ASYMCA Mud Run - Run5 Mile

I went out with the front ~10 guys and settled in behind one of them since the wind was blowing in our faces for the ~800m beach run. I knew that the positions would shake out over the first mile so I didn't get too concerned about not running right up front. Sure enough, I gradually picked off a bunch of guys and was now running in 3rd and could see 2nd about 50m up. I just stuck with my race and eventually reeled him in. Another guy caught us from behind shortly after so there were 3 of us running together. The leader was clearly going to blow us away so it was a race between 3 of us for 2nd and 3rd. We exchanged positions for another mile or so and the guy that caught us from behind eventually dropped off the back never to be seen again. With about a mile to go the other guy put a ~25m gap on me and seemed to be a bit stronger. I decided that I'd just settle in and hold my position. My legs were feeling fatigued from the last few days of training and with an offroad course like this I wasn't about to put myself at risk of an injury one week out from Timberman. With .5 mile to go the guy in front of me missed a turn and headed off in the wrong direction. I realized what was going on and yelled to him, got his attention, and then continued on at an easy pace waiting for him to catch up. With about 400m left he caught back up to me and I told him to go ahead...he had me fair and square before the missed turn. I let him go and just took the last 400m easy to the finish.

Nothing...I wasn't about to blow myself out trying to shave 20sec off my time and I wasn't about to steal 2nd place from the other guy.

Beer and a hamburger :)


I wasn't looking at this race as a top priority...I considered it a "C" race. I had some tough training late in the week and while I always like to do well in any race, I wasn't going to sacrifice my Timberman training by tapering early for this event.


Unfortunately this race has gone down hill a bit in the last couple years. It's still fun and worth my entry fee but I think they can make some simple improvements for next year. They took the post-race pizza away this year...unacceptable. They have also used the same shirt design for 3 years running...how hard is it to change up the design? There was also some minor confusion with the the course for some of the front runners just behind ne from what I understand. As someone who was out in front with only a couple other folks it was difficult at times to figure out which way to turn and it would have been helpful to have some additional volunteers on the course. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't even recognize the top 3 overall at the awards ceremony. They called up the overall winner and presented them with a prize and then went straight to the age group results...no mention of 2nd and 3rd. I don't care about prizes but it would have been nice to get a little recognition. Plus, by leaving me in the age group results someone else in the 30-34 AG got bumped. I should have been removed from the AG results moving everyone else in the AG up one spot. That's the standard way this is done. I'm not sure why they did it like this but I emailed the race director to let him know that I was disappointed.