Dirty Girl 5k Mud/Obstacle Run

"Exercise to stimulate, not annihilate. The world wasn't formed in a day, and neither were we. Set small goals and build upon them."--Lee Haney



Lets' be honest here. I'm a fitness freak. I teach Zumba and Body Step classes 4 days a week at my local gym; I lift weights several days a week, walk my dog a few miles, ride my bike, and basically adore anything else active. I hate sitting for hours on end. Moving around gets my brain working and keeps me in shape and happy. I've done quite a few fun runs/mud/obstacle runs with my boyfriend and a few friends, but this time I went with my best friend and former college roommate, Ellie. Ellie does not share my passion for fitness, but I've rubbed off on her and she has set small goals for herself and even takes gym classes a few days a week! Awesome!

She had been talking about wanting to do a 5k so I went on the hunt for a super fun one. I found an all female race benefitting breast cancer foundations. Personally, I don't care if it's all female, but it was the next race coming to the area and it looked like a CRAZY amount of fun. They advertised mud, sweat, obstacles, team work, etc. What sealed the deal? I Living Social deal for a half price entry! Heck yes. I love fitness and I love saving money on fitness, so this was perfect.

We both signed up and started counting down the days. Ellie was more nervous because it was her first race. She didn't train too much, but she did her best and that's all that matters. I wasn't nervous at all I just wanted it to be race day! I had been training non stop in the gym, running with my dog, and lifting weights. I wanted to make sure I was prepared.

Race day had finally arrived! We donned our running clothes that we knew we wouldn't care about getting dirty and drove to the Sportsplex where the race was held. There were lots of vendors set up that we briefly checked out. We dropped out change of clothes and towels off and made sure to get pre-race pictures. We knew we'd look like we'd run thru a very muddy hell and back after the race so we wanted to be able to show the crazy difference.

Ellie set the pace and I told her that we could walk whenever she wanted, but I made sure to challenge her. She almost made it through the whole race without complaining about the running, but that last mile really did her in! There were so many obstacles! I couldn't get enough. I ran right up to each one and went all out no matter what. There were tubes we climbed through, balance beams where people launched large inflatable balls at us, army crawls through mud pits, inflatable slides where you bounced off the bottom into a muddy water pit, rope walls, barriers to climb over, we even went down a fire pole!

Needless to say by the time we could see the finish we were COVERED from head to foot in mud. The last obstacle was right before the finish line. It was a gigantic mud pit. We looked at each other and took off running for it. I tackled her right at the end and we both ended up face down in the mud and had to roll around to get out. Priceless. We ran across the finish line together and were given our finisher's medals, which were HUGE. The goodie bags we received also had shampoo and conditioner. They know how to make us feel good after a race!

After we had finished and had collected our bags we set off for the picture stations! After that we decided it would be best if we used their "shower" area to literally hose ourselves down. It honestly looked like a mud bomb had gone off over there. They should've made it the new obstacle for all the mud that was there. The only downside? The water was FREEZING COLD. We washed our legs off and shoes, but it didn't do much good. After heading home, we both gunned it for the two bathrooms in my house. It took quote a while, but we managed to get the mud out of our ears and off of every surface imaginable on our skin.

All in all, it was one of the most fun races I've ever had the pleasure to take part in. I just wish they had had more photographers! Although, if that's my only complaint then I can't even complain! It was such a fantastic day and we had an insane amount of fun. Ellie ROCKED her first 5k and I got to run around with her on lots of obstacles. If you get a chance don't miss the Dirty Girl 5k. Sorry guys. It's a vagina only event. No wieners allowed.

"The reason I exercise is for the quality of life I enjoy."--Kenneth Cooper

Dog Friendly Dining In Virginia Beach!

"The only kind of seafood I trust is the fish stick, a totally featureless fish that doesn't have any eyeballs or fins." --Dave Barry

When you think of dog friendly places most people instantly think of parks, Petsmart, and some other retail stores. After my boyfriend and I adopted the fluffy love of our lives aka Atlas, we have been on a mission to find as many places as we can that are dog friendly where we live in Virginia Beach.

We've found tons of local stores, parks, and beaches, but today we found the ultimate prize. We love going out to eat a few times a month, but we've always wanted to bring Atlas with us. Lots of places around here have outdoor patios where people like to eat in the summer so we thought that was our best bet. We called around and most restaurants only allow service dogs, which is absolutely understandable! After a few Google searches and some more phone calls we learned that Panera Bread and Lucky Oyster were our best bets as they allowed dogs on their patios. We chose Lucky Oyster because we were craving seafood, plus it is one of our favorite local spots to go to for lunch and dinner.

They've got great prices, delicious food, great happy hour specials, and good service. It's a really kitschy place in the best sense. Now we love them even more since we got to enjoy lunch with our pup! We were seated outside and the waitress was super sweet to Atlas as well as us. Everyone kept peeking through the door to the inside to get a look at him. Some people even came out just to say hello.

This absolutely made our day just by the fact that we found a restaurant that not only catered to us, but to our dog as well. Dogs are part of the family. We want to be able to take the fluffy children with us too. Besides, he's much more well-behaved than most human children! All in all, Virginia Beach is full of pleasant surprises for all you dog lovers out there! If you're looking for a delicious local favorite where you can eat with your dog as well as the rest of the family then this place is for you!

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." --Mahatma Gandhi