That Time I Ran a Mud Race

My mom is the one who brought up the idea of doing a mud race. She found this race randomly one day in September and said she’d pay my race fee. I looked at the website and thought it over. It didn’t seem like it would be one of those hardcore mud races, plus it was females only which are my favorite kinds of races to do, so I shrugged and said “Sure.” After all, it was still almost six months away and a lot can change in six months.

Fast forward to February. I’m two months out from breaking my ankle and while I knew I could physically walk a 5K, I wasn’t sure about the whole obstacle course thing. Was I going to make it?

We were going to find out.

We arrived at the race site, which was at this gorgeous former horse ranch in Dade City, around 7:30 on Saturday and it was a chilly 38 degrees. I told my mom, “You know, if we lived in the Midwest, this weather would feel great!” She looked at me and said, “But we’re not from the Midwest.” Ain’t that the truth?

Thankfully, as the sun came up, it warmed up a bit and was probably in the upper 40s, low 50s when we were racing.

Our official start time wasn’t until 9:15 but we decided to be rebels and got in the starting chute around 8:30 since they weren’t being super sticklers about start times. Due to the nature of this race and not wanting to cause a bottleneck at the beginning of the course, they were letting small groups go at a time. Once that small group crossed a specific part of the course, they’d let the next group go. It was really efficient and before long, we were up at the front and it was nearly time for us to start!

I started getting really nervous at this point! It was only then that it sunk in that I was going to be splashing around in mud for three miles. I’m not someone who enjoys being dirty, at all, and remember hating it as a kid, too, so I was feeling a little apprehensive about it.

But nothing to it but to do it—it was time to go!

The first obstacle came quickly, just 200 yards from the start. It was a simple mud pit that we had to run through, and it felt like the weirdest thing to do! A mud pit is something you avoid, not walk in willingly with shoes on. And yet, that’s exactly what we had to do. (Side note here: I went to Target the day before the race to buy a cheap pair of shoes because I sure did not want to ruin the new shoes I bought just a few months ago! Thanks, Kim, for the tip!)

Challenge #1 done! There was a bit of a walk to the next obstacle, which was an easy one where we just had to climb over and under various obstacles. (Climbing over was harder for me because I’m so short!) Then we had to run on an inflatable that had mud pit holes to avoid, climb up and over vertical monkey bars (scary!), and then… the obstacle that caused me to tweak my ankle.

What’s that? Did I hurt my ankle again? Nobody is surprised? Well, fine then.

I had a feeling this obstacle was going to be a difficult one. It involved climbing over not-very-stable mounds of closely packed dirt and then jumping into a mud pit (that was fairly deep—maybe went up to my thighs?). There were three mounds to climb and mud pits to jump into. The second time I jumped into the mud pit, I landed weirdly and felt something give in my ankle. So I immediately climbed out of the mud pit and skipped the last section. I don’t think I did anything super damaging—I was able to walk on my ankle with just a small twinge of pain and complete the course (making sure to baby that ankle and use my left leg for leverage and landing), and thankfully I have physical therapy tomorrow to address it!

The course really seemed to fly by, something I have never said about a race. I felt like I was truly in the moment and just enjoying every single second I got to spend on this course. It was a gorgeous day (although I wouldn’t have minded if it was 10-20 degrees warmer, ha) and I just felt so grateful to be on this course and able to handle most of the obstacles. I really surprised myself!

I think the reason I loved this race so much was that there were so many obstacles to play on! All in all, there were 21 and it never felt like we were walking for very long before we came to the next obstacle. And they were all so varied and fun! It was more than just crawling in mud pits, although there was definitely a lot of that. We went down slides and climbed up and down rope ladders and climbed on bales of hay. We walked up and down seesaws, crawled through tunnels, and did a farmer’s carry in an abandoned horse stable. I never knew what was coming next for us, but I knew I was going to give each obstacle my best shot.

My mom might not want me to talk about this, but there was this sweet moment in the race when my mom was trying to crawl on this vertical rope obstacle and she was having such a hard time! Halfway through the obstacle, she fell and was just hanging in the middle. One lady climbed underneath the ropes to help lift her up and some other ladies helped her get up on her feet again. Everyone else around her was cheering her on and being so supportive and encouraging. It was really special and reminded me of the power of women helping women.

I finished this race feeling so empowered and proud of myself. I didn’t let myself get upset because I wasn’t as fast as some of the other women and some of the obstacles required a lot more work for me than it did for others. (Like a set of stairs on an inflatable slide. As I watched woman after woman bound up them, I turned to my mom and said, “Why do I feel like this is not going to be as easy as they make it look?” And it wasn’t. But that was okay.) We went slowly and carefully, taking our time. It probably irritated some of the runners around us, but eh. This isn’t a race you run for time or anything like that. It’s a race you run to just have fun!

I’ve been thinking a lot about the joy of movement lately. It’s a wonder to be able to be alive and able to move my body in the way I want. I am so grateful to this body for all it can do. It’s a fat body, but so what? It can still do so much! It ran a fucking mud race this weekend! With this fat body, I walked a 5K with ease and completed 19 of the 21 obstacles on the course. Nineteen obstacles! What a gift.

My first mud race was a delight in every way. I can’t wait to do another one. And that’s something I definitely didn’t think I would ever say.