MIMM: Love Mud Run

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I enjoyed Saturday's gorgeous 80+ degree weather inland: wine country, dirt roads, mountains! Oh how I love the quaintness.

I drove to Temecula, an hour and a half away, for the Love Mud Run! The run is not meant to be intense like other mud runs.

I left at 8:30 and arrived with enough time to check-in for my 11:00 wave. I finished the 5K in under an hour. My knees are bruised from climbing through tunnels and I have a long scratch on my leg from rocks and other bits of nature, but I had a great time.

I'm not much of a runner and if I do run, the terrain is usually quite even. The course here was a combination of hiking and that one time I played kickball in the rain. I ran at a pretty slow pace but managed to stay near the front of the pack.

I loved the obstacles - mud pits, tree obstacles, and a ton at the end, including walls to climb (rocked it!), a steep slip and slide with soap added, and mounds of mud to climb and separated by more mud pits! I smothered myself in as much mud as possible.

Later runners

*I went by myself - my friend bailed because it's Valentine's Day weekend and his girlfriend is in town - and was more concerned with having fun and getting the grime off immediately than taking pictures.

Luckily, we were spoiled. I ran to the hosing off station. We were corralled into a "car wash" - foam was thrown on us and sprayed off with hot water. So much fun... maybe I should look into foam festivals? Those exist, right?

Getting out of there.

Quest Nutrition was on hand with their new flavor, chocolate chip cookie dough. So good. My local GNC must have old product because they're so hard unlike this gooey one.

After getting lost for 6 miles of curvy road, I finally found Great Harvest Bakery. I went to one in Pasadena that actually closed - this location is the closest to me now. :( I sampled pesto and apple cinnamon bread, both still warm, and chose the wine country sandwich (turkey, salami, avocado pesto?) on High Five Bread. Best sandwiches ever in a starved state or not.

I stopped by Wilson's Creek Winery and came home with nothing. Some of my co-workers may be going soon so I'll tag along then.

This is not the Sprouts I usually go to. They have similar product but had more specialty items including a paleo dessert! I rolled with a sampling of their coconut frozen yogurt with a coupon!

By the time I got home, I was hungry again and ate the rest of my sandwich. I proceeded to take a much-needed nap too.

The run and being sick hit me on Sunday. I went to yoga and put up a sad effort then blew my plans for hitting the beach. Gotta say, I'm trying my best to take advantage of living near the beach, but I am more of a mountaineer. :)

Have you tried a mud run? I did a mud run because it was a challenge and to let go! I'm such a type A that a mud run, where I got filthy and scratched up was exactly what I needed. When else would I do a slip and slide or climb mud hills?
Do you like the beach or mountains more?