee was going to get infected, and how my mom was going to kill me for having to have a leg amputated, and how if she didn't kill me, I would have to learn to walk on a prosthesis.

Around mile 9 ish, I crossed a creek that had water knee high. I know it happened, but by then my legs were so used to the cold water and mud, that I don't really remember crossing the creek. I held on to the rope, because Roger would have been mad at me if I drowned and died right there.... He would have had to wait for somebody to find my body and identify it, and quite honestly, he hates waiting around.  

The Creek we crossed and

The face I made before crossing it. There is mud on my face and on my shirt from my fall.

Something happened to me that had never happened at other races. Around mile 11, my body and my mind gave up. Just flat out refused to move one more step. Something pushed me to keep moving and finish, and just get it done with. For about 4 minutes, all I said to myself was "one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other, ..... one food in front of the other".

I was happy and relieved to cross the finish line!! It was a wonderful sight to see Megan and Roger at the finish line! Somebody handed me a magnet and I handed it to Roger, because my fingers were not working.

 After wrestling my socks off, and changing into dry clothes, Roger asked "Where to?" and My reply was "Tokyo Dinner". I wore my blanket inside, and got lucky that they didn't kick me out.