DB's Mud Run

My editor, Luis, wants me to write about my Mud Run experiences so I will. I also have photos from the event that my determined wife took and which she paid dearly for (most of the mud splatters should wash out of her clothes, I think). I’ll post those later.

I’ll recap a few of my thoughts from last Saturday:

- I ran last year’s event so I knew what the course was all about but this was the first time I ran the event to get the best time I could. I knew it would be challenging but I didn’t know that the hills would be so tough. Note to self: include more hills in future training.

- About 3/4 of the way through the race, Luis and my uncle both passed me. I did not expect this although at that point I was laboring up a hill. I thought for sure they would both beat me and was preparing myself for a lot of chatter after the race. During the next downhill portion, though, I regained some energy and was able to pass both of them towards the end of the race. I passed Luis first at the last wall and then I sprinted past my uncle 30 feet from the finish line. I finished the race three seconds ahead of him. I wish we got that on video.

- I saw someone run the race completely barefoot. Why? Who knows. Maybe they were doing it for a specific reason but since I don’t know that I’ll have to assume they were just stupid. I mean, there are sharp rocks and gravel on the course!

- Some of the teams that competed wore pretty funny costumes (Mexican wrestler masks, Power Rangers, tutus, etc.). I’m pretty confident that we’ll run as a team next time and wear cool costumes. The early favorite is a pirate theme but first I need to figure out how to run with a peg leg without being slowed down…

- I was happy for my finish time of 1 hr 5 min but I want to improve on it each time I run this race. I can run a normal 10K in under 50 min. so I think I should be able to keep my time within 10 min of that after you factor in the hills, walls, water trucks, etc. I guess what I’m saying is that I won’t live happily until I run a sub 1-hour Mud Run. Luis thinks I can’t do it. He’s good at motivating me.

- DB