Climbing those hills...: Epic Mud Run 2013

After testing out this race last year with my husband, we felt like the kids could probably handle it so instead of signing them up for the junior race (much shorter with fewer obstacles), we signed up as a 4-person co-ed team to do the full course - "The Luebbert Lunatics". It was also a little bit to make up for them not getting to do a kids triathlon this year.

A couple days before, my dear daughter (DD) and I picked out some dry fit shirts at Walmart so we could all match. I couldn't find a matching one in her size so I put her in an adult men's small and tied it off in the back with a rubber band. Since my dear son (DS) has been in men's clothes since he was 9, this wasn't an issue for him. I had them both designate a pair of old worn out shoes for the race. My DD wore her black unpadded bike shorts (though I couldn't convince her of the value of going commando in them) and DS wore his swim trunks (which aren't likely to be around by next summer anyway).

We got up fairly early Sunday (having gone to mass Saturday night) and headed to Columbia's Midway Expo Center. We had signed up for one of the earlier "competitive" waves after the lady at Ultramax said that most waves weren't full and to just pick the time that worked best for us. This was only the 4th wave so we were definitely on the early side - as shown by our awesome parking spot. The sky was getting dark and we wondered if we were going to get rained on (it did sprinkle a bit - barely noticeable). The overcast sky kept the morning temps in the upper 70's. Almost cool! What a blessing! We got our packets, put our timing chips on, etc and walked over to the start area (which was in a different spot this year - as was nearly all of the rest of the race/obstacles).

They had a color station right outside the start area with folks spraying or tossing color on you as you wished. DD got some on her, but the rest of us waited a bit. I got someone to take a pre-race team shot and then we stood around and watched the 3rd wave take off and we got in the starting corral.

Can't see it too well, but she has orange legs and purple splatters on her upper body/face/hair

Luebbert Lunatics team shot - pre race

It was kind of neat because the race course actually went over a bridge over the starting line towards the end of the course and we could see a few runners from earlier waves jumping off the bridge into the ice trough where a guy was standing to the side emptying a pallet of ice bags into the water.

Me and the kids in the starting area - just behind us you can kind of see the wood that is the bridge
and to the right (behind the "EP") is the trough of ice water - it'd be about 45-50 min before we were back here

Mark Livesay (the announcer and owner of Ultramax Sports), had us repeat a pledge that was essentially a battle cry against the course and to pump us up to have fun. Then he counted it down and we were off. Just about 20' in was the first obstacle, a fairly wide expanse of muddy water with a super squishy bottom that you had to get across - and it got deeper and squishier as you went across. Here is a pic of my DD and her dad ahead of me. By the time I was on the other side, I practically had to crawl to get out. Between my slowing for a couple pics and my struggles with the mud, all three of them were a smidge ahead of me on the run up the hill out of the obstacle.

Daughter and husband ahead of me on the first obstacle (before it got deeper)

My teammates running up the first hill without me

We headed across a field and very quickly went into the woods. This was a lot different than last year where a lot of the running was more in the open. They had cleared essentially the width of double track, though I had seeded us fairly far back to avoid holding up any of the speedsters. My son wasn't too big on this running, but still had some start line fever so he didn't walk much yet.

Pretty soon we popped out of the woods and had to climb over a wall. The "step" was about waist high and too high for my daughter. I sent my husband over to help her down the other side and thankfully another racer helped her up. Then we raced across a field to the big slide. This was about the only "obstacle" that was the same - and that is because it was once again super awesome! I was trying to wipe off my camera and get it ready to take a pic, but my son was too fast and already mostly down the slide when I got this snapped. He's the orange dot about mid-pic. I'm pretty sure that is my husband on the left slide about the same distance down.

Would have loved to wear my Garmin and get the speed on this big slide. It was FUN!

At the bottom, you headed to the left and there were big power pole logs to walk across balance beam style (which is hard when you are wet and muddy!). This was followed by monkey bars that were impossible to cross. Bill helped my daughter try since she was too short to reach the first rung, but her hands were too slippery. I tried to just swing out from the first bar and then landed in the mud below and lost my shoe having to crawl out with mud all over my sock.

