Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Uff Da Mud Run

At the end of this summer I competed in my community's first ever obstacle course race--The Uff-Da Mud Run. Over 700 people turned up to race plus volunteers. Behl's Photography was the photographer, I did not find many pics of me but posted what I had. Check out the event at www.endracing.com/uff-da Not knowing what to expect, I was ready to plunge in and start. The course had us climbing over hay bails, crawling under barbed wire, and swimming across the river. The race was 6K long although with over 26 obstacles to be completed this challenge was anything but dull.

One element that allowed me to survive the feat and be successful was teamwork. My teammates helped one another as well as the other runners. We all worked together and I could see the sense of community forming. The atmosphere was positive, energizing and exciting. Each participant was eager to see what the next challenge would bring. I found myself balancing across beams over a green smelly swamp, buried in mud and filth, and dunking to the bottom of a ice cold garbage bin full of water. 




The extraordinary tasks kept me energized and full of anticipation. I was having a blast with my team conquering each leg of the race together. Some people told me I was crazy swimming across the Red River--but I just thought that they were crazy to miss out on all the fun! I did have second thoughts when I was trudging across a swamp to look down and see a dead fish floating atop the water. Yuck! Even worse than that was the awful smell. However, that makes the finish line that much more rewarding. Another great component to this race was the vareity of levels of fitness it caters too. If any obstacle is too difficult (or disgusting) participants could skip the challenge and move forward. Although it may look or sound intimidating, I think this course is great for a large range of participants  Check back for future runs in the Greater Grand Forks Area. Next up is the Wild Hog Half Marathon September 27-28 at Choice Heath and Fitness followed by Extreme North Dakota Family Adventure Race October 5th in Lincoln Park. www.rungrandforks.org is another great website to check out for local runners. Check out all the action in this video: http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/id/19614/