Ninja Life: Killary Adventure Weekend, Part 2

    Saturday night I went to bed at 4:30.  Three and a half hours later, my alarm went off, reminding me to prepare for the morning's activity: the Turf Challenge.  All weekend I had seen the aftermath of the Turf Challenge--exhausted students trekking in, freezing cold, and covered in mud. All weekend I swore I would never take part in this masochistic activity.  But Sunday morning, I found myself dragging out all my old clothes in preparation to go romping around in the mud.  This somewhat sadistic turn of events was prompted by our study abroad coordinators, who said we really had to try it, and by the sight of people crawling through mud, which actually looked kind of fun.  Whatever the case, this one activity would justify the ridiculous amount of "new-old" clothes I had bought for the weekend.
     We arrived in the adventure center at some ungodly hour, and our instructor gleefully handed us wetsuits that were still very wet and cold from the day before.  Now, the only experience with wetsuit-like outfits I've ever had is seeing trailers for CatWoman movies.  Let me tell you, they lie.  Every picture you've seen of an attractive woman in a wetsuit is a lie, because absolutely everyone looks like a chubby hippo in a wetsuit. Everyone.  I don't know who designed wetsuits, but the malicious person responsible was surely counting on PhotoShop to make their inhabitants look even partially presentable.  (This is my apology for the pictures to follow.  None of them are particularly glamorous, and none of us even partially resemble CatWoman.)
     After squeezing into the wetsuits and finding old sneakers, we set off for the dirtiest and most fun journey of our lives.  The Turf Challenge is essentially an obstacle course through the mud; you have to slog through shoulder-deep mud pits, crawl under nets, climb over walls, wiggle through tubes, and generally run around.  Our guide very graciously shortened the course for us since it was so cold, and also took pictures with my camera while we attempted the course.  The resulting images are priceless.

The first mud pool we jumped in. It was so cold.

Slogging through!

We got stuck.

We ended up getting through the trench by almost crab-walking along the edges. (My idea!)

Crawling under the midge net.

Crawling through rows of tires. 

The mud team.

Mild misery.

Ninjas!

Being classy in the muck.

I got stuck.....

I love this picture.

    After our adventures in the mud, we ran back to the hostel to shower.  Wetsuits are supposed to keep the clothes underneath safe, but the mud got everywhere--everywhere. After we were somewhat clean, we loaded back into the bus and made the long journey home.