Muddy Watters Trail Series

Over the weekend my brother and I ran the Muddy Watters Trail Series Race #3. The race was intense, gross, crazy, and a lot of fun! 

 

Before the race started they had everyone do a series of exercises. We did one minute of mountain climbers, one minute of squats and then one minute of rest. We did this for three sets. After that, they told everyone to go to a small trail opening (somewhere behind us in the picture below) and then they started us. The problem with this is that there were 170 people trying to get on the trail to start. So if you were in the back, you really didn't "start" when they pressed the timer.

Shortly after you start, you come to a field where you have to do some more exercises. Here we did 10 burpees and 10 squats. Unfortunately, this was not enough to break up the group. Once done with those exercises, you continue on the trail where you ended up standing in line to enter the swamp. YES, A SWAMP! There was only one safe way to get into the swamp, so there was a line up to get in and get across. It smelled SOOOOO bad and was disgusting. I still seriously can't believe I did it!

Afterwards, we headed to the "Sled Hills" and had to run down and up each hill. There were five sled hills.

After the sled hills, you are running throughout the trail where you finally enter the river. You walk along the river for quite some time (against the current).

Finally, you come up to a bridge, climb up and jump back into the river. There was a little bit of a line up here too. Not too bad, but some people stood at the top for a second to gain their strength to jump. It doesn't look that high in the pictures, but it seemed high from up there!
(Apparently this is illegal so they only do this jump in race #3 so they don't get in trouble with the sheriff)

 

You swim across and then get back on another trail. After running for a bit, you come back to the river and this time, you are crossing under the waterfall. The current was pretty hard and most people got pushed out before they even made it half way. My brother made it all the way through, but I did not. I only made it 3 feet before I had a mini anxiety attack. I swam across and continued on to the end!

 

Picture from the winter, but it was the only one I could find!

The course was a total of 4 miles. Four Gross, crazy, miles! My brother finished about 25 minutes before me. I placed 33 out of 89 women. Not too shabby. BUT, the problem with the times and your place is that technically not everyone started at the same time. And if you started in the back of the herd, you got stuck a lot in lines trying to enter the river, swamp, jump, etc. So the times are definitely inaccurate for most.

After the Race!

Overall, the race was a lot of fun. I definitely enjoy doing races like this but would have liked to know a "real" time. I'm not competitive, but I like to know how I do. I would suggest they start people in 2 or even 3 waves next time. After that race, I am super pumped for the next one!