Big Sur Mud Run 2010

The Big Sur Mud Run!

This is where it all began, where the few of us took on a challenge that we knew nothing about. All we knew is that we wanted something different, something new and this seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. The website looked promising, with many pictures and a great description of what the race offered...MUD!! The race was sponsored by the Army which meant there would be a drill Sergeant every quarter mile to "motivate you." We knew that inexperienced civilians like ourselves would have no chance at finishing this race if it weren't taken seriously.

I've always been a big fan of mud, even as a kid I remember making gigantic mud pies in the backyard after a fresh week of rain. Taking an old aluminum pie pan and sopping up huge amounts of mud and smoothing over the tops as if they were ready to be displayed in a glass window for sale.

The idea of the mud run made us motivated, it lit a spark, to get in shape and have fun doing it. Daniel and I started going to the gym 4 days a week and running every Saturday. When I decided to sign up for the run, I made a pact with myself to exercise every Saturday whether it be running, hiking or cross-training.

We met as group that first Saturday at Lake Chabot, 9am. A cold and breezy February morning we stretched and decided to run just over a 3 mile loop as a practice run, a starting point, a place we could go back in 2 months and say "wow, this is so easy now." We all finished the run, tired, sore and some of us...injured. Lets just say that some of us couldn't make the second day of training. Week by week we slowly increased our pace and speed with our endurance getting better.

We ended up having a group of 5 running the race together when the time came. 9am on race day we were ready to go, the first group to run, when you arrived you could hear the count of the drill Sergeant getting everyone warmed up, we were there, we made it and training was over, now the real test. We were off and ready to go, excited to start the run, we felt the race would be tolerable at this point, we even thought it might be easy. "We can run 5 miles no problem now, this should be a piece of cake." We were wrong. The race started fine, running on asphalt and slightly uphill, nothing we haven't done before. 1 mile done, 4 more to go. The first mud pit comes ahead, it ends up being a hug hole in the ground filled with water with 3 foot barriers we have to jump over. This obstacle was pretty easy, but it added 5-10 pounds of water and mud for us to carry for the rest of the race. What was even worse was now came the hard part: running on a trail, in the sand, uphill, for the next 3 miles. This doesn't seem like much on paper; but, it ended up being a real challenge especially since none of our training consisted of running uphill, in sand, with an extra 10 pounds of weight.

The second mud pit had us jump over a 6 foot wall and crawl in a mud hole on our elbows and knees. I ran so hard to that 6 foot wall and cleared it no problem, dove into the mud and crawled my way out as if my life depended on it.We kept running and reached the beer and water station. The last thing I wanted at this point was a beer, so I grabbed a cup of water, took a few sips and splashed the rest on Drew's head and we kept running.
The third mud pit was the most intense, away from all the spectators so the drill sergeants could yell as much as they wanted. We were running down a really steep hill with the sergeants screaming at us, the obstacle started with walking on balance beam with mud 5 feet below on each side, continued with jumping over another 6 foot wall, crawling through another mud pit and doing 10 push ups.


When I jumped the second 6 foot wall at the 3rd station, I swung my leg too wide and hit someone next to me, I got yelled at and was surprised they didn't make me do push ups as punishment. We knew we were almost done and when we saw the last mud pit with everyone cheering we had a boost of energy. This mud pit had a covering over it which forced you crawl and you only had about1 1/2 feet of space on top of you. This pit was long, about 25 feet. The mud was so heavy that it pulled down my shorts and as I got out of the pit I had to pull them back up letting everyone see my underwear.

As you can see we were all in tie dye shirts, this made us a target at every single military checkpoint screaming:

"Lets go! Why don't you go brighten up someone else's day"


"Hey Tie Dye, pick up the pace"


"Uh OHH, looks like we've got some grateful dead fans here"


After a while we even started singing Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco (Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair)" and throwing up peace signs as we ran by during the taunting. It was all in good fun and it looked as if though they were not going to stop the tie dye jokes so we were firing right back.

Crossing that finish line was such an achievement for all of us, after the last mud pit we were exhausted physically but we pushed through and crossed the finish line strong. We were covered in mud, from head to toe and it felt great.