June 2024 Part 1 - Camp Pendleton Mud Run 2024

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Saturday, June 1st, I got to get muddy this year. Even better, it was at Camp Pendleton. 

The one mud run I had signed up for cancelled on me (sadly, since it was always fun). I thought I might not get a mud run in this year, but then Camp Pendleton announced they were having a mud run on June 1st and it was opened to the public again for the first time since 2019. I signed up right away!

The course was only 3.5 to 4 miles instead of having the full 10k (6.2) mile course like they used to have. We started and ended with the old route, but had a different part in the middle. 

It was a little cooler than I would have liked.  The sun did come out while I was there, but it was overcast to start with.  Still, I’ve done it in colder weather.

I was disappointed by how few people were there.  Granted, it made getting in and out easy, but even as other events started to die down, this one kept going strong.  I hope they don’t take this as a sign of lack of interest and don’t have it in the future.  The did only announce that it was open to the public six weeks beforehand.  And it was the first one in five years.  So hopefully, they will allow it time to build up again.

Because I had a BLAST.  I think I was smiling almost the entire time I was on base.  Even driving to and from the venue itself.  And yes, I was smiling while running.  It was so fantastic to be back.  Yes, I would have been happiest doing the entire course that I used to do, but I was more than happy to take what they offered me.

After a lunch at the Pit Stop Diner (love that place) in Oceanside, I started making my way home.  But I stopped to visit friends in Orange County along the way.  These are family friends from growing up.  I didn’t get to see everyone I would have liked to see, but it was nice to visit with the ones I could.

September 2023 - Bouchercon for a Day and a Wedding

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

Bouchercon is a world wide mystery convention - where mystery authors and readers come together to talk books.  Authors talk about their books, trying to connect with readers.  I went once when it was in Long Beach about 10 or so years ago.  This year, it was in San Diego.  I couldn't go for the entire weekend thanks to work.  It was Labor Day weekend, which is also the start of quarter end close at work.  I did ask, but there was no way to make it work.  But I did go down for one day - Saturday.  Okay, I left early on Friday to drive down, and I drove back on Sunday.  But I was only there for one day.

And it was great.  I went to several panels, and I got to see several authors again that I haven't seen in a few years.  I had a stack of Donna Andrews books to get signed, for example.  Plus, I got to meet some authors I had never met before, which was wonderful.

I spent most of my time hanging out with a friend who has started writing again.  She'd recently self-published the first in a new series, and her panel was on Saturday.  It was a fun panel.  I had dinner with her and her husband on Friday night and lunch with her and another author on Saturday.  It was fun spending time with her.

At the end of the month I went to a wedding.  These are some people I've met at the monthly game days.  It was a nice wedding a reception.  Simple, but nice.

In news of things I didn't do, I'd gotten excited when Camp Pendleton announced they were bringing back their mud run.  That's been one of my favorite weekends of the year.  Last year, they had the mud run, but for base personnel only.  This year, it was semi opened to the public.  If you weren't base personnel, you had to be sponsored on to the base.  Well, that leaves me out, unfortunately.  I'm hoping they will fully opened it to the public again soon.

May 2023 - Rugged Maniac 2023

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

In May, I did my only mud run for 2023, Rugged Maniac.  It was once again about half an hour from me.  I had an added bonus this time.  Since it was held where I paddle board, I didn't have to pay to park.  My parking pass worked for that!

Unfortunately, I really hurt my shoulder just before the mile marker.  I was trying to crawl across floating platforms that we are supposed to run across, and the last platform moved away from the side.  I was stretched out like Superman, and I fell off, doing something to my shoulder.  It was really bothering me, but did I let that stop me?  Of course not!  I still completed it, doing everything I could to not hurt my shoulder any worse.

It's hard to judge how much fun I had with it since my shoulder really dampened my enjoyment.  But I did finish it, which was nice.  And then I went home, cleaned up, and went to the game day my friends are still hosting.

