OC Mud Ran

Remember months ago when I mentioned wanting to run the OC Mud Run on Saturday July 18th? Thanks, jerks, for letting me sign up by myself. I actually knew several other people who either ran or signed up for it. Unfortunately, the only other person who signed up for the same 10k race I was doing (there were three races that day, two 5ks and a 10k) decided to get sick the day of and not go. No matter...I went and did it by myself. I'd say that I'm the king of doing stuff by myself, but I don't think I can claim that title until I've traveled by myself. I have no problems eating alone, going to movies alone, and I've even been to a concert by myself, so I've got some street cred when it comes to that. I almost went to a concert last night by myself, but I got too tired to make the drive. Seeing as how I'm a loser and went alone, I don't have any pictures of myself, but I'll include some ones I found through the event website. Anyway...

The run was right next to Wild Rivers, with much of the course actually going through Camp Frasier, or whatever it's called now. Years ago I actually went to that camp for a couple summers. It was pretty much my favorite, but I hadn't walked around the grounds since I was like 12, so it was fun seeing everything again.

I have never had a chance to participate in the Camp Pendleton Mud Run so I had nothing to compare it against, but I really enjoyed it in spite of some of the obvious drawbacks - the course was obviously worn out by the time we ran the race, we had to circle for three laps, some of the obstacles were almost non-existent by the last go around, and it even started a half hour late. Now that I'm becoming a veteran of running these races, I've figured out that my pace is in at least the upper half of the runners present, and as a result it's worth it to me to get into the front or a pretty quick pacing group, and to start out quickly so that I don't get stuck behind other slower runners. While walking passed the 5k runners, I noticed a couple of bottlenecks at some barriers that the runners had to climb over so I made sure to just get out the gate as quickly as I could so that I could settle into my own pace.

As a runner, I have pretty good speed and pretty good endurance, but running this race reminded me that I actually have great agility as I flew over walls, through mud pits, and high-stepped through all the tire sections. In soccer, whenever we'd do the unconventional running drills, I always excelled in those. I may not be able to run the fastest or farthest, but I can scamper, crawl, get up and down, and twist and turn with the best of them. I finished the 10k within 48 minutes, which I felt pretty good about considering all the water and mud that weighed me down. I finished in the top 50 of the timed runners. That's my best finish considering that there were 4,000 runners on the day, although I'm not sure how many of those were in the 10k race. What's funny to me is that in the past year, basically since the marathon, I've become more and more competitive in these races. In every one of them I'll start off telling myself to just take it easy, but once I get going I can't stop myself from trying to catch runners in front of me or stay ahead of people that I've picked out in the beginning. It's dumb because I don't train for speed and I'm not naturally fast, but that doesn't stop me from trying to pretend that I am. I thought it was so weird that so many people were running around barriers or avoiding mud pits as they ran. Isn't that the point of doing a mud run in the first place? to just get down and dirty? I ended up just throwing away my shirt and socks, and I almost threw away my shoes too.

The race was fun, but it really just motivates me to get signed up in time for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run. Everyone at the race couldn't stop talking about how great that one is, especially compared to this one. That one doesn't feature plastic tape that you can run through and push out of your way. It has taut ropes instead. It has a fire hose at one point and everyone has to brave it while descending a mud hill. It just sounds so legit.

This race was a fun one. I'm all for these adventure type races. And next year I'm doing that Pendleton run, whether you losers are in or out.