Today I did the craziest thing, something I have not done in a long time and something that was long overdue: I had fun. Usually my life is all about other people having fun, namely my 3 children. I am always making sure they are happy, healthy and having a great "childhood", usually at the expense of my happy,healthy "adulthood". I put myself last 90% of the time, and that is ok because I am a mother and a pretty good one at that! But today , with a few close friends I did something that was just about ME.
A month ago, my friend Mari sent me an email about a mud run coming to our area. She had it on her bucket list, and asked if I would do it with her. My first instinct was "has she actually MET me?" Mud, dirt, extensive running early in the morning on a Saturday (my widely known sleep in day BTW), that was just a "hell no! trifecta". But I answered her in a matter of minutes and said "ok". And immediately thereafter I was thinking I was crazy. But what made matters worse was my husband thought I was crazy, and so did my son. (the teenage one who knows EVERYTHING). They laughed at the thought of me running in the mud, hurling myself over obstacles and getting "dirty". I then knew my decision to join my friend was the right one. I was not a person that did that stuff, I did not get "dirty" , I did not have actual fun that doesn't involve my children and their friends. I was now all in, and it was on my bucket list too!
So today, decked out in our homemade puffy painted shirts my friends and I ran a 5K mud run. I have run 5K's before , and made pretty good time but there has never been obstacles or mud, so i wasn't sure how it would all go. I wasn't trying to finish it record time, I wasn't there for a medal. I was there to run, play in the mud and take in the beautiful scenery as I did those things. I found the mud to be liberating after the initial shock of it being all over me, and I didn't mind it under my manicured fingernails after a while.I truly enjoyed the whole experience, and I don't enjoy "whole" experiences that much anymore. But it is time for me to try, to get back to doing something every once in a while that is just about me and what I want to do. As I washed away the mud in the shower, I realized there was no reason to have ever worried about being dirty and nasty , it all washes off and doing something outside of your comfort zone is cleansing in itself.
