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Community Corner

Woman Versus the Wild

Leann Reagin, a woman with strong Tucker roots, shares her experience at this month's Warrior Dash.

There is something nurturing to a girl’s soul about being out in nature.

I think far too many girls grow up afraid of the “creepy crawlies” outdoors and don’t get to fully appreciate how fun it is to just get dirty.  

Do you know how exhilarating it is to wade through a murky lake in your tennis shoes? How about making a mud pie to throw in your brother’s face?  

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I have a very strong connection to nature and enjoy anything that involves the outdoors. Because of my intense love of the outdoors I have chosen to take almost all of my workouts outside. Not only do you get fresh air, you also get vitamin D from the sun and a much more intense and satisfying workout.

I do a lot of my running on mountain bike trails. I love that I cannot change the incline on a hill because I am tired, like you can on a treadmill. If I run out far enough I can’t just press the “stop” button, I have to get back!

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I became a big fan of running races. My favorite types of races are the trail runs and mud runs.  Depending on your strength and endurance, there are several to choose from.

I did a mud run just this past weekend called the Warrior Dash. It's only 3.20 miles in distance, but the obstacles are so much fun! The first obstacle we came across was swimming/bobbing across a lake. When we reached the other shore, we immediately had to get down on our bellies and crawl through mud under barbed wire.

The next obstacle was the barricade breakdown. We had about 5-7 short walls we had to hoist ourselves over and immediately duck under barbed wire. We ran for a bit and then came upon a 14-foot wall that we had to climb with a rope and then back down again on the other side.

Next, we had to jump in the lake and swim to large floating buoys which we had to climb over or onto to get around, jump back into the lake on the other side of the buoys and swim the rest of the way to shore.

Following the buoy obstacle we ran again for a bit until we came across another 14-foot wall that had pegs in it that resembled a rock climbing wall. We had to climb to the top and then slide down a fireman pole to get down. That was a bit tricky being wet, as it made the pole a lot slicker than it normally would have been.

From there we ran on to the next obstacle -- the cargo net crawl. We climbed up a fairly small wall to climb across the cargo nets. After braving the nets we had a very slippery and muddy climb to the petrifying plunge. This was an amazingly fun slide made just for adults! After getting over the exciting plunge we headed on to jump over the warrior fires that raged on close to the finish line.

The last obstacle we had to brave was belly crawling under barbed wire and sliding on our bellies into the mudpit. We had to stay on our bellies through this pit in order to stay under the barbed wire that stretched across horizontally. As we ran across the finish line we were awarded with a medal that showed we had completed the race.

These types of activities are so much fun and can encourage us, as well as our family members, to get away from the video games and computers and go play in the mud for a bit.

You don’t have to be male to get muddy. Go play in the mud girls!

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