Rugged Maniac 2022

(Just a quick note:  If you are landed here because of a comment I left on your book blog, you might be more interested in my review blog, Carstairs Considers.  But you are very welcome to stick around here, too.)

I was doing so well, but now it's been a while since I posted again.  Let's get at least one post in this week.

Back in May, I did my second mud run for the year.  And possibly my last one, sadly.  Rugged Maniac was back in the area, so naturally I did it.

I actually did it with a friend.  He signed up at the last minute (like the night before).  Despite the fact that they didn't seem to have a wave time for me, we got signed in and registered rather quickly.  In fact, we had a little time to kill before we started running.  We played a little cornhole before we started, and I wound up winning.  He couldn't handle it well, which I found even more fun.

Of course, once we started running, he left me in the dust right away.  No surprise there since I'm only slowing down from my already slow speed.  It was hot that weekend, which didn't help.  Then my sun screen was running in my eyes.

But I had fun.  They had great obstacles.  We got muddy.  Although one trench we went through really stunk.  Didn't like that as much.  Overall, it was a great morning.

I also hurt my shoulder from people trying to help me up the warped wall near the end.  It was funny because I felt something at the time, but it didn't bother me that much.  It was a couple of hours later after I was home and showered that it really started to hurt.  It bothered me for a couple of weeks, but it's healed up now, so no permanent damage, which is a good thing.

Muddy Dash - 2022

I've started out the year with another mud run!  I was back at Irvine Lake (although a different company was putting it on).  This time it was a Muddy Dash.  Again, I signed up last minute, and again, I did it because it was a great deal.  There was just a little bit of fees, etc., but not the normal costs.

The other reason I signed up last minute was weather.  Since you never know what kind of weather you will get in February, I don't like to sign up months in advance.  But I signed up about a week out, and the weather was looking like it was going to be perfect.  It was.

I went with my friends Rory and Cameron.  Despite the great deal to sign up when we did, it was pretty empty.  We hardly had any wait to get our stuff, and there didn't seem to be many people on the course.  The good news was, we didn't have to wait at obstacles this time.

And yes, there was mud.  No mud we had to crawl through, but there was some thick mud we had to walk through at times.

However, the course seemed short.  It was supposed to be a 5K, but it felt more like two miles.  Unless there was a part of the course we missed, that is.  But I sure didn't see anything like that.

They had hoses for us to clean up with afterwards.  I'd bought some water in case they didn't, but it turned out we didn't need it.  However, they only had five of them, and the lines were long.  That was the longest line we were in all day.

The weather was wonderful.  We've been having wind here at home, but down there we had no wind.  It was upper 70's.  Perfect weather for being outside and getting muddy.

My friends didn't seem that impressed.  They are looking for harder obstacles.  I do wish the course had been longer and we'd had to crawl through mud at some point, but overall, I was happy with it.

Terrain Run 2021

Guess what?  I got back in the mud (sort of) last month.

I did the Terrain Race on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  It was a last minute decision because the weather wasn't looking too cold (could have been warmer, but it was okay) and a friend wanted to do it with me.  Plus, we got a great deal on it.

It was down at Irvine Lake, where I've done many mud runs in the past.

While it was nice to be out there again, it was a disappointing day as far as the race goes.  There were long lines.  Lines to pay to park.  Lines to pay to pick up our packets.  Lines to do the obstacles.  Usually those get better after the first one or two, but they didn't here.  It took longer than I thought it would to do it.

Even worse, for a mud run, they had one little bit of mud, and it wasn't all that deep.  But that turned out to be a good thing since they didn't have any way for us to clean up afterwards or any place to change.

Afterwards, we grabbed a late lunch and then went to visit some friends of mine who live not that far away.  That part of the day was great!  I had fun visiting with them, and my friend seemed to have a good time as well.

I'm signed up for a mud run in 2022 already, and keeping an eye opened for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run to open up for registration.  We'll see if I do more than those two next year, but I'll be happy getting to do any again.

