The Insanity Mud Run

Ellie loves to take part in challenge events. Thankfully, Kohlton enjoys them, too. Yesterday the kids took part in the Insanity Mud Run in Larkspur.

It was a 5 mile run with 20 obstacles, many included muddy water. Based on what people looked like when they came through the last station, I doubt that there was any actual thick mud.

I am still sick, so I was only able to photograph some of the parts. From the start they did a section of going over and under logs that were perched about 3.5'. Next, they climbed up and over a log structure (there is a picture of it at the end of this post). They made a a uturn and headed for the "Pit of Despair" where the runners jumped about 7' into a mud pit that was filled with 7' of muddy water. They were to swim across and climb out. Kohlton as able to jump pretty far to the next side. Ellie's shoe got stuck in the mud for a bit, which was scary, but she pulled up and out. It was my favorite obstacle that I could see. It was a bit much for some of the jumpers. Some of them lost their glasses, bandanas, etc. The announcer was watching and when someone had a hard time finding the courage to jump, he had the crowd cheer them on. One of the best ones I saw was a woman of about 55 who was with a team of 20ish runners. She was not a runner, or a swimmer. This was clearly a new thing for her. The crowd and her team cheered for her and one of the men helped pull her out of the pit. I was impressed with her courage.

The announcers were from Red Bull and the Red Bull girls were there handing out free drinks.

From there the runner went up a hill, did another obstacle and then ran back down the hill to this pit. It was early in the day and they were filling the pit with more water. I think they were supposed to crawl or swim, but at this point it was more like a wet game of limbo.

And then another pit with climbing. This was a much deeper pit and the people ahead of Ellie and Kohlton were having a hard time getting up the wall, so the kids found another way out with out using the ropes. They are clever like that. :)

Then came the three climbing walls. Most of the couples doing the run together also helped each other over the wall. This one was much easier for the tall folks, including Kohlton.

From there, they kids were off onto the next section where I could not follow. Here are some photos from the Insanity Mud Run site that shows some of the obstacles that I could not photograph, but I wanted to include them to give you a better sense of what the event was like. (These photos are from the Insanity Run Facebook page.)

The finish line was near where the start was, and it was a really fun challenge. I was a bit amazed that so many people could not cross on the bars. Some dumped into the muddy water and some had to be pushed. It was all in good fun and people cheered either way. At the end the runner received special dog tags.

Ellie made it look nearly effortless.

At the end we took some fun photos. Once they were done, both kids were very happy and already have plans for doing it again next year. They are going to get better running shoes and train a bit. This is sort of a warm up for the Tough Mudder, which Ellie wants to do to mark her 18th birthday next year.