Dances with Dirt, commonly known as
DWD, is a series of cross country off path relay races that will drag your butt
over 62-ish miles of stupidly steep (as in vertical) hills, and through mud
pits up to your waist. Swamp and river crossings and clambering over downed
trees and through brush that may include poison ivy, stinging nettle, and other
thorny bramble are also expected obstacles. Did I mention this takes place in
Hell, Michigan? The sadistic race director Randy has lots of fun dragging our
butts through Hell and creating the most challenging and grueling course
possible for a relay. This year’s temperatures were appropriate to a race
through Hell, climbing into the 90s and making a difficult race even more
grueling.
I volunteered at this race before and heard
many horror stories about its difficulty, so of course I jumped at the
opportunity to join a team when my friend Claudia was looking to start one. It
was tough to find 5 women who were trail runners, not already in a team, and
who would be willing to go through this crazy event. Here we are, The
Matriarchs, 5 tough women over 40.
Sadly I
did not have my costume yet.
Claudia Tori, Me, Karleen Campbell,
Vicky Precopio, and Michelle Monroe . Claudia's husband John, who was our
fearless driver for the day, was taking the shot.
**A huge shout out to John who took
on a very stressful job and did great getting us all around Pinkney and Hell so
we could do something stupidly challenging for a day!**
Enormous thanks to Claudia, our
fearless leader, for her positive encouragement through it all. Also thanks to Karleen,
who organized an amazing spreadsheet of who needed to be where and when, without
which I think it would have been a total clustersuck (yes that's a word now
shut up auto correct!) of a race. And also thanks to Michelle who allowed us to
completely trash her Honda with muddy sweaty stinky runners so we would have a
larger vehicle that could fit all of us and our supplies. There are no aid
stations for the relay racers; you bring it or you go without! Vicky and I
seemed to be the moral support and cheerleaders, overall just adding to the
crazy in our group.
I ran the first lap of the relay and
it felt really good, I was especially lucky to be running before the heat of
the day hit. Did I mention the highs for the day where in the 90s with what
felt like 90% humidity? Everyone was in good spirits and in crazy costumes
ranging from prom dresses to Care bears to Brittney Spears and I was wearing
this wildly colorful muumuu "Old Lady" costume. I got into the spirit
of things when I passed other runners, shouting "Get off my trail!"
and "These young whipper snappers don't know what's good for them!" I
got several smiles and some laughs. The race started on a very positive note
for me and I passed along my good cheer to the others in the group and thought
maybe this whole DWD thing isn't so bad. Boy was I in for it!
I thought my second leg would be the
hardest. It was through the swamp and appropriately named “It Sucks”. I ditched
the muumuu and for this leg I stripped to minimal clothing. I donned my five fingers
and looked forward to squishing mud between my toes. I struggled with stiff
muscles and the rising heat at the beginning but found it helpful to stick with
a pace group for a bit. If this leg taught me anything it was the importance of
teamwork and sticking together through the rough areas.
There was a group ahead of me as we
headed from the horse trails into the swamp and they called out that they thought
they were lost, I called back to them the way back to the trail. Together we
tackled the nightmare mess of a swamp that took us the better part of an hour
to navigate. It really did take a team to navigate. As one person would
get stuck the others would help boost up or pull them out of the muck. I was
using my five fingers to feel through the mud for sticks that I could walk on
and not sink down to my waist. A guy started following me and said "I'm
sticking with five fingers! She's a good trailblazer".
When we reached the end and followed
the flags up onto the rail trail I looked at the runners ahead of me in the
blazing sun and all of them were walking. They looked like a death march. I
thought this is not a death march, yes I'm tired and yes it’s brutally hot out
on the rail trail but dammit I can run this part! I pushed myself to a slow
trot and as I came up on another runner I think they heard my footfalls and
tried to pick up their own paces. Some even started running again. I said “You
can do this! It's half a mile; we can run half a mile!” It was a little more
than half actually. .5 turned into .8 according to my watch (dammit Randy, get
a Garmin!)
As I crossed the finish my friend Michele
Cox saw me and said “Great job! You're smiling!” And I was, I was so happy to
have gotten through, but I could not have finished that one alone. It was
teamwork on the trail that got me through.
Karleen and
I waiting in the shade after the mud leg, I had been hosed down and was mostly
free of the mud, I really wish I had a picture of myself while still covered!
The third leg was super rough. My
inner voice is often my biggest enemy and sometimes I’m just not very good at
telling it to STFU. My thighs started cramping and I had trouble breathing in
the humidity and heat and I was mentally crashing at this point. It felt like I
was still trying to run through mud and I just could not pick up the pace and
keep my breath. It seemed like every other runner was passing me, breezing by
like I was standing still, and I was feeling like I was failing myself. I wouldn’t
be able to hold the pace I had hoped to do for this leg. I have read that one
of the hardest battles for runners is trying to stop the negative talk spiral
and trying not to compare yourself to everyone who seems to be doing better. Everyone
who passed me encouraged me to keep going and said great job. One wonderful
soul kept pace with me a bit and made sure I was okay, as I was physically not
dealing well with the heat. I was using up my water bottle to occasionally
shoot water down my back to try to cool myself off in the hopes that I could
start breathing better. Mentally it was a tough 4 miles and at the time the
encouragement fell on deaf ears because I was in a bad place and all I could
see was how much better everyone else was doing and how I was a failure. But I
wasn't a failure. I slogged through it and my pace wasn't as good as I hoped
but it got me to the end and I wasn’t hurt or throwing up or passing out. I
toughed it out and I am grateful for those who tried to help me through the
struggle.
Looking back, the other runners’ encouragement
was an awesome thing. They could have just passed me and ran on by but they saw
me struggling and they said things to boost me up. They knew I was struggling
and they wanted me to keep going and push through, and I appreciate that. I
love that about this community. They want everyone to find their strength and
come in strong. It’s an individual sport but we can create a team through comradery
and encouragement. We can try to help each other to push through, one step at a
time.
I was done with my legs but the
other girls had their last legs to go and their last legs were brutal. It was a
hard slog in the heat and only stubbornness and determination got us through. I
give high Kudos to Michelle who kept her costume on and her high encouraging
spirit for the whole race. The last legs where Hell on everyone and we
were all stupidly tired, dirty, sweaty, and ready to be done!!
Claudia had the Glory lap; the final
lap. It felt fantastic to run Claudia in and it was amazing to finish such a hard
ordeal. I am so very proud of myself and the rest of my team who stuck it out
together and made it through!
Overall it
was a successful and intense adventure. I can’t wait to do it again next year!
