Mudder, Mutter, Mother's Day

As I was stepping over and through mud puddles in Washington Crossing along the canal, I came up with the title for this post: Mudder, Mutter, Mother's Day.


Part one of the day was a 10K race sponsored by RunBucks. It is a good distance for me, lately a stretch distance for me as I've been running less. The weather was horrible -- 50s and raining. Only the day before we had a beautiful blue sky while doing goat yoga. This was not that. The course was almost as muddy as a Tough Mudder course (or so it seemed to me).

To add insult to the injury of being outside on a cold, rainy day, the race started 10 minutes late. Ugh. RunBucks usually runs a tight ship. They start their races on time, and they always have great post-race food (for example, the December race has Thanksgiving dinner food at the end, the March race has tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches), plus they keep their prices reasonable.



There is nothing you can do about the weather. You can see in this picture everyone is huddled under the cover. Runners showed up late to avoid being outside. The day before the race they sent out an email saying they were short volunteers --and it showed. The first three miles had markers, but not the last three. 

I've done different distances on this course with the same group -- the 4 miler and 15K courses come to mind. This was the first time we both started and ended with the "spiral of death." I get it in the beginning -- it thins out the crowded course so the super duper fast runners can PR without us more social runners getting in the way. At the end of the race it is pure torture! The slow runners have to push through the ones who have long finished and are sauntering back to their cars with their families. You can't tell who is still just trying to finish and who finished long ago because by the end, they are all going at the same pace. When I was finished and walking back to my car I met a couple of women who still had half a mile to go. They looked at my lack of medal (what do you expect for a $20 race?) and nearly continued to their car without finishing. We did get a lovely women's cut tee-shirt (the few men participating received a pint glass instead) and a carnation at the finish line, but no medal, which I am fine with at this stage in my running career.


I finished about where I expected to. I can do 1:10 for a 10k, but wasn't feeling it that day. The puddles were awful and unavoidable. For the last half there was no one close enough in front of me to try to pass, and no one close enough behind me I was afraid of passing me. Don't let anyone tell you differently -- there is a lot of psychology involved with running. It is not all physical. My head was clearly not in it. It did not help that my GPS stopped working for nearly a mile, and the lack of mile markers made me question where I was and how I was doing. See, psychological.

After a warm shower, Don, Ashley, and I went into Philadelphia to visit the Mutter Museum with free library passes.

It was still raining. It was still cold. Don scored street parking around the corner from the museum.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Mutter Museum, it is a museum of medical oddities. Some are pretty cool, others are nightmare inducing. My favorite part were the beautiful wood cabinets.

"Alice in Wonderland" explained scientifically.

One statistic I am wrestling with is the museum states 83% of the US population has their ears pierced. I found an article on racked.com that supports this stat. While I do know men with at least one pierced earlobe, in my world they are the exception and not the rule. I did not see the word "women" or "females" by the stat.

We were only allowed to take pictures in the lobby due to the fragility of the items on display. Therefore you are spared from seeing fetuses. skulls, and the world's largest intestine here. If I had been allowed to photograph, I don't know what I would have taken pictures of. An image of the skeleton of a very tall person (7'6") was in the lobby allowing us to photograph it next to a 5'2" person.

We only spent an hour there, partially because the exhibit we did want to see (Bones, Books, and Bell Jars) was closed for a private event. At $18 for an adult, it seems a bit steep. Check with your local library before going to see if they, too, offer day passes.

Mother's Day was rounded out with dinner at Rossi's. After a day of being in the rain, it felt good to have a bowl of soup and some red meat. Don and Ashley gave me some presents to help prepare me for my big trip this summer.