Irvine mud run was the second one I have done. The first one was at Camp Pendelton near San Diego. So that gives you a frame of reference for my experience.
Lets start with the pre-race. I ran an early race (9am) which was definitely a good idea in terms of heat as well as parking. While there was quite a bit of parking the road leading down to the race area is actually quite long. There was a lot of volunteers directing traffic into the mulple large dirt parking lots. Lets just say when I left the 1-2 mile drive down to the parking lots was fully backed up. Word of advice… TRY TO GET THERE EARLY!!!
The sign in was painless I already had my bib so I was good, plenty of safety pins and lots of bathrooms. I ran with a group so we staged by the start line.
Next…the course. After running the Camp Pendleton race this course was definitely easier. So you start out turn a corner and you are gonna get your feet wet right off the bat running through multiple pools of water about calf deep.
You will see the usual obstacles, tires, hay bales, low walls and water pits. What I experience here was worth the price of admission. Approaching a rather steep hill I got to the top and what was waiting for me was a 100 yard sheet of plastic with water running down it and a guy that said…go for it dive head first. I haven’t been on a slip and slide since I was a kid…this thing was awesome!! Don’t go slow…just run and dive!! You fly down this thing so fast…just time it so that to turn and put your feet forward and you can transition right to the run.
Plenty of water pits that you can just launch into and not break stride…dig through them and you can fly though pretty quick. This course has the usual, crawl through tubes (watch your knees) and a large water pit at the end that you pretty much have to wade through.
Over all I enjoyed the race, its a little over 5k more on the end of 3.4 miles. If you run as a group you have to make sure you all cross as a group…and there are waiting areas before you cross.
Post race was good, lots of vendors with plenty of swag, all the free bananas and orange slices you care to eat. Bonus is there is a beer garden after the race…I didn’t visit because I don’t drink but I know the rest of my team was there.
Clearly you want to take a shower…and there is a big shower area…cavieat though your gonna be waiting. If you don’t like to wait…visit the guy with the fire hose that is ready to hose you and your buddies down…good enough till I got home.
Overall I gave the race a B (I’d do B+ if I could) because I wasn’t overly wowed, but its pretty close since it had the giant slip-and-slide.