Bubble Run 2019

Wow, it’s been almost a month since I updated this blog hasn’t it?  Of course, there hasn’t been too much of excitement going on.  Work, church, ultimate Frisbee.  Well, except for this last Saturday.

This last Saturday, I did The Bubble Run for the first time.  It was down at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.  The run was in the parking lot and the stadium itself.  It was supposed to be a 5K, but I really have no way of knowing if it was or not.

And the bubble part of the name?  They had five bubble machines set up along the course for us to run through.  What I didn’t realize was that the bubbles would leave colored patches on our shirts, but that washed off as soon as I put it in my washing machine.  Still, my legs were colored, which I found amusing when I got home.

Honestly, the bubbles were a bit underwhelming.  It was fun and different, but I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to do it again.

However, running through the stadium was a lot of fun.  We did that twice, once on the ground level running the outside of the field (not the part the players play on).  And then again inside the stadium itself past the concessions.

I did it with my friend Rory.  He seems hooked on this kind of run now.  Sadly, he’s moving away in a week, so it will be harder to do another run like this with him.

We got a good deal, where we just had to pay for insurance and a small donation to get in.  That definitely helped make it worth it.

Another Mud Run Canceled

I was supposed to have another mud run this last weekend.  Once again, it was canceled on me.

What made this one even worse was that it was canceled on me at the last minute.  As in, some of the earlier waves had already run, and I had arrived at the location (an hour and a half away) before they canceled it.

I’d arrived over in San Bernardino plenty early, but then I got stuck in traffic for the final mile and a half.  After going maybe a tenth of a mile, I learned that the parking and the overflow parking was all full, so I parked in a lot nearby and started hoofing it toward the venue.  That’s when I started hearing from people that they had closed the mud run.  I decided it wasn’t worth walking all the way up there to find out officially.  When I was almost back to my car, I heard someone using a bullhorn to call it out behind me.  And then later, I got e-mail confirmation.

I still haven’t heard officially why it was canceled.  They said the heat, but they planned to have Sunday’s race go on as scheduled, and it was going to be just as hot.  They were going to let people race in whatever wave, but that would just create nightmares at the obstacles.  Needless to say, I didn’t go back.  Anyway, they also warned us about the heat in e-mails this week, so clearly it wasn’t a surprise.  I suspect something must have happened that caused them to close it, but I don’t know what.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a wasted drive.  I had planned to meet a friend for lunch, and she was free two hours early, so we meet up earlier than originally planned.  We wound up talking for 4 hours, so the drive time was definitely well worth it.

Irvine Lake Mud Run 2019

Or the mud run that wasn’t.

The Irvine Lake Mud Run holds a special place in my heart.  It was the first mud run I did back in April of 2010.  While I haven’t done it every year, I’ve done it at least 10 times because I did it multiple times some years, and I think I only missed one year.  The last couple of years, they’ve only done it once, and the numbers have been dropping, so I was afraid the day would come when they would discontinue it.

Never the less, when they announced the mud run for this year, I signed up at the cheapest discounted rate – back in July of last year.  That race was supposed to take place this last Saturday.  I was still getting promo e-mails like I usually do from them; in fact, I got one over Memorial Day weekend.

So you can imagine my shock when I got an e-mail two weeks ago, a week and a half before the event, saying they weren’t going to be able to put on the mud run this year and it was postponed until March of 2020.  That’s right, another 9 months away.  My registration was good for the new date or I could have my registration switched to someone else.

Naturally, I wasn’t happy about that since I had been planning some other things for that day since I would be down in Orange County any way.  However, I’ve managed to work things out so I can do those activities on other days, and I was able to get together with some friends on Saturday I would have had to pass on otherwise.

But what really makes me mad is that I am going to have to fight them for a refund.  The weekend they have rescheduled for I have other plans for already, so I can’t do this run.  They didn’t offer a refund, so I am going to have to fight them for it, and I will.  It’s not a lot of money, but it is the principle.

