The Camp Pendleton Mud Run never fails to disapoint.

Both Saturday and Sunday's races had HUGE turnouts. Rumor has it that Saturday's race was oversold by 500 entries, which judging by the crowd was probably correct.

The Mud Run attracts some serious athletes as well as those that are just there to have a good time.  To put it in perspective, the fastest time on Sunday's course was 41:09 while the slowest time was over 2 hours. So whether you are there to beat everyone in you age group or just there to roll around in the mud, I highly recommend signing up for this race.

Our crew put in some excellent times this year so I guess we fall into the serious category .  We also had a couple of "Mud Virgins" this time around who vowed they would return next June to better their times.

Hilights of last weekends Mud Runs

• Slight course change, no tires or hay bales but a detour around "Combat Town" was added as well as a river crawl on Saturday.
• Kaiel placed 2nd in the 19 and under Boots & Utes division on Saturday
• Bob placed 1st in the 45-49 Open division for all three Mud Run Days
• Gary on his first Mud Run placed 4th in his age group.
• Tom R. won the Boots & Utes divison overall on Sunday
• Dave drawing the ringers in his age group on Sunday, who unfortunately for Dave, dominated the overall field.
• Jake F. placing a respectable 9th in his open age group on Saturday with an awesome time.
• Holly fell victim to leg cramps and had to be helped through the mud pit by the Marine volunteers.

Second Saturday Results
Second Saturday's Photos 

 
Sunday's Results
Sunday's Photos

Saturday's Results
Saturday's Photos

Wow June is about a week away which as you all know means MUDRUN.

We have a pretty good group signed up for the various days of the June MudRun.
Gary R. will be getting his shoes muddy for the first time on day 2.
Kaiel will once again try his luck at the Boots & Utes division, while his older cousin Jake will be gunning for Bob and Dave. Seems Jake has been excelling on the track so both uncles better be looking over their shoulders throughout the race.
Tom R. has shed some serious lbs. and is looking for a personal best in his Boots and Utes divsion, while Sue and Holly will be running against a fast group of female mudders.

OK I am a big loser. I haven't posted anything in hear for a while. I need to add some results and some stories. I don't have any excuses and I won't try to make any.

There has been numerous events going on that I will try to summarize. First of all my sister Linda has become an ultra-runner. Ultra means distances greater than 26.2 miles so yeah this is major.

In other news Tom R. and Keith went over to Catalina to run the challenging Buffalo Run half-marathon. They both kicked some serious a%$# with Tom placing 3rd and Keith placing 2nd in their respective age groups.

Seems everyone is getting geared up for the O'Side Turkey Trot 5K.

Not that I don't want to pat myself on the back for getting 4th overall but....the crowd was definetley slower for this Ocober's MudRun. Out of the gate I was 2nd for the first couple of miles which never happens.

Quote of the day: 
"I would have caught you if it wasn't for all of the obstacles."
5th overall finisher to me as we were leaving the finish chute.

Anyway it was a nice way to end my 40-44 age group. I did miss having our huge contingent of mudrunners there but hopefully it will motivate everyone to sign up super early next time around. I will send out email reminders to everyone when we get close to the registration date.

See the photos.

Well now it is on to the 45-49 year old age group for me.

As I sit here wrtiting this post with scraped up knees , sore quads and aching calf muscles I am already thinking about next June's Mud Runs.

Will I sign up for 3 days again despite how beat up I feel ?
You bet !

Will I try to talk my family and friends into doing all 3 days with me ?
Definitely !!!

Every day of the Mud Run was a blast, and even though it is getting a bit more serious with the various track/cross-country types and fitness clubs showing up it still has that underlying theme of fun. What other 10K do you know of has people showing up dressed in business suits, hula skirts (on guys), speedoes and other riduculous costumes?
Not many, and if they do they still don't have the 5 foot walls, 200 yard river swim and a nasty mud pit to contend with.

Mud Run Start Day 2	Mud Run Final Day

Between our group we walked away with 7 medals over the three days which is amazing considering there are 3000 open participants in the race.

Seems Maddie recently set the bar high when she ran her track invitational up in Downey, CA . Maddie held first place for a good part of the 400' and was inched out of first place in the last couple seconds of the race. She placed a very respectable 2nd place in her eilte division.

Great job Maddie !!

The June Mud Run is about a month away so hopefully your training has been going well.

Last year Tom Rowe graciously agreed to wear my Garmin GPS watch during the race to map the course. What we discovered is that the Camp Pendleton Mud Run is actually 6.7 miles and not 6.2 miles. 
Wow an extra 1/2 mile of fun!  

This will be my 21st Mud Run and as you other veterans know the key to this race is to do well on the hills.  "Suicide Hill" is close to 2 miles of climbing so you need to be able to keep up your pace on this section.  Another crucial component of this grueling race is whether or not there will be a river swim. Personally I look at the swim as a place to recharge your legs for the final 2 mile push. You can also gain some distance on the runners in front of you who may not be strong swimmers.  

After the swim you have some of the harder obstacles in front of you but your done with 3/4 of the race. This is where your training pays off and the stronger runners will be able to fly through the tunnels and scale slippery hill much faster than the undertrained competitors.

See you in the Mud......

Let's all give a quick shout-out to Maddie who came in second in her track meet up in Laguna Hills last weekend. 

Apparently Maddie was going up against some "very tall girls" according to Grandma Lynn.  If you notice from the picture on the right Maddie is wearing her special pink track shoes that are obviously working. 

We will all be watching her very close as she has proven she has what it takes.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any better ,rumour has it she will be running in the Big Sur Half-Marathon at the end of the summer. I am guessing she will be the youngest runner there and will surprise many of the older competitors.

Stay tuned .....

More Pictures Here.

Welcome to the new San Diego racers Website. This site was in desperate need of an update to make it more manageable. I am running it off my same server using BlogEngine.NET. Hopefully now I will be able to update it on a more timely basis.

Bob