Hell Run 4/30/11 Austin, TX

On Saturday April 30th Brandon and I ran in the Hell Run just outside of Austin (on a big ranch in Smithville).  There were several waves throughout the day and we ran in the 1pm wave which was perfect because we got to sleep in and it gave us plenty of time to get there, get our stuff and hang out before we started.  We got some great stuff at the race: in our bags we got a tech shirt, a super hero cape, and on our bibs we could put our super hero names (mine just said HD, Brandon had them put Captain America on his). 
This run was H.A.R.D.  It was 3.45 miles and had 12 man-made obstacles.  The obstacles that we had to do were the easy part of the run.  Obstacles included jumping over 4 foot high walls, through several mudpits, up a tall pyramid of hay bales, under barbed wire, climbing over junk yard cars, through some tunnels, climbing a 8 foot high wall, jumping over small flames and swimming through a stock tank (more on that in a minute!).
The actual trail course was the hardest part and way harder than any of the obstacle that we had to do.  The course was all off-road trails and the entire course was up and down rolling hills (very little of the course was flat).  Some of the hills were up steep rocky slopes or steep switchbacks deep in the woods (at several points I felt like I was hiking!).  I finished in 48 minutes and Brandon finished in 53 minutes.  After the race we got a super sweet finisher medal and they gave all participants a ticket for a beer (and let me tell you it was the best beer I have ever had!!) :)
Despite the tough course though I had a blast and will definitely do a run like this again.  Hell Run is coming to Houston in the fall and we will definitely be doing it.
So yeah, a stock tank! If you don't know what a stock tank is, it is a big pond in the middle of a cow pasture were the cows go to swim, cool off, drink, and do their business if you know what I mean.  Well, on Saturday I did not know what a stock tank was when I had to swim through one.  I came to what I thought was just a big, deep, muddy (turns out that wasn't just mud, yuck)  pond that I had to swim through.  Luckily I kept the water out of my mouth and kind of swam on my back to keep my feet out of what I thought was mud.  When we were both done and on the way home I turned to Brandon and said "That pond water was really stinky and gross!" to which Brandon looked at me strangely and then started laughing hysterically.  "That wasn't pond water, that was a stock tank.  You know, where the cows swim and poop (he didn't say poop though)!"
OMG!!  That would have been great information to have BEFORE I swam through it! YUCK!!  Needless to say, I took a very long shower when we were done!