Camp Pendleton’s World Famous Mud Run

I’m a little late in posting this but better late than never…

If you haven’t ever done the  Camp Pendleton’s Mud Run I suggest you try it at least once. This was my 5th time doing it and I have to admit I wasn’t looking forward to it (I’ll explain in a minute). I agreed to do it because my sister and daughter wanted to do it and I wanted to support and encourage their interest in running. As it turned out my sister didn’t train and opted out so my running buddy Yvette went in her place. 

I don’t know if you can tell by the pictures but the weather was drizzly and overcast. At first it worried me that it might be a little chilly when we got wet but as it turns out we got hot quick and the gloomy skies were a blessing.

Let me explain what the mud run entails for those of you who do not know. The mud run is a 5k or 10k obstacle course designed by US Marines with muddy hills and giant mud puddles that you run or wade through. There are walls and cargo nets to climb, jerry cans and ammo cans to carry (ugh, this was hard, I’m so weak!), we did push-ups and overhead lifts with sand bags, climbed over and crawled under logs and through tubes.

So back to my not exactly looking forward doing it. It’s not the mud that I dread but the clean up. After you finish the course  they hustle you through a cold shower then you dry off and change in a hot, muggy tent with a dirt floor. Yuck! The absolute worst part of the whole experience. Fortunately the event organizers improved the clean up process by adding a soapy room with a hot water rinse. Mind you, you still have to go through the cold shower and dry off in the muggy tent, but the soap and hot water make them both worth it! Every year this event gets better. Hopefully next year they will improve the changing facilities. 🙂

**The pictures below were taken from the internet. I only took before and after pics because I couldn’t carry my phone, for obvious reasons**

This years run was a lot less muddy compared to previous years. My daughter thought the mud felt “thinner”. Either way we were pretty dirty at the finish. Having the soap and hot water shower (albeit squished in a glass box with about 30 other strangers) felt pretty good.

After cleaning up we were starving, thankfully they had some good food to choose from. Hannah and I chose burritos while Yvette enjoyed a vegetable skewer with tortillas. The sun came out just as we got our food so we sat in the warm sun enjoying music played by a pretty good DJ.

That was our day at Camp Pendleton. After going over the cargo net I made my daughter swear that if I said I wanted to do it again to tell me that I didn’t. Of course at least 4 times after I said that, I mentioned how next year I would do this or that different…oh wait…I’m not doing it again. Well maybe just once more…

Have you ever done a mud run? Did you like it? Leave a comment below.

For more fun runs for the whole family see a previous post ->  6 Races that will make you want to run even if you hate running! 

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day!

Keep running! 🙂

                                Denise