What makes me even sadder is I bet this is the end of this particular mud run.  No one is very happy with them right now, and I doubt others are going to sign up after this stunt.  It was truly a very fun event, and I’m sad that last year was my last time doing this run.  Even if they do come back from this, it is going to be hard to trust them and sign up again.

Camp Pendleton Mud Run 2019

10

I have now done the Camp Pendleton Mud Run 10 times.  I really find that hard to believe.  It doesn’t seem possible that it has been 10 years since I started doing mud runs.  But the number of mud run related shirts in my closet certainly don’t lie.

I had hoped to get some friends to join me this year, but that didn’t come together, so once again it was just me.  My parents were almost in the area, but their plans changed again as well.  So it was just me driving down and back and doing the mud run.  Not that I’m completely upset because I got over half of an audio book listened to, finishing it up just before I got home.

As usual, I spent Friday night in the area.  Hopefully the Motel 6 I was at this year gets their hot water fixed soon since it stank, but other than that, my night was fine.  I certainly slept well.  My chair at work isn’t comfortable, bugging my legs by the end of the day and usually by the end of the week, but again that didn’t prove to be an issue.  While they were bugging me Friday night, I woke up feeling great and ready to run Saturday morning.

I got on base with plenty of time, which is always nice.  I was possibly earlier than in years past since I got to park on pavement instead of in the weeds like the last couple of years.  Got through registration very quickly as well.  Wandered around a bit killing of time, and then it was time to run.

They had changed the location of a few of the obstacles this year, but there were no major surprises.  Not that I’m complaining.  I had a huge grin on my face from the moment I got on base until well into the run.  I’m surprised my face wasn’t hurting from smiling so much.

There was so water in the creek we run through in the first half.  A little bit of water to slosh through in the reservoir, but nothing like there was the first two years.  Lots of plants along the sides of the course.  It was beautiful as always.

And warm.  It has been cold down here, so I was worried I’d be doing it in the cold.  Wouldn’t be the first time, but I prefer it warm.  The sun came out before my wave started and stayed out.  It was definitely warm while running, but it was perfectly pleasant when I was done.

While I may not have been running with a friend, I made a friend along the way.  A woman was using me as the person to try to stick with, and we chatted some as we crossed back and forth, which was fun.

Afterwards, I made my now traditional stop at the Pit Stop Diner, which I always enjoy, to refuel before heading back home.  Along the way, I stopped at Downtown Disney, first time in about a year, and bought some pins and shirts.  Like I need more shirts.

As usual, it was a very long day, but a very fun day.  I need to sign up again for next year.  Can’t wait!

Mud Factor San Bernardino 2019

I did my first mud run of the year just over a week ago on May 11^th.  And it was a new to me mud run as well – Mud Factor.  It was over in San Bernardino, which was definitely a drive.  I was very happy to have an audio book to keep me entertained.

I must admit I was a bit disappointed by the mud run.  It was a 5K, which was the only distance they offered, but even for that, we did the same course twice.  That’s right, they didn’t have enough space to set up a 5K course.  And the obstacles were a bunch of climb over stuff.  Definitely not my favorite obstacle.  They did have us going through a couple of concrete tubes big enough we could stand up inside them, and that was cool.  There was an inner tube slide down a huge hill, but the line was long and I skipped it both times.  Honestly, it looked like it would probably freak me out more than it would be fun, and I was trying to get to some professional ultimate Frisbee games.

And then, they didn’t have anywhere for us to change afterwards.  Yes, we could get cleaned up, but no changing tents.  Seriously, that’s a minimum requirement.

This is on top of making us buy a shirt if we wanted one.  Yes, I did buy a shirt since it was a new to me mud run, something I wasn’t planning to do if I did it again.

Okay, yes, I would consider doing another Mud Factor mud run, but definitely not at that location.  It would have to be much closer and cheap (I did get a good deal when I signed up).  But this certainly isn’t one I’m going to go out of my way to do again.

What makes me nervous is that I am signed up for a second mud run in the same location in July.  Fortunately, it is a different company, so hopefully it will be better.  In the meantime, I’ve got Camp Pendleton and Irvine Lake on back to back weekends in June again.  Looking forward to them as always.

