Mud race lets you get down and dirty

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/08/2013 (4651 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The one thing they don’t tell you about crawling around on your stomach in mud is how bad it tastes. It’s like the earthy smell in the air in spring when the snow melts, but in your mouth and twice as strong. And don’t even get me started on the texture. I’ll never look at Chunky Soup the same way again.

But if that description sounds wonderful to you, then the Dirty Donkey Mud Run might, too. The Aug. 17 run at Springhill Winter Park is in its second year in Winnipeg, and is one of the many mud races that have become increasingly popular in North America.

Rick Shone, the race director, told me the idea for the race came from seeing similar mud races in the U.S. “We just thought it would be a really fun idea to bring it to Winnipeg,” he said.

Participants in the mud run climb over obstacles on a five-kilometre track. These include balancing on beams, walls, monkey bars and of course, the mud pit.

Every year, a share of the proceeds goes to support a charity. This year, the run will benefit United Way, Shone said.

During my media preview the mud pit was a wooden box filled with the finest Manitoba mud. Shone told me the finished pit will be bigger and have wire over it, forcing people to get really low as they crawl through it. No cheating and just hopping through it. And Shone promised there will be more mud-themed obstacles in the full course.

So with a GoPro camera strapped to my head and a couple of cameras on the ground to capture my every move, I tackled the obstacle course. I was allowed to try three obstacles as part of the media preview. The first one was a series of balance beams. Easy enough. I breezed across it, making sure not to fall this early in the race. If the rest of the course were this easy, I’d be good to go.

Next up was the Wall of Shame. I wasn’t sure why they called it that. It’s a wooden wall with a platform up top. You climb up the wall using a tiny foothold, then jump off on the other side. I figured the Wall of Pain might have been a good name. But why shame?

Bad question to ask. On my first try I slipped right off the foothold. It was caked in wet mud, so my feet wouldn’t stay on long enough for my arms to grab the platform. So I tried again. And again. And again. Eventually a volunteer took pity on me and gave me a boost. By then I had realized exactly why it was called the Wall of Shame.

Last came the mud pit. By this point, I was ready to just finish but I threw myself into the pit with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.

Like I said, mud smells bad and tastes worse. I could feel my shoes turning into sponges and sucking up as much water as they could physically hold. To add insult to injury, one of the volunteers took a bucket of mud and threw it at me before I could exit. Eventually I made it out, feeling and looking every bit like a monster from a swamp in a cheap 1950s horror movie.

Shone said they’re expecting about 2,000 participants, double last year’s numbers. Registration goes until Aug. 13 and costs between $75 and $85 per person. If you enjoy mud and running, the race could be right up your alley.

Just don’t think of Chunky Soup.

oliver.sachgau@freepress.mb.ca