Sunday, August 26, 2012

Mud/Paint Wars




Unfortunately since this ethos has taken over my life, I haven't always had the best judgement when it comes to entering events. Saturday was the story of one such misadventure where the lure of sweat, mud, paint and fun led Megan, Jessie and myself to a pretty sketchy part of rural Tampa where we really could have faced danger in the form of poisonous spiders and snakes -- to to mention gator homes. Now that I am living somewhere where the wildlife is so treacherous, I need to be more skeptical and critical of events and make sure that I am enter safe situations. 


So... Saturday Megan, Jessie and I headed out to the Mud and Paint Run in Tampa. 



We were so clean and excited when we got to the event!! 



They had buckets of paint along the course so we could fill out water guns. Honestly the most fun was attacking and being attacked by each other and the volunteers! 




We were imagining a huge field of obstacles and runs, but were confronted instead with a run through the swampy backgrounds of a horse ranch/farm. I didn't even ask about alligators until after the rope swing into the creek. 

I need to remember that fresh water is dangerous in Florida


Two men just laughed and informed me I should be more worried about snakes. The nature is just so much more dangerous here than back home. I fell several times, tripping over roots or falling through branches waist deep into rivers and creeks. I had a lot of fun, but it wasn't until after that I realized how stupid and potentially dangerous the event was. 








After we cleaned up I changed into this sweet shirt I made for the run before I read their e-mailing that suggested going for white. Now that school is about to start I need to get better and reading and following directions! 







Treated myself to a monster burrito after the run! Left overs for days : ) 



Saturday night was mellow. Got some quality roommate time in watching Adam Sandler movies with a beer in hand. Luckily Jessie waited until after we had showered, napped and eaten to tell me about the snakes she had seen and how worried she was that we were going to see a gator. If I had known about those snakes while we were on the course I would have lost it. Let's just say that was a one and done adventure with that run group! 

Despite Hurricane Isaac Threatening to barrel down on us, Megan and I joined up with some other Running for Brews people to get a free paddleboard lesson from Urban Kai



I've paddled before in Seattle, but have never gotten such a comprehensive lesson. I can't wait to try out some of their yoga and fitness classes -- all of which are done on paddle boards on the water! 

 The wind was really going at us but we all had a great time and only one of us fell in! We only had four boards to share, so while people were boarding some of the rest of us tried our hand at a beach obstacle course. 

More pictures to come.  

We stayed just over two hours, but then it was time to get home incase the storm picked up! Honestly this is the most mild rain I've seen in Florida yet. If it weren't so warm I would feel right at home, because we are experiencing the drizzle and spit of the Pacific Northwest. 

Since we can't really go outside and I am so bored of waiting for school to start I tried to kill some time painting my nails and applying a face mask. 

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That worked until I found out that the University isn't taking any chances and already cancelled all classes/activities tomorrow. Now I suddenly have another whole day to kill. We'll see how bad the weather gets, but according to weather.com it isn't going to be very bad -- perhaps we will have to come up with a psuedo hurricane adventure for tomorrow?! 

For now just hoping the storm stays small and that I don't go completely stir crazy. 


xoxo Sweat&Sparkle





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