Pie, Again

Tomorrow is May 2. I have been looking forward to May 2 ever since February, when I registered for the Tough Mudder, a race that requires substantially more insanity than I am normally willing to admit to. It's held at a ski resort in Pennsylvania, and the course consists of approximately 7 miles of running...plus 17 obstacles. First of all, any race that only gives you an approximate distance has got to be pretty crazy. Second, take a look at some of the obstacles: We'll have to crawl hands-and-knees through snow, drag a log up a hill, slog through a pond of mud, jump 15 feet into an ice-cold mountain lake, scale mud-soaked walls, run through fire, and face a "surprise" obstacle at the very end. Did I mention that we have to run through fire? Yes -- run through fire. The only word I can think of to describe my feelings about this is: AWESOME.

Dinosaurs are tough, just like Tough Mudders. Just don't let them eat the blueberries underneath.

I'm not going alone. I will be teaming up with 4 of my fellow classmates in this endeavor. One has been in the Navy for many years (and has even served in Iraq), one is a former track star, one lived in Antarctica and researched for NASA, and one is the 43rd-ranked discus thrower in the world. Am I out of my league? Maybe, but I refuse to think so. I fully expect to be more exhausted than any other time in my life when the race is done, but I look forward to it.

Gooey chocolate-pecan

Tonight, the 5 of us are going to psych up and carbo-load, as all serious Tough Mudders should. I haven't done the whole pasta-dinner-before-a-race thing since high school, so I'm really looking forward to it. The guys are taking care of the dinner, but I said I'd handle dessert. What could possibly be a better dessert than pie? Perhaps 2 pies? Sure. So that's what I've made this morning: pies. And tonight we'll feast.

I can't wait!