Dirty Girl Mud Run

I'm a pretty big fan of mud runs.  I love the obstacles and getting dirty makes me feel like a kid again.  Unfortunately, the Dirty Girl Mud Run made me feel like I was running a kid's course.  I originally passed on this race because it just didn't look that particularly appealing to me but a friend of mine had a free entry so I couldn't pass up the chance to do it for free.  A whole group of us signed up to run as a team for Amber's 21st birthday.  In true mud run fashion, we made our own team shirts and coordinated all of our plans to run together that morning. 






After getting through the check in process (and yes, it was a process...each step required a different table from handing in waivers, to bibs, to shirts, to safety pins...you get the idea).  Once inside the race village we wandered through the tents to make it to gear check.  After dropping off our bags we made our way to the starting line and were a few feet into the race when a guy emerged from the sidelines and told us we had to wait as another group of women passed with no objections.  Begrudgingly we traced back our steps and waited at the starting line.  Turns out that guy was the DJ/announcer but his lack of enthusiasm didn't do much to get us pumped up for the race.  Once a sizable group of women were lined up he got back on the mic and made some safety announcements before sending us on our way. 

This race had a LOT of inflatable obstacles.  We breezed through them and sludged through a few mud pits before reaching an obstacle with a tremendously long line.  At first we thought that maybe it was something really difficult but as we got closer realized that the obstacle simply wasn't big enough to accommodate multiple runners.  We waited for about 30 mins to climb over something that looked like Snoopy's house and crawl through a little mud.  The parts I love most about mud runs, camaraderie and teamwork, were completely devoid in this race.  It felt like we were just going through the motions.  At the cargo net climb there were parts of the structure jutting out that didn't seem very safe and a few of us hit on our way down the backside.  Once we reached the bottom we were disappointed to see the photographer texting away on her phone so many of us didn't get any images from that particular obstacle. 


The finish was just as anticlimactic as we expected it to be and all we wanted to do at that point was eat and get cleaned up.  We decided to hit the rinse station first before grabbing our stuff from gear check.  One of our teammates was on a tight timeline so we checked the time as we got in line for the hoses.  1pm.  As time ticked away groups of women in front of us left, refusing to wait in line any longer and preferring to just ride home dirty.  It wasn't until almost 2pm that we finally reached the hoses to rinse off.  By this time we're pretty tired, hot, hungry and cranky.  I really wanted to enjoy this race but it just didn't have ANY redeeming qualities.  We tried to make our own fun, but it made me miss the cuts and bruises I earned at previous OCRs.  This one definitely won't be making an appearance on the race schedule for next year.