Camp Pendleton Mud Run 10k - 3 in a row!!!

3-Peat!!! Well, I can't actually say it's a true 3-peat, since there are four Camp Pendleton Mud Runs on consecutive weekends, but I have entered this event the last three years, and remain undefeated on this course. Enough bragging, on to the race.

(pre-race: I left early to warm up, but copied a pic of me pinning my photo on by butt. Photos courtesy of Heather Martin)



I decided to use road racing flats this year, hoping they would help me go faster than the P.O.S Avias I wore the last two years. The light weight helped, but the flats didn't provide enough support for the trails. The sun came out early so I ditched my gear early and warmed up two miles in the racing shoes. The most annoying thing about the start of this race, is they make everyone go around behind the start, so while I was warming up, about 2500 people were cramming in the starting shute, and I had to spend about 10 minutes squeezing through them before the race started, and only got up to the third row.

When the gun went off, I had to barrel over a few people to get to the front, but after 400 meters, I was clear in the lead, and cruised through the first mile in what I think was 5:10 (course not clearly marked). We hit the marshes sometime before the 2 mile mark and by the sound of cheers behind me, I think I had about 20-25 seconds on the pack at this point. Right after the marshes, the course marches uphill about 350 feet over the next 1.5 miles. Climbing with water-logged shoes makes things a little more challenging. I wasn't sure how my hill strength would be, since my only hilly run in the last couple months was last weekend, but I was very strong up the hills, and came through the 3-mile mark in 16:15. At the top of the hill you can look back and see the other runners, and I estimated at this point I had gapped the field by over a minute. While, the climb is dragged out over miles 3-4, the half mile descent is dramatic and fast. I was a little nervous for my knees and hips, but I made it down the hills unscathed.

Now the fun started. I proceeded on to the first of two wall-crossings through muddy water. This time, I slipped when stepping into the water and nearly fell on my face. I made it over the wall without trouble and headed to the lake crossing. From some reason I once again slipped heading into the lake and fell in. I started swimming, but for some reason I was more tired than usual at this point and was making little progress. After making it a third of the way across I moved over to the ropes on the side and began pulling myself across. While this was efficient, the rope was covered with some weird algae and 2/3's of the way across I went back to swimming. At this point I looked back and noticed that there were three people in the water behind me. When I exited the lake, the guy in second place was probably 1/3 of the way across, or what seemed like 90 seconds. I struggled for about 30 seconds to get my pace back, and fell into a slow tempo. I was a little worried here, because with a mile to go, I was near spent, with a few obstacles to go.

I slipped after crossing over the second barrier, and once again fell on my face. When I got up my arms were caked in mud. After this, I crawled through the steel tubes (30" x 30"), which were lined with little pebbles so they completely cut up my hands and knees. I made sure to pause for a second at the next water station take in fluids and re-energize. The last real running obstacle was slippery hill, which wasn't extremely slippery except at the top, and the lack of traction on my shoes compounded the difficulty. I cruised the rest of the way to the final mud pit, and took my time crawling through. Finally, I jogged home bloodied on the hands and knees with a winning time of 42:40 (7 seconds slower than last year).

I was initially bummed not to have broken 40 minutes, but it was much hotter than last year, and my shoes and early pace didn't help. I was also surprised to see the second place finisher three minutes behind me. Evidently the elements took a greater toll on him. I showered off and pick the pieces of rock out of my hands and knees, then went back to watch my friends finish.

(crew post-race, awards stand, and medal)


After we were somewhat cleaned up the crew had a round of beers and headed to the awards stand for my trophy presentation. As I made my way on stage the crew and some marines chanted "3-peat" and "speech", so I tried to grab the microphone and speak. All I got out was "I'd like to thank my psychiatrist..." before they pulled the mic away from me. Oh well, I tried. Go Lakers!!!