Mud Run Recap

clean legs and shoes before the race

Saturday my neighbor and I ran the mud race that I've run twice before (2014, 2013). Last year I was too pregnant to be hauling my body up and over hay bales, vertical walls, culverts, and other obstacles. Since the temps were in the single digits, I wasn't too broken up about it. It was still cold this time, but not quite as bad: temperatures hovered around freezing that morning and there were large ice chunks in the puddles. A heavy rainstorm earlier in the week made for nice, sloppy mud. The first year I ran it wasn't very muddy, and I am of the opinion that if it's going to be called a mud run, there should be mud (even if it's in February).

Overall, the race felt pretty good, though my feet got pretty sore from running almost 5 miles without my orthotics. I'm not willing to ruin my expensive custom orthotics to water and mud, especially when my shoes came out looking like this:

yeah, I wore old shoes just so I could throw them away afterwards

My neighbor had twins about a month or so after Ocean was born, so we're both still in get-back-shape mode and haven't done as much running as we'd like. I could have run more, but walking the majority of the race wasn't a bad thing. Despite all the walking we did, we still were able to finish at a faster pace than the last time I ran this race. This could be partly contributed to decreased wait times at some of the early obstacles. We still had to wait around for 15-20 minutes at the hay bale obstacle, but that was the only one. Last time we had to wait around at another obstacle as well.

Interestingly enough, the race also gets a little longer each year.

2016: 1:35:37 at 19:55/mile pace = 4.8 miles
2014: 1:49:55 at 24:26/mile pace = 4.5 miles
2013: 1:12:34 at 18:09/mile pace = 4.0 miles

we slog through a water-filled culvert twice, so it actually washes off a lot of the mud 

I found that the cold was more tiring than the run itself.  Possibly that's because I'm still getting over yet another round of crud. I'm pretty sure getting chilled didn't help boost my poor immune system.

can you spot the grass tucked in the edge of my leggings? I didn't notice it until I was driving home

Last week I was able to get on the treadmill two times for a total of 3.95 miles. Add the 4.80 miles from the mud run and I completed 8.75 miles last week.

This is the 13th race towards my 40 by 40 goal. Right now it's classified under mud run and 4.8 miles, but I might run another mud run, so this'll stay on the list as a 4.8 mile race.

2016 Races

Month	Event	Time
January	New Year’s Day 5k	33:01
February	Frostbite 5k	37:37
February	Mud Run	1:35:37

40 by 40 Races

	Date	Event	Distance	Event Type
1.	July 2015	4th of July 5k	5k	Pregnant
2.	August	4 Mile Fun Run	4 miles	Road Race
3.	September	All Terrain	5k	Mixed surface
4.	October	Hill Valley Half	13.1 miles	Virtual half marathon
5.	October	Corn Maze 5k	5k	Corn Maze
6.	October	Kilted Trail 5k	5k	Kilted race
7.	November	Trail Half	13.6 miles	Trail Half
8.	November	Turkey Trot	5k	Road Race
9.	December	Veteran’s 5k	5k	Mixed surface
10.	December	Army Virtual Marathon	26.23 miles	Virtual marathon
11.	January 2016	New Year’s Day 5k	5k	Road race
12.	February	Frostbite 5k	5k	Cross country race
13.	February	Mud Run	4.8 miles	Mud run