Tales From the Mud Pits: A First-Hand Account of Buffalo’s Dirty Girl Mud Run 2012 [PICTURES]

On this past Saturday (September 8th), I spent my morning running up ski slopes, climbing wooden walls and rope nets and army crawling through mud and murky water -- willingly.

A few months ago, my friend talked me into joining her for the Buffalo edition of the 5K Dirty Girl Mud Run -- and by "talked me into," I mean that I heard the words "mud run" and was 100 percent into it. And while I wasn't thrilled about the idea of running in the rain when I woke up on Saturday morning to a downpour, once we got into it, my friends and I definitely took advantage of the chance to get as dirty as possible.

Eleven run-sanctioned obstacles, a few made-up ones of our own (Ooh, muddy hill! Let's roll down it!) and an hour and a half later, that is what we looked like. Not since after Bonnaroo have I stepped into a shower and not known what to clean first. And although we didn't really run the run -- you try running up- and downhill in piles of mud! -- we definitely have the battle scars (sore legs, a couple scrapes and a bruise on my knee the size of a very large peanut shell) to prove we made it through.

My friend was nice enough to let me borrow her water/dirt/catastrophic event-proof camera to document our experience out on the trail, so you can see more of my photos from the run in the gallery below!