From good to Mud

When my friend called me over a month ago to ask if our kids wanted to participate in the annual 'Mud Run' in Des Moines, I immediately answered "OH I'M SURE THEY WOULD!" I let the kids watch the commercial which featured folks splashing and running in mud and puddles - and that was it. We were going.

Since Jacob was too young to participate, Ben reluctantly (yeah right) volunteered to sit out with our little guy while the rest of us ran the race. I actually thought it might be kind of fun - definitely out of the box for me - and the kids were over the moon about it. What's a little mud?

The rules were as follows:

Wear your grungy clothes and old running shoes.

Make sure your shoes are double or triple tied.

Avoid clothes with pockets, pockets carry extra mud.

Bring a trash bag, dry clothes and towel.

Make-shift shower stations available.

(and here comes the best one:)

Do not dive head first into the mud pit.

This is a FUN RUN so help your neighbor if they get stuck!

HA!

A little mud on a nice sunny day would be one thing. But a LOT of mud on a FREEZING morning (40 degrees) is another! The unseasonably cold temps on Saturday morning had us watching puffs of our own breath float around in the air. My 2 layers of running pants and three shirts were not keeping me warm while we waited for the race to begin. What did I get myself in to?!?!!?

Well, THIS:

note the difference in facial expressions between myself and the chap in red

And believe it or not, we didn't get near as muddy as some of the folks who ran this baby. They may not have dove head first into the pit, but there was definitely evidence of many a belly flops, that's for sure. And we didn't freeze. Once we got going, it was better - and pretty funny... and fun. Getting out of our wet muddy garb in the parking lot was a bit of a challenge, but we managed. I can only imagine what was going through the attendant's head when we walked into our hotel to check in!

Baseball Fever

This weekend I got my first taste of intense, crazy baseball parents and coaches. While I have to say the experience was far superior to the many wrestling meets we've been a part of, I was still a bit shocked after our first day of playing. Will is part of a local 9-year old baseball team in which he had to try out for to be a member. I knew it would be a competitive league, and I knew it would be a big commitment, but since he absolutely LOVES baseball, we went for it. Between Will and Charlie, the practices have pretty much taken over our lives and the supplies have put a dent in our checkbook - BUT they are having a blast and learning a lot - so all is good.

This weekend was Will's first game (which also happened to be an all weekend tournament). We started off Saturday morning by finding out one of our best pitchers broke his arm that morning while riding his bike. Not Good. (At this age, pitchers are hard to develop - so this was a major blow). Luckily, we had several others who had been practicing, so our coach still seemed optimistic.

The first game, the kids played great against an experienced team, and when the ref called the game, we had won 7-5. Our parents and kids were celebrating as the players lined up to shake hands when all of a sudden, a parent from the other team started shouting that we still had five minutes left to play. Huh? We started the game at 2:15pm, it was currently 3:50 pm, games are 1.5 hours long - so it was OVER. Over! Our ump, who was clueless, started to doubt himself on what time he started the game... was it 2:15pm or 2:25pm?? We had the time documented as 2:15pm, but the other coach's chest started to get all puffy, his face began to resemble the color of his shirt (bright orange), and he started in on the arguing. The ump bowed out to let the coaches figure it out - what?! As more orange shirts joined the fight, it was clear that the other team was *insane*, wasn't going to back down, and planned on bullying us until they got their way.

The next thing we knew, the game had started AGAIN, and we were playing another inning. The kids were confused, the other team was revved up and enraged, and in the end, they beat us by one. It was totally disgusting. By the time it was done, our kids had played for over two hours, they were tired and upset... and were late for their next game. You can imagine how that one went.

To make matters worse, the ump approached our coach afterwards to APOLOGIZE and admit that he was in the wrong... and that it never should have happened that way. OH GOLLY THANKS. Try explaining that one to your nine year old. "Yes honey, you did win, but then you didn't"...

With two losses from the first day, we were kicked into the 'Silver' bracket for the following day - but we were okay with that. The kids played their hearts out despite missing players (another pitcher got the stomach flu Sunday morning), and the day went much better. The kids played great, we had a lot of fun and guess what - WE WON first place! :-) Great job 9U Vikings!