I did not start this week intending to do this race but glad that I did. It is not far from home, not too expensive and looked like fun which, for the most part, it was.
Muddy Dash has many races around the country, thirty four if you believe the back of my shirt. This makes them a sizable player in my opinion.
The race is sort of an à la carte situation. Registration was free but anything else was a fee. Want the shirt and swag? Fee. Check your bag? Fee. Park your car? Fee. Pickup your bib on race day (not the night before)? Fee. That being said it was still less than 75 to do a 5K(ish). OCR.
The race is held on the grounds of a Motorsports track so it is very flat. The obstacles were not particularly challenging and, for the most part stuck w the let’s get muddy theme. It was a flat, short, not overly exciting race.
This is a beginners race similar in nature to what Rugged Maniac (RIP) was (without the inflatables). This is good because there are not many beginner portals into OCR and this helps to fill that gap!
Muddy Dash could do several things better to make this a better event overall.
The festival are was huge, too big in fact for what was there. Downsize the open field area or maybe bring in organizations to fill it.
It took me a full five minutes to find the single trashcan in the festival area. Seriously. The sport tries to make sure folks don’t make a mess but there wasn’t a lot of choice here.
The rinse off station line was ridiculously long, at least half an hour but more like forty five minutes. I didn’t hang around to figure it out.
There were long stretches where additional obstacles would have fit.
A single water station is pushing it. I know it is only a 5K but it was 80+ degrees and 80+ percent humidity.
Backup at obstacles would indicate more lanes should be created.
I know that may come off as being negative but fix these things and it would elevate the overall level of the race significantly. The current level might be in the neighborhood of 3/5 stars.
Would I do this race again? Personally no, a bit too basic even for this old guy.
Would I bring a group a newbies to this race as a way to get them started in OCR? ABSOLUTELY!
