{"id":2670,"date":"2011-07-26T11:47:37","date_gmt":"2011-07-26T18:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/?p=2670"},"modified":"2012-03-20T17:08:14","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T00:08:14","slug":"recap-camp-pendleton-mud-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radragon.com\/journal\/2011\/07\/26\/recap-camp-pendleton-mud-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Recap: Camp Pendleton Mud Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

Race: World Famous Mud Run
\nDate: June 11th, 2011
\nStart Time: 9:00AM
\nLocation: Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base (Oceanside, CA)<\/p>\n

After several years of trying to get into the Mud Run — it always gets sold out so quickly — thanks to Jo Nisha<\/a>, I finally got to participate… and<\/em>\u00a0run with her and Sheryl<\/a> (alongside her two friends) as a team!\u00a0I was not disappointed with the race, either and though I’m writing this race report many weeks later, the memories of that experience will stay with me… until my next mud run with Sheryl, and Jo, anyway! \ud83d\ude42 Yes, I had that<\/em>\u00a0much fun that I want to run it again next year.<\/p>\n

Anyway, before I get ahead of myself, let me go through the checklist… \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Registering for the race<\/strong>
\nFind yourself a dedicated friend who will remember to go to the Camp Pendleton Races website at 12:01AM on new years’ eve to sign up your team. I’m very grateful again for Jo for doing this! We later found out that the race sold-out in a record 8 hours! I wasn’t even awake at 8AM on January 1st. The biggest part was waiting for June to arrive, but as the weeks drew closer, so did the nerves and last minute planning!<\/p>\n

Accommodations
\n<\/strong>Again, thanks to the fabulous Jo, we found a hotel that was literally steps away from Camp Pendleton Marine base — the Holiday Inn<\/a> in Oceanside. This turned out to be a big plus because there was already a queue of cars at the freeway exit and the queue to enter Camp Pendleton was getting longer; since we were right<\/em>\u00a0there, our wait-time to enter Camp Pendleton (past 6AM, mind you) was fairly short (less than 10 minutes). The cost, well, it’s a bit pricier than other hotel\/motels and they charge you for buffet brekkers, but considering the convenience, it evens out, I believe.<\/p>\n

Costume\/Attire
\n<\/strong>Team GGPH (or Golden Girls Party House… lol long story), decided a long time ago (or rather, a week before ;)) that we wanted to stand out from the crowd of superhero costumes and whatever slutty costumes some girls wear to races. Haha. Armed with my screen printing skillz, I found some plain technical shirts on sale at JCP and applied the design myself. It turned out “OK” and not my best work given the time. We paired our hot pink shirts with black leggings\/capris and the result was pretty awesome, I think. Tips for those that run this: wear black or dark-coloured technical-fabric attire if you want to salvage what you wore at the race! And yes, I was able to salvage all my clothing!<\/p>\n

\"Team<\/a>

Team GGPH, pre-race! Photo courtesy of Brightroom.com<\/p><\/div>\n

We were lucky that the weather on race day was overcast! That meant wearing the capri or leggings wasn’t too horrid. Our thinking was, less scraped legs if they’re covered!<\/p>\n

As for shoes, I paired our outfit with my VFF KSO’s (aka Frodo shoes!) and they worked out beautifully; shedding the water\/mud as we ran through the course! There were some areas which made it tough to run (i.e., steep declines) but that’s what ankles and springy knees are for, no? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Race Day
\n<\/strong>After entering Camp Pendleton, getting to the parking area took somewhat of a drive and then since there were two lots where one could park, there were Marines redirecting cars to the other lot as they saw it fit. Jo Nisha and I saw that the second lot was going to be quite busy, so we were able to turn around and head back to the first parking area where we were able to grab a spot that was not too far away from the shuttle stop (again, keep in mind this was well past 7:30AM!) I actually had fun driving on the dirt road on the field to park since I had my sis’ FJ Cruiser \ud83d\ude00 — i.e., it was a bumpy ride but vehicle could take it!<\/p>\n

Getting on the shuttle was efficient (naturally) and arriving at the race site was speedy thanks to the dedicated shuttle lane\/route. Had we paid for the “VIP” package (i.e., you get to park at<\/em>\u00a0the race site), it probably wouldn’t have made that much of a difference, albeit it was<\/em>\u00a0more convenient if all your gear were closeby, rather than a queue-and-shuttle-stop-away. Still, that’s what gear check stations were for! After checking in our bags and pinning the race bib to the back<\/em> of our clothing (as suggested\/instructed!), we made our way to the start line where literally a boatload of other teams were already waiting.<\/p>\n

The Course
\n<\/strong>The start was a bit anti-climactic because when we thought\u00a0we had started the race, we actually haven’t because the actual start line was a few hundred yards away! LOL. When we finally begun, we were greeted with Marines wielding hoses attached to a water source. i.e., they were preparing us for the onslaught of mud!\u00a0One could avoid this initial\u00a0deluge\u00a0by running in the centre of the road, rather than on the edges. Not that you’ll be able to run, anyway since at this point, there were still so many people that it reduced our pace to something sort of a jog\/walk.<\/p>\n

\"Pre-wash\"<\/a>

Ze pre-wash<\/p><\/div>\n

I won’t reveal too much about the course as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone else! Still, there were a few things to note about this “World Famous Mud Run” obstacle course:<\/p>\n