Madison Mud Run

50 degrees, cloudy and super windy… not exactly an ideal day for getting the morning started fully dressed and embarking in a waist deep slosh through a murky river before running 5 miles, but hey, we gave it a shot.
And… we had a blast! The Mud Run was a fun time. The obstacles were not nearly as bad as I imagined, some were rather lame (hay bale hurdles or tire rings to run through) and some were pretty entertaining (slip & slide). It would be totally doable for people who wanted to avoid some of the obstacles (walls) or river crossing, they just either don’t notice or dock 5 minutes form your time. No huge deal, you can totally take it at your own pace!
It was nice how they released runners in groups of 100 so people didn’t get too bunched up at the obstacles, but it made for a pretty long (and chilly) wait to get started. The other planning failure seemed to be the slip & slide. While a lot of fun to go down, only one person could go at a time which caused quite a backlog of people (15−20min wait). I don’t think most people running the Madison Mud Run were taking their time TOO seriously, but that’s a lot of extra padding when you see your race results at the end. Maybe next year they’ll invest in a triple slip & slide! The mud pit at the end that you had to crawl through was definitely the most fun, with army «sergeants» hollering at you to go faster.
I survived the Mud Run and would do it again. Although here’s my memo to self: do not let the fireman hose you down after emerging from the mud run. Despite the fact that you survived crawling through a mud pit and wading through a river, I’m pretty sure the high pressured blast of head to toe cold water direct to the old noggin’ is what did you in. The beer, chicken wings, other snacks, and live cover band all helped me emerge from the hypothermia. Thank goodness. They appear to do this again in October. Oy vey.