Going into the Dirty Girl Mud Run, I had decided to make this a fun run.  As I learned at Pretty Muddy, these girlie mud runs aren’t about a finish time, but having fun and finishing with friends.  So I decided to scale back the competitive runner in me and simply enjoy the run with my Tampa Bay Blogger friends, obstacles, mud and all.

I couldn’t have come up with a better strategy for this run.  With a review of the warning colors on the course, we had all the information, strategy and a little Zumba necessary to take on the course and its obstacles.

However, there was no warning about the manure on the course.  Hurdling the horse poop and cow poop seemed the best way to handle the matter.

The little dirty girls inside of us tackled the hot pink inflatable with such enthusiasm.

Although we were less enthusiastic about the mud pits.  Fortunately, like many other mud runs, each participant can choose to pass on the mud pits and other obstacles.

Proudly, I didn’t pass on any.  I even accidentally stepped in a few cow patties (not my proudest moment).

As for the run portion of the program, it was nicely spaced out between obstacles.  The distance between obstacles allowed for us to reach a decent running pace.

With each mud run, I’ve learned that I need to do more crossfit type of training because I simply do not know how to take on some of these crazy obstacles, like Dirtys Girl’s Amaze Yourself or the Funky Monkey.  Apparently a crab crawl is the best method to tackle the Funky Monkey, although I crawled across it on my hands and knees.

Although I don’t know think anyone knows the best way to crawl through Colon Blow Fallopian Utopian Tubes.

For any runner like me, the obstacles were challenging enough, but not too difficult.  I took each obstacle carefully, slowly and watched my footing as to not slip.  Climbing and hoisting myself over each challenge, I realized my true strength.

With the finish line and one last mud pit in front of us, my fitness blogger friends and I leaped into the muddy splash pool and danced to the finish line.

Laughing at the state of ourselves, we finished together, which was my favorite part of the whole run.  Not to be finished because I could have gone another 3 miles, but to finish covered with mud with friends was the ultimate reward.

But Dirty Girl Mud Runs takes that reward one step further by celebrating women, the strength in each us and the courage of women facing breast cancer.

In 2012, it is the goal of Dirty Girl to provide the National Breast Cancer Foundation with over $250,000 in monetary and in-kind support. In 2013, our goal is to deliver over $1,500,000 in support to NBCF. In addition, Dirty Girl will continue providing cancer survivors free registration at each event.

Show your courage and consider being a Dirty Girl for breast cancer at a Dirty Girl Mud Run near you.

Thank you to Caroline of My Fascinating Life and Raffi of Running Betty for being our Tampa Bay Blogger team photographers and also for providing our hot pink “Dirty Blogger” Bondi Bands.

**Dirty Girl provided me with a free entry in exchange for my honest review of the mud run.  The opinions are my own.**