Hoppin' Mad Mud Run

Happy Monday Bloggees,

Yesterday, Nat and I checked a big one off the 30 before 30 list completing the Hoppin' Mad Mud Run 10k in Amesbury, MA.

Here is what we looked like going in:

And here is what we looked like coming out:

Believe it or not, it was a blast. And this is coming from the guy who hates being dirty even a little bit and showers twice a day. We weren't really sure what to expect going in except from seeing pictures of past events that it was going to be muddy and there were going to be some obstacles. So, we were ready for that. What we weren't ready for ... was the hills!

We showed up in plenty of time before our heat, 11:21am, and were able to get the lay of the land, fuel up, stretch out, ya know do some race stuff. What also was promising was that there were tons of families around and they were holding a mini-mud run for the youngsters which was 1 mile. Was pretty hilarious seeing the 3ft, 75 lbs kids going up through a few of the obstacles and obviously ending in the massive pool of mud before the finish line. This one 11 year old did a full back flip off the mountain in front of the mud pool and I was thinking I'd try and do the same for my grand finale. As it turns out, the adults were not jumping after running 6.1 miles. We were crawling - under wires and flags and poles, through two massive pools of just straight up mud to cross the finish line.

When it came time for the big boys and girls, they broke it up into "heats" so the hardo's who were trying to set records got to go off first and then the remaining 300-400 casual mudders went off in 3 separate groups to break out the obstacles. Some of our favorites were the guys from Cody Brewing drinking beers at the start line and then some other larger teams going all out with frog costumes, Jerseylicious outfits, and more.

Then, like it or not, we were off and it started fine. We ran through the farmlands and wineries of Amesbury (who knew Amesbury had wineries??) for about 3 miles which was pretty scenic, but basically up hill the entire time. Not easy and after the biggest of said hills, we approached our first obstacle. Pretty basic wood logs which you had to alternate jumping over and crawling under and then into back to back 5ft high wooden walls to boost yourself over. Not too bad, did a good deed by helping a fellow mudder over the wall who was struggling, and this was promptly followed by the first water break, so ... half way there. Great.

Then it got a little ugly. For the next 3 miles, we were consistently hurling over walls, up a massive hill for half a mile carrying tires (past many "i'm going to puke" comments during this one), through weird wooden obstacles, up soapy wet tarps, up ropes and ladders, etc... and all while crawling occasionally through mini mud pools which as you can see from pic 2, didn't help our closing out the race speed.

Nevertheless, we finished and finished strong. We did not win any medals or set any world 10k records, but we got it done and will be back next year, hopefully with a few of you. The greatest part of the race came after being hosed off by the local fire department with the free beers and live music at the finish line. We threw our shoes away like everybody else and joined the party (a little late, but we made it).

The town of Amesbury and the people of Heat Event Management did an AMAZING job. Local breweries such as Woodchuck, Cody Brewing, Ipswich Ale, and many more provided much needed post run beverages and a band played non stop from the minute we got there until the minute we left. The cops and fire department were great about closing roads and again, hosing down hurds of muddy peeps. Overall, an awesome experience and I recommend it to anybody, because it was the perfect amount of "fun" and "tough".

As they say, I'm just the right amount of "good sore" today ... 

Please pass the Advil.

Have a good week all,

Marshy