Gladiator Rock N Run 2018

I realized a couple weeks ago that I never posted about the Gladiator Rock N Run this year.  It was the last weekend of August, so it's been several weeks already.

This is the run I do every year at the Rose Bowl, so there isn't much mud.  In fact, they are pretty much just doing one small area of mud these days.  They do have ice water at another point, but that's about it.  Yet the mud is still enough for me to use the shower.

I did the 10K again this year, which is always fun.  I love running up to the dam and under the 210.  There is just something fun about all of that.

It starts out running up and down the stairs in the Rose Bowl.  Since I've been working in office buildings with several levels and I've been taking the stairs, my legs were in better shape for this part then normal.

On the other hand, they had us doing push ups or planks in weeds with thorns.  I skip that part.

Even with that, which was disappointing, I still had fun.  Sadly, this is my last mud run of the year.  Already signed up for Camp Pendleton and Irvine Lake next year, so I’m looking forward to them.

Up, Down and Dirty for a Cure

I did a last minute mud run this weekend.  Okay, so I had heard about it a couple weeks ago, but I didn’t sign up until this last Thursday.  I just couldn’t resist signing up when I heard about it since it was raising funds for the American Cancer Society.  Obviously, that is very near and dear to me now.

The mud run was over in the Riverside area, and their latest wave was earlier than I normally like when driving that distance, but I went.

It was okay.  There is no way it was the 5K distance they promised me since I was done, cleaned up, and changed in an hour.  Okay, so there was hardly anyone there, which made it easier, but still, I don’t feel like I would have finished that quickly.

Then again, there weren’t a ton of obstacles, which usually slow me down.  And what they had wasn’t that challenging.  There were really only three muddy spots, and they were more liquid than thick mud.

However, I know if I were to ever organize a mud run, it would wind up looking at this, so I can’t complain too loudly.

The best part of the trip was getting to have lunch with Julie, one of my Trixie friends who lives in the area.  I haven’t seen her for a while, so it was fun to chat.  We probably could have talked for longer, but I wanted to get home.  It was about a two hour drives back, and it was Hallmark’s ornament premier, and I wanted to go spend some money and get home to rest.

I got an e-mail today that they are working on doing it again next year.  I’m not sure if I will be back or not.  It will depend on many other things.  I wouldn’t rule it out, but I also wouldn’t set my calendar around it.

Irvine Lake Mud Run 2018

Yep, back to back mud run weekends in June.  Saturday I was down at Irvine Lake for their mud run this year.  They were proudly talking about it being the tenth anniversary.  Sadly, I missed the first one, so I’ve only been going there for nine years.

The weather was cool.  Not so cold that I was cold before or after my shower at the end, which is wonderful, but much cooler than it was the week before at Camp Pendleton.  Usually, it’s the reverse.

The crowds were once again smaller than they used to be.  But that meant the cleanup time at the shower was easier since I didn’t have to wait as long.  And it meant I had less of a walk to and from my car, which was a blessing since the people who were supposed to run the bag check never showed up, so I had to stash my stuff in the car.  I was not happy about that at all, believe me.

But the run itself?  Fun as always.  I love the mud slide, which I went down twice.  They don’t have quite as many mud pits as they used to have, but they have plenty to get us good and muddy.  And the setting is beautiful even if the lake has gone down due to the drought.

Afterwards, I went to hang out with some family friends.  I actually took some back roads to get there, and they were only 20 minutes away.  We grabbed lunch and then watched a couple of movies.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with them.

Camp Pendleton Mud Run 2018

This past Saturday was the Camp Pendleton Mud Run for 2018.  It was a blast!

The weather was warm.  I really can’t believe it was only upper 70’s because it felt hotter than that.  Yes, I was running, but even just from walking beforehand, I was very hot.  Still, it was better than last year when I froze the entire time I was waiting to start.