Daughter is up on log ahead of her dad, monkey bars in the distance
(fighting wet disposable camera)

We headed to the hay bale maze. It wasn't covered this time (so less crouching and not nearly as miserable hot). It also had less dead ends. But it did have a couple of zombies! My husband and daughter laughed when I squealed with fright (since they were a little ahead of me and my son and could look back and watch). They jumped right out at you! Way better than going past them in the barn like last year. There was one part you had to crawl under in the stinky mud and it made my poor son gag a bit.

Then, it was back into the woods for some more relatively open running. My son wasn't too keen on the running part and walked more than I had hoped he would. My daughter was a freaking rock star and was regularly asking her dad to run ahead of us with her. It was down and up through some ditches and crawling out of a couple ravines on wood ladders. There were a few more zombies to jump out at us and some eerie banjo music playing from a stereo run off a generator. At one point, we popped out of the woods again after a pretty good hill to a water station and caught a quick pic (because we take the term "race" pretty loosely):

Glad I thought to make my husband take at least a couple of me

Shortly after this was some cool tractor tire obstacles. There was one that my daughter wasn't tall enough to jump from one tire to the other so she got down and climbed back up. But she was looking as strong as ever. Her brother just tried to look like he was feeling strong in this pic.

Then it was back into the woods and my son was starting to fuss about all of the running. My daughter was still anxious to go faster so they ran ahead of us for a while as I tried to talk him into short bursts to just get us through. But he walked A LOT here. We came out of the woods and went through a color station and back towards the starting line. We went up and over into a big metal dumpster type structure (ladders up and into and then across and back up the other side and over the starting line bridge you see in an earlier pic). Then it was time to jump into the ice water. It was brisk, but felt good too since we were pretty muddy and sweaty at this point.

Daughter is out of the ice water, husband heading up the ladder

Then it was across the same mud pit as the beginning (except a little over so not in the same spot). It was even squishier and you were even more tired. DD got her shoe stuck and I had to help her get her foot out and then again with my son (like buried his leg almost to the knee and I had to dig down for his super stuck shoe). He also cut his hand on a rock and was really ready to be DONE. We knew we were almost done so we tried to do a little running.

There ahead of us was the last obstacle. There were ropes about 2' off the surface of the mud so you had to nearly army crawl through it. My son walked around because he was just not up for it. But the rest of us powered through:

Two orange shirts crawling are daughter and husband

Then we ran down the hill to the livestock barns. I had to stop and wipe some mud out of my eye with a paper towel that a volunteer had there. The barn had the "car wash" song and a disco ball going with water misters. I'm sure it felt great later in the day when it heated up. We ran through the barn and out into the finish chute. There was another color station and a big sudsy foam machine that had bubbles we had to run through to get to the finish line. It took us just over an hour to get through the course.

We got our finisher glasses, but decided to come back after we washed our hands for the drinks and food. We took a couple of pics and then jumped into a big swimming pool they had for a rinse before getting some Gatorade and granola bars and bananas. My husband had a beer too and the kids split a Monster energy drink with me.

Immediately after the finish line

Wish the lady would have been a smidge closer, but this is the team shot after the dip in the pool

The boys went to get our flip flops and we took another couple pics before heading to the showers to do a bit more rinsing off. We managed to clean up and change clothes at the truck and then I drove us home since my husband had enjoyed a few of the free beers and I didn't have any (not a beer drinker).

After a little bit of a shower

Selfie with my girl after our garden hose showers

It was a fun time. I took a couple days off this week and then joined Susan this morning for a 5.7 mile run. Had one pic left to burn off my disposable camera so you get a post-run sweaty shot. Thankfully, the camera isn't that great and the lighting wasn't that good so you can't see how bad we look. It was a beautiful morning - 60's with a bunch of shade on the trail.