My name is Alexa Nugent.

My first 10K.

Our trip to San Diego came about (I think) because of Adam and Eric. Adam was going to be staying at a beach house with all of his in-laws that week, and Eric and Tosha were planning to be there on Saturday the 13th for the annual Mud Run at Camp Pendleton. Tosha's sister, Alexa, and brother-in-law were supposed run it with them, but couldn't make it. Eric asked if I wanted to fill in for her. I said sure, what the heck - I've never done anything like that before. I had started running in March, so I thought it would be a breeze.

On Saturday the 13th of June, I was Alexa Nugent - 35 years old.

But you can call me Alexa.

Eric, Tosha and I before the race.

Camp Pendleton Mud Run.

121 1522 9622 ALEXA NUGENT 35 1:35:52

(I finished 121st in my category - 1522 overall, my tag# was 9622, I was 35 years old (that day) and my time - 1:35:52.)

First of all, I missed the exit from the freeway to get to Camp Pendleton! Ended up driving 30 minutes MORE, which made us late starting the race. We were in last place out of the gate.

First thing they do is hose you down with fire hoses. It was a little nippy that day too!

Eric took off first thing and left Tosha and I in the dust. Rude. Tosha and I ran next to each other for awhile, but when the course started up hill, that was my undoing. She kept going, I walked, ran, walked, ran, huffed and puffed.

It's a giant obstacle course. We had to run through little rivers, climb over walls through the mud, swim through a lake, crawl through tunnels, climb a steep slippery muddy hill with water/mud running down the middle of it, run down VERY STEEP hills, and the last obstacle was army-crawling through the mud to the finish line.

I had the most fun people-watching as I was running/sucking wind. There were lots of teams running. I wish I had a camera on me to take pictures of all the team costumes. There was a Nacho Libre team - in full tights and masks. Another that was wearing whitey-tighties on the outside of their running shorts IF they were wearing running shorts at all. (I really didn't care to look too closely.) They had stuff written across their bums - i.e. "PRIVATE UNDERPANTS" etc.

There were the hard-core runners that were so skeletal they looked like they escaped from a concentration camp. I felt compelled to offer them some M&M's, but I didn't have my secret stash on me. I watched this shameless, vain man hitting on attractive runners as they ran by. Helloooo - like the girls are going to stop running to give him their phone#'s? What a tard. Another girl wore her shoes like slippers, cuz her heels were bleeding - poor thing.

I discovered several things during the 6.2 mile run.

1. Just because I was once an athlete - does not mean I still am.

2. Bring vaseline to prevent chafing.

3. Running in FLAT Texas for a few months does NOT prepare you for running hills.

4. I don't like mud. Smelled like manure. Blechk!

5. iPod Shuffles don't float, even if you have them in plastic sandwich baggies.

6. Grandmas can run faster than me.

7. Running DOWNHILL is much worse than running UP HILL.

8. Wet, muddy clothes cause serious chafing.

9. Don't wear white.

10. I'm fascinated with watching legs and bums as they're running.

After the run we asked some random guy if he'd take a picture and email to us. He was very nice and happily obliged.

We had muddy ICK in all crevices and orifices. (Eric's shirt used to be white.)

My muddy, disgusting shoes. I threw them away. Nowhere to put them for our flight home.

So..... anybody wanna do it next year? I'm totally doing it again if anybody wants to join me. Soooo much fun. Thanks, Alexa, for allowing me to borrow your identity for the day, and Eric and Tosha for inviting me. Next year I'll know what to expect so I can train better.