The course itself was pretty much the same as always.  They did add a couple of new things that prove I’m not good at hitting targets, at least on the first try.  We were supposed to through fake grenades in a box, but I came up short.  And I missed at the targets they set up in combat town.  Oh well.

My left hamstring has been bothering me some off and on for the past few months, so I took it fairly easy.  I walked more than I might have, for example, especially since my desk chair at work is giving me fits.  I didn’t want to push it and wind up injured.  Still, I finished in roughly 1 hour 45 minutes, which beat my time last year and is fairly average for me.  I’m quite happy with that.

And, honestly, I’m thrilled I was able to do it at all.  I had signed up before I got my cancer diagnosis, and I spent a couple of months thinking I wouldn’t get to do it at all.  When they confirmed I had stage one, I immediately put this back on my calendar.  I didn’t feel I was as trained as I wanted to be, but I guess I was wrong about that.

This was year nine in a row.  They’ve already announced that next year it is on June 8, and registration is open.  I need to jump on that to get the lowest price.  I am going for 10 years in a row.

Insane Inflatable 5K – 2017

This last weekend was my last run of the year.  Okay, last paid for run; I still plan to run a couple of times a week around my condo.  It was the Insane Inflatable 5K, which was being held in Pasadena.

It was actually on the grounds of a country club.  I could tell that we were running on what used to be part of a course, but it didn’t look like it currently was in use.  It certainly wasn’t in use that day.  I suspect the course was actually 2.5 miles, but I have no way of clocking it.

As the name suggests, there was no mud or water.  Instead, it was made up of inflatable obstacles.  And it was a blast!  There were about 10 of them over the course.  It was pretty much climb up and slide down.  Sometimes, we had to climb through or go around something.  It was different, and a lot of fun.

I do think it could have been a little better thought out.  There were so signs pointing to the parking, which was about a quarter of a mile away from the start of the course.  I had no problem with the added walk (great warm up and cool down), but signs to let me know I was looking in the right place would have helped.  On the other hand, parking was free, which was wonderful.

The course was laid out with a series of yellow cones, but just on one side.  As long as you keep the cones to your left, you were okay.  It mostly worked, but it wasn’t the best way to lay out a course.  A couple of times while getting off an obstacle, it wasn’t obvious where to go next.

It seemed like a lot of people were walking this one, and there were some young kids on it.  I was one of the first to finish in my wave, which never ever happens.  And everyone was spread out, which is part of why marking both sides of the course would have been nice.

Still, it was a very fun run and I’d certainly sign up to do it again.

Survivor Mud Run 2017

Back in September, I did my last mud run of the year.  And possibly my last Survivor Mud Run.

For the second year in a row, this mud run has consisted of just mud pits.  Lots and lots of mud pits.  Now, don’t misunderstand, I do mud runs to get muddy.  Hello!  Otherwise, I’d just do regular runs.  However, I also enjoy the other obstacles.  And this one had some fun other obstacles.  I get why we can’t splash down into the lake any more, but we don’t have the web of cords to climb through or the tube to crawl through into the deep mud pit.

It’s very disappointing.  I get that digging mud pits and filling them with water is a lot of work, especially with the drought we’ve been having.  But you’d have less of that to do if there were fewer mud pits.  As much as climbing over things messes with my fear of heights even that is better than mud pit after mud pit after mud pit.

Last year, it was the same way, and I chalked it up to a fluke.  But two years in a row, and it makes me think this is the new normal.

If it were a local race, I’d probably still do it.  After all, I haven’t missed one since they started.  But with this being a 2 plus hour drive (depending on traffic) away, that’s a lot of time and gas for something that is disappointing.

Who knows.  I may change my mind next year.  But for now, I’m still leaning toward skipping it next year.

Gladiator Rock n Run 2017

This last weekend was the Gladiator Rock n Run at the Rose Bowl.  It was the same weekend it was last year, but unlike last year, which was cold and cloudy all morning, this one was warm going toward hot.  I did the 7:30 wave again so I could do the 10K, and I was sweating almost the entire way.  Still, it wasn’t as hot as it would get even yesterday, when it hit 110 here in town.  Over there, I think it was a little cooler, but still, that’s hot!

