Dirty Dash and Piglet Run. I had promised my son for some time now that I would take him up to do that dirty dash. My foot be damned, I was not going to let him down. All the same I didn't have any problems with it today. For those of you that are strictly competitive runners, this event is not for you. I won't be classifying this as a "race report" because I used it as a tempo/speed workout. I even hesitate to call it that. I did have a blast though. Against my wife's better judgement, I dressed up in a blue morph suit for the race. For those of you who don’t know what that is, picture a head to toe suit made out of blue spandex. This covers the face and every other square inch of skin. It has the same effect as a scary version of the Blue Man Group. It was surprisingly easy to run in, that is until the face got wet, then it was like breathing through a wet shirt, and wasn’t much easier to see through. However it dries fast so let the fun continue. I ran a hard interval pace between the obstacles in the race in order to get a good workout, but I have no idea how long it took me. I don’t think the time is relevant when it includes, sloshing through wait deep mud, climbing through corrugated tubing, trudging through 200m of waist deep water, climbing over wooden walls and the like, all in a morph suit. The fellow Dirty Dash runners got a good kick out of the “Blue Man”. I have never had so many strangers take my picture and give me hugs. I made a few kids laugh and scared the crap out of a few others. After the Dirty Dash was over I shed the suit and ran the Piglet Plunge with my four year old son. This was a very proud Dad moment. He ran the whole race. Including the slick steep uphill muddy sections. He was a trooper. I believe I have a future runner. He was so proud of himself that he wore an ear to ear grin for some time afterwards. I will definitely be entering him in more kids races, and perhaps taking him out on some training runs. | 