This past Saturday, I tried something new. Sadly,
it was a big waste of time.
Last spring, I started hearing about The Slime Run. It
was advertised as along the lines of a mud run, but instead of mud pits, they
shot slime at you. I figured I’d give it a try. I
hesitated, however, when I discovered that two mud runs were happening the same
day. These are runs I do every year and love. But I
decided to go with the new one even though the others were closer. Big
mistake.
My first clue that I wasn’t going to enjoy this run was when
I showed up and realized there was nowhere to clean up or change after the
run. Kind of big deals for a run where you are supposed to get
messy. And I was thinking about going to the outlet mall nearby and
then an author signing afterward. Even if I weren’t doing that, I’d
still have to drive home, and it was a two hour drive. Still, I went
ahead and ran it like I usually do these runs – shirtless. I got to
thinking that might be a mistake. I could peel off my shirt and at
least that much would be clean. But it was too late to worry about
it by that point.
This was a 5K, like most races are. Most races
usually have at least a dozen or so obstacles over the course of the run,
including mud pits. This one had exactly 3 obstacles and four
stations where you got slime shot at you. I even went around the
last one of those stations because I didn’t want to get messier than I already
was. Kind of defeats the point of the run, right?
Now keep in mind I drove two hours one way and paid to park
to essentially run a 5K. I could have done that at home. Especially
since they were keeping track of the time.
Of course, part of the result was how quickly I was in and
out of them. I was leaving much sooner than I thought I would.
I used a bottle of water to get the worst of the slime off
my arm and then put on my shirt. And I’m glad I didn’t wear it for
the run. I went to the outlet mall and used their sink to clean the
slime off of me. It actually came off fairly easily, and I was able
to wear a clean shirt in. I then shopped for shoes (which turns out
to be a bust – I bought some, but they are bothering me, too) and headed to the
signing.
That was the best part of the day. While I’d
heard Hank Phillippi Ryan last year, therefore I’d heard most of what she
shared already, I still enjoyed getting to see her. Plus I talked to
another fan there. And this was a bookstore I’ve heard about for
years but never visited because it’s so far from home. It was nice
to finally change that.
So that made the day worthwhile, although I really do wish I
had stuck with one of the runs closer to home. Heck, if I’d done an
early enough wave, it might have been possible to do both of the runs closer to
home and be back sooner than I would have been just doing this one without all
the extras.
