Yes please, may I have another?
You sure may. And obstacle courses, and lunges across the dirt midway through the run, and through muddy trenches on your hands and knees across the length of a football field. Oh right, and don’t forget once your shoes and socks are weighted down with wet mud and rocks you are hosed down with a fire hose and told “RUN”. Good morning Southern California, it’s the World Famous Camp Pendleton Mud Run and it’s pretty fabulous. I was a first timer at this World Famous Mud Run at Camp Pendleton. What surprised me was how large this event had become. Over 20,000 people participated by the end of the weekend drowning themselves in mud followed up with food, beer, a small carnival and concert.
For under $100 (cost varies depending on how early you register) you too can endure this torture, I mean fun on a Saturday or Sunday morning with such obstacles as lunges across the route, steeple chase (hurdling logs and jumping in mud pit), sandbag overhead press, cargo climbs, and the infamous slippery hill to name just a few you encounter on this 10K route. But don’t fret, they do at least provide you with a shower when you are done. An ice cold shower with Marines yelling at you, “HURRY UP, GET OUT OF MY SHOWER!” or my favorite, “WE ARE IN A SEVERE DROUGHT HERE PEOPLE, WHY ARE YOU TAKING YOUR SWEET TIME WASTING OUR DRINKING WATER?”
- Buy a container of Epsom salt for a long soak and schedule yourself at least an hour massage for that night or the next day. If you don’t, you won’t be walking for at least two days leaving yourself open to ridicule from friends and family. I work out 5-6 days a week and I’ve shed a few tears from the pain this week.
- It’s June, the next event is in May. Start working out and training now. Really, I’m not kidding. You can get away with the 5K but not the 10K if you are not currently active in some shape or form.
- If you are single look hot that day. And I mean really hot. In the end you will be covered in mud but before that there are a plethora of good looking marines flirting with you. A whole 10K of flirting as well as at the after party. And may I recommend not wearing a white tank top. When they toss water on you at the water stations they only tossed the water one place. Just sayin’……..
- Go with a group of friends. Most people there were in large groups rooting each other on and just having a blast. The more the merrier.
- Use old running shoes and socks and bring a pair of flip flops. You can donate your shoes after the race and they clean them up, restore them and donate them to those in need.
- Just go with it and get super dirty. You know you want to. The more you immerse yourself in it the more fun it is. I mean they give you an ice-cold shower afterwards so at least they are accommodating.
- Challenge yourself all the way through. It was a great mental challenge as well as physical to get through the obstacles when already exhausted from the running and lunges.
- If you don’t like lunges don’t come. Seriously, just don’t. They threw those suckers in at mile 1 so your quads never quite recovered for the rest of the run. And if you don’t do them you are officially called “princess”. And oh, no one on that run was going to call me “princess”. Nope.
- Bring extra clothes, towels, etc. The two showers there did nothing for the layers of mud engulfing my body. It did officially take three showers to get all the mud out of hair and off my skin but I just considered it like a day at the clay spa. All impurities washed away, right?
- High-five and say thank you to every Marine you pass that day. These men and women are our fearless heroes and deserve more appreciation and gratitude than words can ever express. They are the reason we can live these amazing free lives we have in the best country in the world. Thank you U.S. Marines, we are so grateful.
