Yesterday, Matt and I ran the Primal Mud Run in nearby Selma, NC. 4.75 miles through the mud! Obviously the perfect way to spend one of our last days in NC.
I love this picture — and yes, that’s barbed wire he’s crawling under
Man, I love mud runs. They’re such a ridiculous blast (and an awesome workout, too — my arms/back/shoulders are SO sore today)!
Like the other mud runs I’ve done in the past (The Original Mud Run 10k last September and the Rugged Maniac 5k last April), we signed up to start in waves. Our wave was 10:30 a.m.
We all lined up at the start just before 10:30 and I was surprised to find that instead of letting everyone in the wave go at 10:30, they were sending people out in 4 person groups, 1-ish minutes apart. This actually made more sense because everyone was nicely spread out! The past mud runs we’ve done we ended up waiting at a lot of the obstacles, especially early ones.
Before we knew it, we were off!
Our first obstacle — over we went and on to the rest!
And then came the mud. :)
Our third obstacle was by far the scariest — balance beams over a pit of muddy water! I made it half way across before someone got on the beam behind me and the while thing started to shake wildly. I quickly got down so I was straddling the beam and shuffled the rest of the way, like the person in the red shirt in the photo below is doing. :)
That net you see after the balance beams doesn’t look like a big deal, but in person it was super high and very unstable with everyone else climbing on it at the same time — gah! This was the one time during the race I was legit scared. I was proud of myself for making it over. :)
Next up — climbing ropes! You had to climb up high enough to touch the orange tape.
Attempting to make my way up…
Success!!!
For those who couldn’t make it up, the penalty was 15 burpees. Hilarious!
This next one was hard, too — I only made it half way, but Matt scurried right across.
In between all of the obstacles, there were stretches of running on trails through the woods. Had to get that almost 5 miles in somewhere!
High knees!
Ahhh, monkey bars. I wish I were still good at you like I was in middle school.
Luckily, this guy was giving the girls a little help across. :)
Thanks for the lift, dude!
On to swimming! Under, over, under, over…
Plus carrying a heavy log around a big loop, obviously.
High walls followed:
More under over:
Wheeeeee! Matt is such a Tigger.
Mini-mud water slide!
And then, the finish!
Matt got some cheers from the crowd for his rope maneuvers. :)
The grand finale was crawling under some more barbed wire.
Success! We finished in 1 hour, 11 minutes.
They even gave us medals — although Matt and I thought this should have said “dominator” or “survivor” or something instead of “finisher.” :)
There was also beer. Matt was pumped.
Have you guys ever done a mud run? They are such a blast!
p.s. For those of you wondering how I got pictures during this race — I used my Kodak waterproof digital camera. I bought it last fall and it’s pretty much a champion. I carried it when we were running and during the obstacles, I stuffed it in my sports bra. Classy, I know.
And regarding clothes, I wore old shoes that I was going to get rid of anyway and tossed them after the race. If you want to salvage what you wear during a mud run, I recommend wearing dark clothing. The mud will stain lighter colored clothes!
That looks like such fun! Though in Ireland you would have turned blue, it’s blooming freezing her again with Summer supposedly around the corner! Hope you have some pampering planned after the mud run! :)
It was actually kind of cold yesterday – in the 50’s – we were fine during the race but cold before and after!
Wow, that looks awesome! Kudos to you for finishing – looks like fun but personally I might’ve been too grossed out to make it through.
Now you know what it’s like being in the army ;-)
Wow! I love mud runs and this one looks like so much fun!! I love the extreme obstacles. Is Primal a national race, because if so, I will look for it in my area.
Nice recap and great pictures!
Thanks! It looks like Primal is just in the NC area, unfortunately, but it seems like these things are popping up everywhere nowadays!
Matt looks like he had a BLAST!
Could Matt be having MORE fun??? ;)
I have always wanted to do a mud run! What a blast!
That race sounded like it was tough but a lot of fun! I did the Dirty Girl Mud Run yesterday and loved it. I totally wish I had known about that kodak camera though. I was looking for something along those lines (digital and waterproof) before the race but couldn’t find anything under $200. It’s nice to know there are other options out there. And your pics came out great!!
Yeah I’m so happy to have found this camera – highly recommended! It has gone into muddy pools with me and still works great. :)
That looks like an absolute blast!
Oh my gosh! How much fun! I really want to do this kind of race. I pinned a couple of your pictures. I’d also LOVE to RT w/ a shout out to you to share your experiences. I love sharing this kind of amazing accomplishment – if you want, just tweet w/ a hashtag #girlsgonesporty and I’ll RT & send out a shout out!
i was definitely wondering how your camera stayed clean!
So much fun! I did the Rugged Maniac and Marine Corp Mud Run last year… pumped for this years!
This looks like so much fun! Makes me want to go and sign up for the tough mudder :)
Looks like SO much fun! I definitely missed out now that I’m seeing your fun photos. We’ll have to do another one together soon!
That looks like one crazy race! I am so impressed by anyone who finishes one of these. Love that waterproof camera…put it on a wish list =)
That looks like a BLAST! I’ve always wanted to do a mud run! Love the photos!
Glad you had fun. I remember last year when you did the mudd thing.Well, tomorrow is my birthday, and my kids and outlaws and inlaws grandkids just left my house with my food for my birthday. God bless them. Happy Birthday to me. Hahaha
Happy birthday!! :)
Very fun!! Never done anything like that, and I’m not sure I could. haha.
That looks so fun! I’d love to do one, but what happens if you can NOT make it over/through one of the obstacles? Are there penalties for every section?
All the mud runs I’ve done have an “elite” wave followed by a ton of regular waves – if you’re racing in the elite wave, I think you get DQ’ed if you can’t do an obstacle, since that’s the competitive wave. But for all the normal people (like us) in the regular waves, they just let you pass once you’ve given it an honest effort, or maybe they’ll do something silly like make you do push ups. :) The main goal is fun!
What a blast!!!!
Congrats on surviving ;-)
Glad to see you and Matt having a great time while staying in shape -and having fun playing in the mud!
Couldn’t ask for better time together!
Thx for sharing, and don’t stop enjoying life!
Anne,
Thank you so much for posting these pictures. I too ran in this race and I was unable to share precisely with my wife what the obstacles really looked and felt like until finding your site. On race day, she was only able to see the first and last obstacles.
Also, even though I started at 11:30, I am in several of your pictures as my wife and I were taking pictures of other friends and we are in the background crowd of some of your pictures!
I had a blast as this was my very first mud run but it will not be my last!
Thanks again,
Barry
That’s awesome that you were able to show your wife what the race was like – and too funny you are in the background of some of our pics!
That race looks like SO MUCH FUN!!!!! I need to look for something similar around me.
This looks like soooo much fun!! Dying to do one of these. Do you think it’s similar to the Warrior Dash (if you know anything about that one)?
Matt is hysterical. He looks like he’s having so much fun. It’s so great that you guys can do stuff like this together.
I’m doing the Warrior Dash in the fall! I can’t wait. Thanks for the awesome recap and answering my questions about the pictures…I was wondering how you took such great pics.
Have fun! :)