Mud run. Check?

When I think “rugged maniac,” I think of someone like Bear Grylls eating worms and hacking his way through a tropical forest. But here I was last weekend, jumping over a wooden gate (the event’s first obstacle) to stand at the starting line of the Rugged Maniac 5k mud run at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.

I was roped into this event after a few beers at an elementary school dads’ meeting earlier this year. Of all the things I love to do, running is not one of them. I generally hate running more than a mile or two. In an event setting, swimming to Crissy Field from Alcatraz sounds like more fun to me than a run. But it had been a few years since I had run a 5k, and the whole Tough Mudder thing had some appeal, so I enlisted with a small group of dads.

It was a total blast.

The adrenaline started pumping at 8:30am on the drive over with some loud music. When I got there and laced up my Asics, hundreds thousands of participants from buff dudes/chicks to regular fitness enthusiasts to moms and their kids were streaming into the fairgrounds, checking in and stretching out. Many were wearing costumes, so I figured if anyone can run with a pig snout and a tutu, then I was ready to do this, too. Groups of about 150 runners were going out every 15 minutes or so, and we saw the first male and female participants come in at a blazing 25+ minutes. FAST.

Our group of about 150 maniacs went off with a whoop at 10:15 and quickly three of us broke off from the rest of our pack. We hopped over walls, scrambled up gravel mounds and stomped through soggy fields on our way to the tougher stuff.

Rugged Maniac bills itself as containing the most obstacles per mile — 25 total on the 5k course — and they get progressively tougher (generally) as you run. The running, it turns out, is pretty easy for anyone who’s moderately fit and we ran at a quick pace through any lengthy sections. The obstacles provide nice breaks from running, and there are a handful of bottlenecks that force you to stop completely as you wait your turn to get through.

There was a really great camaraderie with everyone cheering for each other through the muck, and people were always quick to help push and pull each other over and through the obstacles. Some fatigue set in late, and I found myself being ultra careful climbing and crawling over and through really slick areas that could send anyone to the hospital with serious injury. Like the 20′ high wall that we had to climb over toward the end, which was covered in greasy wet slop. Dangerous.

We also crawled through barbed wire-covered mud pits, carried 50 lb. heavy bags on our backs, swung across rings (unsuccessfully), and cannon-balled into muddy water pits. We climbed over short and high walls, fell off balance beams into muddy mud pits, ran over giant see-saws, crawled through dirt tunnels, and finally slid down a giant mud slide to the finish line. The three of us finished in our goal of about 45 minutes.

I was totally high on adrenaline, completely filthy and satisfied afterward, and was sore as hell the next day in places where I had forgotten muscles existed. The event organizers take and distribute photos to participants for free. These here are the best of our bunch.

I swore I had checked such an event off of my life’s bucket list, but now rumors are surfacing of a more au naturale mud run in Healdsburg this Fall.

We may have to sign up.