Muddy fanatic

Did a obstacle-ridden mud race yesterday with med friend Christine and her Bf Casey.  Wanted to share photos and battle wounds and full story.  Best thing I've had to write about in a minute.

I bought a disposable CVS camera to take pics on the trail.  I considered waterproof but ended up just getting a regular one.  The photos are at a walgreens album link that this photo will take you to:

As anyone might be able to imagine, it is worrisome and risky to trust a technology as old school as disposable camera film, but we did our best and the pictures turned out OK.   The photos got progressively foggier, probably from the lens getting dirtier through the course.  But even the early ones were disappointingly fuzzy.  Either disposable cameras have always been like this or the camera film suffered insult from sitting in my car a day or two before the race.

As may be seen in the photo above, I got a nice flesh wound at the end of my film exposures.  flesh wound.  :)  There was a super helpful volunteer at the top of the climactic mud slide obstacle that was suggesting everyone go down head first because it was "easier."  The first guy to try it pulled it off pretty well so we all went with it.  Unfortunately half way down the slide the tarp surface had worn away to the dirt/rocks underneath, and as the friction pulled my suit dangerously downward on my chest, I used my hands to stop myself.  After slipping the rest of the way down into a dropoff of muddy water, I walked back up the shoulder to grap my fanny pack [ :) ], and noted the bloody hand.

Throughout the race Christine and I were joking about everyone's risk for Giardia and necrotizing fasciitis.  An afterthought of mine was that communicable disease could have took a decent place on our list as well, considering people like me were carelessly leaking their fluids into the course.  I took things at ease after my hand injury, finishing a last (non-muddy and brief) obstacle of the course.  It was a good hour before I could rinse my hand with water.  About 1.5 hour after that I got home, showered and cleaned with peroxide.  About 3.5 hrs after that, my hand had started hurting and it was difficult to flex and extend my pinky from swelling.  Then ultimately, someone :) stitched me up with some lidocaine and sent me home with Augmentin.

The race was well intentioned, however poorly organized.  We all were thinking the single experience was probably enough.  And I got hands to keep healthy...