The bad part about doing the 7:30 wave is having to get up and be there in time.  I am so not a morning person.

The good part about doing the 7:30 wave is that I was home by 11 AM.  Not that I did much with the rest of my day but veg.  I did get my clothes from the mud run washed, but that was about the only productive thing I did.

The run itself?  I thought I was doing well by training for some stairs.  I didn’t train nearly enough.  And running into the Rose Bowl and going up and down the stairs 3 times is one of the first things we do.  I was so sore for the rest of the run that I had to walk parts.  My legs just couldn’t run.  And I skipped the cargo climb again.  I probably would have gone for it if they only had one cargo climb, but my legs were shaking pretty badly and they had two back to back.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to do both of them safely.

I also really need to work on my upper body.  It is embarrassingly how little upper body strength I have these days.  I can run the distance, but I can’t do anything else.

All this aside, yes I had fun.  The 10K part of the course is really cool, and I enjoyed that.  It’s a fun challenge.  I just need to prepare more for it.

And that includes stairs.  Between the mud run Saturday and then playing ultimate yesterday, I am so sore!  I’m getting better as the day goes along, but it might make bowling very interesting tomorrow night.

Liquid Run 2017

Last year, I heard about something new, the Liquid Run.  But it was scheduled for the same weekend that I did the Irvine Lake Mud Run last year, and I was already signed up for that one.  When they announced the dates this year, and it was the weekend after the Irvine Lake Mud Run, I signed up.

So June 24th, I drove down to Newport Beach to try something new.

This isn’t like the runs I normally do.  The course was only a quarter mile, and it was all on floating platforms in a little cove.  There were things for us to climb over and go around and even slide down.  It looked like fun.

However, the experience wasn’t nearly as fun as I wanted it to be.  While there didn’t appear to be crowds early, they were backed up by the time I went to run it, so I started late.  Not that it helped.  For the first third of the course, we were stuck in a traffic jam and just barely inching forward.  Things did get better after that, fortunately.  I might have baled if it didn’t get better.

Even when we started to get moving, I didn’t have that much fun with it.  I mentioned the floating platforms, right?  The made standing very difficult, especially if you have no sense of balance like I do.  Plus the platforms were slippery when wet.  And I had a hard time getting over some of the obstacles since I couldn’t push off since my feet were slipping.

I wound up being out there much longer than I thought I would be.  The lockers I had to rent from were looking to move on by that time, but they waited, fortunately.  And I was meeting Joy for lunch, and I was much later than I told her I would be.

So, I won’t be signing up for this one again.  Other people seemed to really enjoy it, but it wasn’t my thing.  I don’t regret it, however, since I wanted to try it out and see what I thought.

Irvine Lake Summer of Mud 2017

Okay, back to June.  On June 17th, I did the Irvine Lake Mud Run, my second of three runs in a row that month.

Considering how poorly I’d done the Saturday before at Camp Pendleton, I was concerned about how this one would go.  I was still getting over being sick, although I was definitely on the mend.  I hadn’t been running much in between, however.

But this is a shorter course, and I was able to run most of it no problem.

There weren’t many surprises on the course this year, but that’s okay.  It’s still one of my favorites thanks to the mud slide.  And the lines were so short when I got there I may have done it twice this year.  About the only crowd was the crowd for the shower at the end, but that’s a minor issue.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to hang out with any Irwins or Smiths afterward since they were all busy that day.  It meant I drove down and back and just did the run.  On the other hand, I wasn’t stressing over anyone waiting for me, which was very nice.

At one point while I was running, I heard someone in a golf cart shout out “Is that THE Mark Baker?”  From a later comment on Facebook, I confirmed it was the guy who runs this particular mud run.  Hadn’t interacted with him much on Facebook recently, so I’m surprised he still recognized me.  Definitely put a smile on my face.