I woke up this morning and put on a pair of panty hose. And I kinda liked it.
It was part of my costume for this year's Mad Mud Run. I don't know why our team captain Mike required us wear hose, but who am I to question authority? The theme Mike picked this year was Pac Man. So Wednesday night we gathered at my house to have a costume construction party. We were going to go with Pac Man, Mrs. Pac Man and three ghosts, but we ran out of time to finish in one night. So to make a long story short, we went with Pac Man, Inky Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde. I got to be Clyde, not to be confused with Clyde, by virtue of my old orange running shoes.
We donned our costumes in the parking lot. Right away we knew we would be a hit because people were stopping us to get pictures. Mike has won the costume contest three years in a row. Now we were hoping for four.
Part of the strategy is to work the crowd. We had a plan to hand out Dots candies, but somehow that fell through. We did have MP3 players with speakers to play the Pac Man music. They had music playing, too, so I danced a lot. The Kool Aid girl gang danced with us. One girl even peeked at my ghostly undercarriage.
The competition this year wasn't that great for the costume contest. I did like the redneck wedding theme. For the fourth year in a row, we won. Now it was time to run the course.
They always have kids with supersoakers spraying us down at the start. Wouldn't you know I had people hiding behind me? I was a pretty big target. Running in a cardboard box is such a delight. It's nice and warm. Like a sauna. Your elbows and shoulders chafe. The constant pounding of a box on your head was sure to bring on a Tylenol moment. Not to mention the bald spot it forms. The small slits cut in the side were sufficient to see, but I was definitely running into people at the beginning. No peripheral whatsoever. And our plentiful surface area sure provided much sail for a few strong gusts of wind. It's a good thing we are good sports.
The first obstacle was the balance beam/tires/balance beam/tires. I could see my feet this year, so it wasn't too bad. The next obstacle was the over under hurdles. I'm glad I didn't lose an eye (or two) at this part. Next was the first cargo net wall. People asked how we would get over it. Duh! We're ghosts! We'll go right through. But since everyone else was going over, we did, too.
Next was the weave, low crawl, weave. We actually did the weave twice because it was so awesome. Can't wait to see it on Youtube. Then came the second cargo net wall. I managed to climb this one without my box falling off to reveal my true identity. Then was the hay bale steps. Our team had kind of slowed down. I guess the cardboard was taking its toll on us. But we knew the hay bales were close to the end, and we could hear the music playing. So we picked it up for the last bit. Then we got to the 3 foot diameter, 10 foot long pipes. We didn't fit! So we tossed our ghosts over the pipes, went through with just our bodies, and got back into the ghosts. It was kind of like dying and being resurrected. Just a few more steps to the mud pit. It went a little like this.
Once again, it was a pretty fun time. Actually the whole day turned out pretty good. I needed it. Here's a few more pictures.
Team Got Dots.
Do you think we can salvage them for Halloween next year?
