thedrifter
07-30-09, 09:15 AM
Girls just wanna have fun … and get dirty!
By Cathy Gilbert
Who says girls are all sugar and spice and everything nice?
For Manning residents Renee Kennedy-McCord, Ginger Hipp, Kimberly Land and Lisa Wearden, the fun is in getting really, really dirty.
The four women will compete, as the “Down & Dirty Dawgs” in the Greater Columbia Marine Foundation Ultimate Challenge Mud Run on Sept. 19.
The Marine Foundation, a non-profit organization, sponsors the event annually to raise money to support Marines and their families from the area who have been wounded or killed while serving on active duty.
Profits from the race are also used to support several local college scholarships named after Marine killed serving their country.
The Columbia Mud Run is the largest mud run in the southeast, and according to Kennedy-McCord, will attract competitors from all over the southeast and beyond.
The Ultimate Challenge Run covers 4.2 grueling miles and has over 30 obstacles that have to be crossed by each team member.
The obstacles bear the names of famous battles in which the Marines fought.
For example, the “A Shau Valley” obstacle is 0.40 miles of open terra leading into wooden terrain and a water-filled “rice paddy.” That is followed by the “Hamburger Hill” water hole which is up to five feet deep with dirt mounds leading in to and out of the a three foot wide trench, straddled with a light armored tank. Event participants will crawl through the trench and under the tank.
In reality, the “A Shau Valley” was one of the strategic focal points of the war in Vietnam. It was an arm of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, funneling troops and supplies toward Hue and Da Nang. It was the sight of many fierce battles, including one of the bloodiest, which was the fight for Hill 937. To those who fought there, it was known as “Hamburger Hill.”
“This takes real team work,” Kennedy-McCord said. “We will be running on direct roads, unimproved trails, through mud holes and over walls.”
Kennedy-McCord, who is 47, is the aesthetician and spa manager at Beautiful Image Centers in downtown Manning.
Ginger Hipp, 32, is a massage therapist, personal trainer and yoga instructor at The Zone.
Wearden and Land, both 37, are stay-at-home moms (and probably have the hardest jobs of the four).
They are training both separately and together with interval, circuit and weight methodology for conditioning.
“We’re not worried about the mud,” Hipp said. “We’re worried about the wall.”
Each team will face a 10-foot wall with no handholds or ropes to help them over.
“It will be about teamwork,” Kennedy-McCord said. “We will have to figure out how to best help each other get over the obstacle.”
All four women train on a six-day-a-week schedule that includes running, both short and long distances and weight training.
When asked about the heat and humidity that they are training in, all the women agreed that it helps to condition them for event day.
“The good thing is that all four of us are very competitive, and we are competing against each other and working as a team at the same time,” Kennedy-McCord said.
“It’s like a personal vendetta against ourselves,” she added.
In an especially emotional tribute, Kennedy-McCord will wear the Marine emblem of a friend who is a former Marine. Though he did not want to be identified, he did want his pin to see “Marine mud just one more time.”
“When he told me about his war experiences, all I could think was if he did that, then I could certainly do this,” she said.
More than 1,800 four-person teams have registered for the event. For more information about the mud run, log onto www.usmcmudrun.net.
Ellie
By Cathy Gilbert
Who says girls are all sugar and spice and everything nice?
For Manning residents Renee Kennedy-McCord, Ginger Hipp, Kimberly Land and Lisa Wearden, the fun is in getting really, really dirty.
The four women will compete, as the “Down & Dirty Dawgs” in the Greater Columbia Marine Foundation Ultimate Challenge Mud Run on Sept. 19.
The Marine Foundation, a non-profit organization, sponsors the event annually to raise money to support Marines and their families from the area who have been wounded or killed while serving on active duty.
Profits from the race are also used to support several local college scholarships named after Marine killed serving their country.
The Columbia Mud Run is the largest mud run in the southeast, and according to Kennedy-McCord, will attract competitors from all over the southeast and beyond.
The Ultimate Challenge Run covers 4.2 grueling miles and has over 30 obstacles that have to be crossed by each team member.
The obstacles bear the names of famous battles in which the Marines fought.
For example, the “A Shau Valley” obstacle is 0.40 miles of open terra leading into wooden terrain and a water-filled “rice paddy.” That is followed by the “Hamburger Hill” water hole which is up to five feet deep with dirt mounds leading in to and out of the a three foot wide trench, straddled with a light armored tank. Event participants will crawl through the trench and under the tank.
In reality, the “A Shau Valley” was one of the strategic focal points of the war in Vietnam. It was an arm of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, funneling troops and supplies toward Hue and Da Nang. It was the sight of many fierce battles, including one of the bloodiest, which was the fight for Hill 937. To those who fought there, it was known as “Hamburger Hill.”
“This takes real team work,” Kennedy-McCord said. “We will be running on direct roads, unimproved trails, through mud holes and over walls.”
Kennedy-McCord, who is 47, is the aesthetician and spa manager at Beautiful Image Centers in downtown Manning.
Ginger Hipp, 32, is a massage therapist, personal trainer and yoga instructor at The Zone.
Wearden and Land, both 37, are stay-at-home moms (and probably have the hardest jobs of the four).
They are training both separately and together with interval, circuit and weight methodology for conditioning.
“We’re not worried about the mud,” Hipp said. “We’re worried about the wall.”
Each team will face a 10-foot wall with no handholds or ropes to help them over.
“It will be about teamwork,” Kennedy-McCord said. “We will have to figure out how to best help each other get over the obstacle.”
All four women train on a six-day-a-week schedule that includes running, both short and long distances and weight training.
When asked about the heat and humidity that they are training in, all the women agreed that it helps to condition them for event day.
“The good thing is that all four of us are very competitive, and we are competing against each other and working as a team at the same time,” Kennedy-McCord said.
“It’s like a personal vendetta against ourselves,” she added.
In an especially emotional tribute, Kennedy-McCord will wear the Marine emblem of a friend who is a former Marine. Though he did not want to be identified, he did want his pin to see “Marine mud just one more time.”
“When he told me about his war experiences, all I could think was if he did that, then I could certainly do this,” she said.
More than 1,800 four-person teams have registered for the event. For more information about the mud run, log onto www.usmcmudrun.net.
Ellie