I’ve got the bad idea gene. It’s hereditary. My mom’s got it too. (Sorry, mom. I love you!)

Allow me to support this claim with a quick example. When I was learning to drive, she told me that wearing my seatbelt was a silly law;  I should just launch myself into the backseat if I’m about to get into an accident. As if I’ll, all of a sudden, recognize what’s about to go down, abandon all attempts to prevent it, and victoriously avoid harm by diving out of my driver’s seat and into the back.  I’ll lay cradled comfortably in the backseat while chaos ensues around me, all because I wasn’t restricted by a seatbelt. She still doesn’t wear her seatbelt. WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT, MOM!

I know, that was kind of fun. Ok, one more. When I was in 10^th grade, she and I convinced my very brunette, Italian best friend to “highlight” her hair the night before picture day with a blonde, box color we had sitting under our sink for who knows how long. “C’mon it will be fun,” we explained. Good thing it was October; her pumpkin-theme hair color was a big hit — for about the first 15 minutes.

So, what do people with the bad idea gene do? Well, they seek out other people with the bad idea gene and live happily everafter in bad idea bliss.

My fiancé, Kyle, has the bad idea gene, and my lovely blog partner, Blane, also has the bad idea gene.

Kyle convinced me to sign up for the Tough Mudder Sept 29th in Seattle. Blane, out of her own sheer foolishness, was already signed up for the San Francisco race held on the same day.

For approximately two weeks I’ve been training for this monstrosity of an event.

I enjoy a good challenge, but part of me wonders if signing up for this thing was the result of my defective gene. So, I took a quiz offered by the event hosts to see how well I’m stacking up against the ideal candidate, and the first question read:

Tough Mudder is about overcoming your fears. Which are yours:

A. None    B. Heights   C. Electroshock      D. Fire

Um, ok. Well, here I’m already a little confused. I’m trying to answer C…and D….and depending on the situation, yeah, B too.  I can only pick one? Oy vey.

I got to thinking about this whole Electroshock thing, so I googled it. And this is what I discovered about the Tough Mudder’s relationship with what they call, “Electroshock therapy”.

This got me thinking about the many other obstacles we’ll be facing, so I did a little more YouTubing and also found this:

Fortunately, I won’t be  running this thing alone. Sure, Kyle, some of his buddies, and little brother are joining our team, but let’s be serious, they’ll be far ahead of me. We’ve got another lady  (and fellow blogger) joining us. She’s the lovely wife of one of Kyle’s friends who’s also running the race. She thought we’d be cheering them on from the sidelines — until I signed up. She’s currently mad at me for making her do it, but I’m sure she’ll see me in pain at multiple points in the challenge and get the restitution she deserves. There’s beer at the end, Rachel! Lots of it! As much as we want!

Until then, wish us luck in our silly endevors. Yes, silly — like seatbelt laws.