I ran the RU Muddy with zero training

So for those of you who didn’t know, Rutgers just hosted a mud run! Also known as the RUMuddy, it’s a super messy way to run a 5k but it definitely beats spending an hour on a treadmill. The race consisted of a bunch of obstacles ranging from stopping points to do 10 burpees, push ups, and jumping squats, to high knees over ropes, to climbing through ‘spider webs’, to trekking through a tunnel (which kind of reminded me of the movie IT and totally worked my thighs), to jumping over barriers, to army crawling through pools of mud. By the end, you become so covered in mud that you’re almost unrecognizable. Literally–mud gets SHOVELED onto you and you will have it everywhere from inside your ears to up your nose to caking your teeth (here’s a tip: don’t scream when you go through the mud like I did).

The course was overall pretty challenging with the obstacles and steep hills, but plenty of people were running for fun so it wasn’t intimidating. I went into this mud run with absolutely no training (unless you count my pathetic attempts to try to keep up with the running club twice a week), and I also consumed a hearty meal of cookie dough ice cream an hour before the race because that’s the best thing to eat at Brower. As a used-to-be, super-in-shape retired athlete, I remember myself as being a very active person and seem to forget that college has severely transformed that side of me.

I’ll go into a run thinking I’ll be just as good as I used to be, but five minutes in my chest will start getting tight and my legs will feel like they’re going to fall off and I ask myself why I thought this was a good idea.

The friends that I ran with were all much more better off than me, and trying to keep up was probably the most challenging part. They were super supportive though, and we stuck together like a team to get one another through the hardest parts. Needless to say, if I sign up next year I believe it’d be more enjoyable if I prepared better so I didn’t feel like I was going to die the entire time even if that means just skipping the ice scream–or if I just found someone who would like to stroll through with me.

The best part of the run was going through the final mud pool. Even though my contacts were ready to fall out and I was literally choking on mud, I continued crawling through and felt proud of myself for accomplishing something I never thought I’d sign up to do. After the run they had a section to take fun pictures with your friends, and giant showering sections so you didn’t have to go back to your dorm looking like a mud monster.

Overall, I was super impressed with this 5k that Rutgers Recreation organized. It was a well planned, thought out, and enjoyable event. For my first race ever, I was excited to be a part of something so different and fun. The entire community of people running were very supportive, and although my legs are burning as I type this, I feel proud of myself for getting out there and finishing. If you ever want to try something new and don’t mind getting a little dirty, this is definitely an event that you should try out.