First off, I would like to state this is a misnomer. There is one giant mud pit at the end – which, while fun, does not make for the dirty girl run I was expecting.

Really it was more of a Dusty Trusty.

Because dust and sweat do not mud make. But, in any case, it was fun. Even if my completely duct-taped up shoes (to prevent/minimize the squish factor) ended up being a bit of overkill.

My friends and I decided to suck it up and join a team to run the 2013 San Jose Muddy Buddy – a 4.25 mile obstacle course partner race. (Really more like five miles when you consider walking back and forth from the car to get our packets and then getting confused between the start and finish lines.)

I’ve run the Dirty Girl before. Yes, I know soccer mom cliché event. Whatever.

Clad in costumes of Hawaii Five-O jungle gear costumes (as Kono, Danno and Steve respectively), my girlfriends and I started jogging it out when the 9 a.m. wave air horn blew. Up, up, up we went. I was not informed of the vertical incline effort this particular endurance event included. I guess it’s good for me?

Almost everyone was in costume. The vast majority were superheroes of some sort. Maybe because a cape is the easiest costume to come by. Not terribly creative – and really, have you not been paying attention?

Ten obstacles lay ahead. And we could place the location of the 8 a.m. wave ahead of us by tracking the giant dust cloud Pig Pen-ing it’s way across the Mt. Hamilton Grant Regional Park panoramic landscaping.

Shortly in to our initial assent, we encountered the first challenge – over/unders. Over the 4 ft walls and then under the dusty cargo net. I reached up, grasped the top of the wall and bounced myself right on over.

Check. Me. Out.

I may have gotten a little too cocky. As our decent began, my stamina remained steady. (Holy crap. This working out thing works?) I shall run down the mountain!

Right down into the straight rope climb. Having never experienced such pleasures in high school gym class, I was filled with confidence. I got this, yo. And at the thickly knotted rope I leapt.

So that could have gone better.

Ultimately, there was a similar obstacle at the end – just prior to the mudpit. A thickly knotted rope hung against a 10-foot wall. I leapt and heaved myself up. About halfway up I realized I would likely fall to my death if I didn’t make it all the way up.

I CAN! And I did. (But damnit, it appears there is no get fit quick scheme after all. Eat healthy and work out.)

So in triumph, I stood side-by-side with my girlfriends and we hurled ourselves into a giant mudpit and army crawled our way across. If your weekend workout doesn’t end caked in mud then stripped down to your undies in the parking lot, you’re doing it wrong.

I’ll be back next year. And at age 4, the boys can join in. Consider this a practice run. Because as a boy mom, one always needs to be ready for more mud.