Mudderella recap

Mudderella was quite an experience! All I have to say is thank goodness we had an early start and thank goodness we rented a school bus! We had 20 women on our team; I only knew a few of them ahead of time. It was about an hour drive out to the Hunting Club and when we arrived it was 60 degrees and drizzling. It had been raining a lot the past few days so the entire area was slippery and muddy.After going to the bathroom, dropping our bags off (which cost $10- sort of ridiculous), and then putting on our team tie-dyed shirts, we left earlier than our 8:45 start (I have no idea the exact time because I intentionally left my FitBit at home).

Note: All pictures are from the Mudderella Facebook page and all taken earlier in the morning at the Chicago event so I am not in any of them. I'm still waiting to see pictures from my group.

Mud EVERYWHERE

From the beginning it was TOUGH. The course was wet and muddy which meant a lot of energy was expended just staying on your feet while trying to run on the course.  I tended to stay on the side of the course where there were weeds/plants that helped me from slipping around too much. It took a while to get to our first obstacle but it was a messy one- crawling in muddy water under a cargo net. I tried my best to keep my mouth closed and to not get my hat too dirty.

Getting dirty early!

The second obstacle was to carry your partner. At this point 15 of the faster ladies sped ahead while there were 5 of us slower ladies that did a lot of the course together. Since we had an odd number two of us carried another lady- it was hard not to slip!

This next obstacle was deceiving. There were random drops (that you of course couldn't see because the water was so muddy) so there was a lot of falling during this obstacle.

Up and over the hay bale. Not too difficult, but hard to get your footing.

 Crawling under a cargo net.

Up and over a wall.

Mini hills where you would climb the hill (often needing help from someone already up the hill because it was so slippery), then sliding down into muddy water, then up another hill, then sliding down into muddy water, etc. At this point the faster group saw us and waited for us so that we finished all at the same time.

Up and over a higher wall- this time needing to use ropes. I wasn't a fan of the top of this obstacle- I was definitely worried that I would fall because the walls were muddy and slippery but I did just fine. Definitely not a fan of heights these days.

Tire swing

Head first down a tunnel into muddy water

Crawling through foam

 The final and most fun obstacle was this one- it was a rope ladder on the backside that you had to climb up and then at the top you slid down and landed in muddy water. 

Our whole team then ran to the finish line holding hands. (Unfortunately I didn't see a photographer there so I don't know that anyone caught it on camera.)

Obstacles that I can remember that I couldn't find pictures of: downward dog over a hole (you had to move sideways through the obstacle), a balance beam.

Sadly the event was the most poorly run event I have ever been to. The course organizers marked mile 1 too soon and then forget to mark mile 2 entirely.  There were only two water stations for a 5.5 mile course and I only saw two photographers throughout the entire event. There were a few volunteers at some of the obstacles but I'm not sure that I even saw a medic anywhere on the course?!? By the time we finished it was 10 degrees colder and raining harder so it was pretty miserable. The warm rinse-off was nice but they only let you use it for a few minutes before turning it off (and it was open so you just kept on your dirty clothes). And then there was a women's tent to change into clean clothes and for some reason they made it just as big as the men's tent despite the fact that 90% of the participants were women. We were packed in there like sardines trying to change into warm, dry clothes. Unfortunately the ground was muddy underneath us so we didn't stay clean anyways. Afterwards we huddled into a tent where there were a few ATM machines drinking our free Shocktop beer, shivering, and hoping that our rented bus was coming soon.

I always said that I wouldn't do one of these races because they are always on a farm 

and I read that tons of people have stomach issues afterwards from all of the bacteria floating around. I just tried to keep my mouth closed as much as possible and not think about the manure smell that was prevalent the entire day. Needless to say, I have been having "stomach issues" the past two days so it's possible that I picked something up from the farm. :-(

Would I do it again? I'm not sure. People who did the race last year said that this year was 10 times harder because of the mud and the weather (that made me feel better). I was exhausted by the time we got home, took a long hot bath/shower combo and then took a nap. I was sore by the time that we got off the course, but that may have been because it was so cold out. Am I proud of myself for doing it and finishing? Absolutely considering that I ran three times in the month of May and was sick most of the month. The Mudderella Facebook page has seen a deluge of comments on the race and it seems like the later you finished, the more sh*tty the race became. The event organizers don't have control over the weather but knew that the forecast called for cooler than usual temps and rain so they could have prepared a bit better than they did. Thankfully we got out early enough and had a rented bus so our experience was better than others.

Have you ever done a mud run? If not would you ever do a mud run?