Another Great Adventure With My Daughters

From the Sunday, July 9, 2017 Rutland Herald
By Gordon Dritschilo, Staff Writer
"KILLINGTON — Pink tutus and giant grins adorned numerous women as they slid into a puddle of mud Saturday.
They arrived in the puddle via an inflatable slide, the final obstacle in the Dirty Girl Mud Run.
“This is our third year coming to Killington and every year it gets bigger,” organizer Alena Han said. “You have groups and groups of girls. We have people who come by themselves and these groups suck them in. … It’s all about ladies having fun in an event where they don’t feel pressed.”
A portion of the proceeds is donated to breast cancer charities, and breast cancer survivors are given free registrations.
Han said an estimated 2,500 women participated in the untimed obstacle course event. The untimed 5k course featured 14 obstacles such as monkey bars and a climbing wall.
“And, because we’re in Killington, there’s lots of vertical,” Han said. “It’s a challenge for many, but we do say if you walk around, we won’t tell.”
The course ended with a run through a massive pile of soap bubbles just before the finish line."

Once again I joined my girls for the Dirty Girl 5K Mud Run in Killington, Vermont. This year I was prepared for what the event held in store for us, but I had not had the opportunity to prepare as well as last year. With my boyfriend out of work due to an Achilles Tendon injury, it put a "BIG" kink in my schedule. Anyway, prepared or not, I was determined to persevere through the course to the finish line.

Fortunately it was warmer than last year, but we did get some rain again. I'm beginning to believe Mother Nature waits for this event to have that blip in the normal summer weather. Perhaps it's to ensure a bigger challenge to the participants. There was much more steep vertical climbing than last year, and one climb in particular forced me to push harder than I thought I possibly could. My daughters are good about making sure I am still with them, even if I am behind a bit.

Our team, "Keepin It Dirty", is an amazing group of about twenty women from the ages of 16 - 60+. Every one of them push themselves to the max, and if one struggles the team is there to help and encourage them. We start as a team and finish as a team, with big smiles, hoots and howls as we cross the finish line.

Many times along the course I wondered if I had lost my mind for taking this on again. But as I looked around at all these incredible women taking on the same challenge, I knew that I belonged there with them. And when we cross the finish line the sense of accomplishment is a feeling like no other.

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to take on this challenge with my daughters. We are very close, but this event brings us closer, and it's such a great feeling to have this much fun with them! I did tell them at the end of the day that this would probably be my last time. Talking with my oldest daughter last evening, she indicated that they would have me talked into it by next year. I laughed, but deep down I know that she is probably right.

Dirty Girl 2018??

If you want to challenge yourself check out Dirty Gril Mud Runs: http://godirtygirl.com/


 



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