Saturday, August 6, 2011

Runner Cross Mud Run 2011

First thing Saturday morning on July 9th, my cousin/BFF Jennie and I drove up to Salt Lake to participate in the Runner Cross 5K Mud Run. It was done on a Motocross course and was already laden with mud, dirt, and hills, but just for fun the race organizers added in some walls, hay bails, tires, slip and slides, sprinklers, and mud pits!

Jennie and I got there right on time but to our surprise, no one else was there! For a second we thought we were in the wrong place, but it turned out that it was the first time they had ever done the event and things were running a bit behind schedule... which meant we started over an hour late!

But that's okay. It gave Kevin and the girls some time to get dressed and drive up to watch us race and cheer us on!

Brooklyn was particularly fascinated by the whole event and she made and excellent cheerleader for Jennie and I.

Anyway, I wasn't really trying to PR or even run at my regular pace. Jennie and I both just wanted to experience something new in racing, and we did! In fact, most of the participants seemed to have the same attitude. There were people running backwards to retry obstacles, walking and talking on their phones, and hiding in mud pits to attack friends when they passed through. One guy even pretended to be the Swamp Thing and jumped out at some random bystanders!

In the mean time, Jennie and I enjoyed jumping over hay bails and logs...

...sledging through mud pits...

...climbing over wooden walls...

...sliding down GIANT slip and slides and getting launched into GIANT mud pits (which gave me some pretty groovy bruises on my back side)...

...and running up and down hills, racing through tires, and jumping over water holes!

We finished in the dead center of the pack despite our last place start, and we had a BLAST doing it! So, if you are ever feeling like you are in a rut with running, I highly recommend giving one of these events a try!

When all was said and done, Jennie and I headed home for some food, a shower, and a hike up Stewart Falls! More on that tomorrow.

To be continued...

2 comments:

Ashley said...

Hey Naomi! I love this race, how creative for them to make it all muddy with obsacles. I will be doing a 5K on Aug 20th with Karl and am a little nervous, wish me luck!

Beccarigg said...

So, I've never really had any desire to do a mud run until I saw this. That actually looks REALLY surprisingly fun! Especially slip and sliding into a giant mud pit! I could totally be onboard with that. Plus I'm pretty sure guys dig muddy chicks, so it never hurts to score extra hottness points with Taber if you know what I mean. He'd be all like, "hey hey muddy lady." and I'll be all like, "uh huh, you better recognize!" Yeah, I like the sound of that...

Seriously though, awesome job! You and Jennie look fantastic and super hardcore. Congrats on another great race!