Team "Getting Dirty" at the 2008 Camp Pendleton Mud Run

Mud Run Website: Camp Pendleton Races
Team Name: Getting Dirty

Description: "The Mud Run is a challenging 10K run with hills, tire obstacles, river crossings, two 5-foot walls with mud on both sides, tunnel crawl, slippery hill climb, and the final 30-foot mud pit." The race overall is a great time and not really that serious for the majority of people there.

The race can be run as an individual or in a 5 member team. The rule for the teams was that all 5 members must cross the finish line at the same time with their arms linked. After selling up how much fun it would be to several people and trying to get a team together for a while, the team finally came together when Rochelle (my wife) provoked Jack (brother-in-law) about doing the race. This gave me 3 people, I was sure Roger (college roommate) would come along. The obvious 5th person was Stephanie (Sister-in-law and Rochelle's twin). As soon as she said OK, I signed us up for the race which sold out a few days later.

Cast of Characters:

• Keith: Had been training for the International Triathlon and easily able to run the 10K
• Rochelle: In great shape and took to running early and with enthusiasm
• Jack: Took the opportunity to lose some weight and train up for the event
• Stephanie: Did some treadmill running in preparation
• Roger: Had run a marathon the weekend before and is training for an Ironman

Race Day:

The Marine Corp runs the best organized races you will ever find. There are Marines everywhere who volunteered to help on race day and they are efficient, enthusiastic and friendly. They had a secure bag area, efficient shower system, easy shirt disbursement and all around excellent coordination.

After check-in, we dropped off our bag of clothes and made our way over to the start line to watch the wave of individual runners (1500 people) take off. The teams then made their way to the start line and we left 17 minutes after the individuals. The teams are there to have fun and it shows. Many of the teams have matching outfits such as the guys in tutus, the pink ladies, matching t-shirts and some more risque outfits.

You can barely run at the start of the race as 1500 team members try and squeeze out of the starting gate. In the first 1/4 mile, there is a marine with a firehose having a great time wetting all of the runners. If you try and avoid the hose, he'll try and get you. If the first guy doesn't get you, the next guy probably will.

About 1 mile into the race, you come to a small chute that leads into a river crossing about 1-2 feet deep and 100 feet across just to make sure your shoes are wet and muddy. No way to avoid the water this time.

The next two miles of the race are uphill with a brutally steep section leading up to the crest of the hill. The view back down is amazing and we took some time to take pictures.

The next mile of the race runs across the top of the ridge with a small tire obstacle. You then go down the hill and the real fun starts. After coming out of the hills in about mile 4, you turn into the obstacle section.

The first obstacle is a mud pit you jump into walk 20 feet through before climbing a 5 foot wall and landing into another 20 foot mud pit. Climbing in and out of the pits is the hardest part as you slip and slide every which way and are likely to face plant at any time.

The next obstacle is the lake crossing which is fairly cold water about chest high you wade through for about 100 feet.

Continuing about 1/2 mile farther, you cross the second mud pit and wall. After that, you run through another mud pit while a Marine sprays you with a fire hose. At this point, you really don't care as you are quite a mess and already pretty wet.

You then crawl through some tubes on your hands and knees and up again for the last mile. Approaching the finish line, you climb an extremely wet muddy hill where many people fell into the mud.

After the quick hill, you run down to the final obstacle. The last mud pit is similar to the others except they have put up flags over the pit that you have to stay under. They only way to stay under the flags is to get on your hands and knees and crawls your way across.

On to the finish line with our arms locked together to a group of cheering Marines and other participants.

After the race, we all took part in the group shower to rinse off and change clothes.

We had a great time and will be back next year with more teams.

Pictures: