Dress up, Leave a Fake Name and be Legendary.

April 10, 2011:  This date has been circled, in blue highlighter, on my "Hilton Head Island" Calendar at work for almost ten months, a faded but resilient reminder of a promise I made back in June.  That's right, I registered to run, climb and crawl through the Bear Creek Tough Mudder.  If you haven't heard of this, follow the link below, understand that I realize this is ridiculous and continue reading.

http://toughmudder.com/events/pennsylvania/bear-creek-course-map-2011/

The 10-12 mile course includes fire, mountains, walls, water, mud and a lot of rope; all of the things that amp up an ordinary trail run from quiet to cut throat.  For months I've been secretly debating whether to follow through on April 10th.  This debate led to a running list of pro's and con's:

Pro's:
1. This is as close to a team sport as I've gotten since 1999 Spring Track;

2. The gimmick: I'm a sucker for matching shirts, slogans and face paint - from "Law Dogs" to "Dirty Girls" and my face on a milk carton (clever way to include the gimp in the first race I missed), I wore them all with pride;

3. donating to the "Re-Use Your Shoes" people;

4. The Support: Nothing like looking down from the top of a 12 foot wall and knowing someone with a matching shirt will be there, waiting; and

5. The Comeback: Where else to prove I'm back on top than on a mountain surrounded by snow and fire, covered in mud, bloody and bruised - but in one piece.

Con's
1. "What if I get hurt?"  There's break-an-arm hurt and there's re-injure-your-knee-and-end-up-in-therapy hurt.  Either way, Broad Street Run disappears and I'm starting over, again, for the Marathon.

This debate recently left  it's lonely spot in my mind and went out into the world:

"What if I get hurt?"

"You can't spend the rest of your life worrying whether you'll get hurt."

"I know that - but just until November, maybe I should."

"No, not even until November."

With that, 5 miles through Penn's campus and 45 minutes, the decision was made.  April 10th: All in, dressed up, anonymous and legendary.