The soul of Mud Hero is the charities. Most of the proceeds from the event benefit local cancer charities.
This is what my daughter, Shera-Lee and son-in-law, Adam, committed themselves to finish today. While I looked after the boys and did my best to take photos of the event, Shera-Lee and Adam put their all into completing this race.
First they posed in front of the Mud Hero sign in their terrific, new blue t-shirts. Note the colour. These are the people whose adventure we're following.
Every half hour, from about 10 a.m. until late into the afternoon, they released approximately another 200 participants. This staggered the numbers of people throughout the 6 km. race.
If she looks in shock, she most likely is because the water they pumped to get the mud is directly from the very cold river in the valley down below. But it's hard to stay cold for long when it's sunny out and you have to climb the next ski slope.
There are two sides to Hamburger Hill. The right side is murderously steep while the left side is only a bit less steep.
Shera-Lee and Adam picked the slightly less steep side. No-one ran up. Are you surprised?
The next obstacle is a section of mud that does its best to suck off your shoes. The secret to keeping your footwear is to have your shoes tied as tightly as your feet will tolerate. One girl spent about 20 minutes fighting the mud before she finally managed to get her shoe back. Another one lost her sunglasses forever.
Oh, and this section of mud lasted quite a distance as you can see. Gives your leg muscles a good workout.
Then came the netting that you had to climb up on one side and down on the other. Since this was near the end of the race, quite a few people had trouble getting their legs to co-operate. Adam and Shera-Lee in their now-mud-coloured t-shirts made it with no problems.
Thank goodness there were barriers because when Shera-Lee spotted me, she was all for giving me a hug.
It got worse. She was clean in that picture compared to what happened in the next obstacle.
Another obstacle was at the top. Not only did you have to cross that mud pit but you had to go under those poles. Clearance was about 8 inches. Chance of getting through without getting mud all over your body and face---zero.
Climbing out of that mud pit wasn't easy, either, since your muddy shoes wanted nothing more than to slide right back down into it.
The pose at the Mud Hero sign was quite a change from their initial photo. Recognize those t-shirts?
After a bit of smooching, they had to show off the extent of their filth.
And then it was the long walk to the outdoor public showers.
Oh, there was no way to heat the water. See the sign warning people not to drink the shower water? It's directly from the river. Brace yourself...
I have to say that I'm so proud of the two of them. Shera-Lee and Adam gave it their all. They aren't into gyms and working out and they weren't trying to set any records. All they wanted was to challenge themselves and to help beat cancer while doing it.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The t-shirts were cleaned with a pressure washer as were the shoes. Adam asked me to use the pressure washer on him as well (very warm water) and much of the mud washed off him. Apparently the shorts will also be salvageable once they've soaked in a bucket. No washing machines were destroyed in the meeting of this challenge.
Mud heros for sure! So how hard did Grandma have to hold on to the boys to keep them from joining in the fun? Next question...who does the laundry after that? And did the machines survive? What a terrific way to raise money for a cause. Thanks for keeping the commentary clean on such a dirty subject and entertaining goes without saying. Hee, hee.
ReplyDeleteStrangely enough, Jean, neither boy wanted to touch their parents until they were clean. They were horrified when I suggested that they might want to take the challenge themselves in a few years. I'd call them mud-a-phobes, if I can coin a new word.
Deletethat's awesome, heidi!! how were you able to take all those photos, you must have taken the trek yourself???
ReplyDeleteI took most of the photos. The ones at Hamburger Hill and that long section of mud were taken by Adam and Shera-Lee with a waterproof camera. I did go down a section of the slope twice, leaving the boys with a friend and her grandsons, but couldn't really leave them for long.
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