Surviving Mud Runs

Well I’ve done it, I’ve registered to do the Spartan Beast and the official date for it will be April 29, 2017! Since I have a lot of experience,  I’ll share my training and preparation tips for it.

This particular mud run has been on my mind for quite awhile ever since I did the Super a few years back which challenged me like nothing else and this one will be even more difficult that one! 

With 5 mud runs that I’ve already completed, 2 of which were Spartan Races, I have the ample information necessary to prepare a strong training regiment for it.

So here is what I am personally doing to become “battle” ready:

Do note that your specific training can totally be different than mine. For this particular race, the 3 things I’ve noticed which are absolutely essential are great cardio, being able to withstand long hikes, especially on your legs and carrying heavy weights. 

If you can train your body to be resilient to these 3 challenges, you will be ready for this event. Furthermore, read this article which explains the 10 toughest challenges on this even you need to be ready for and exactly how to prepare for it. If you can do those things with relative ease, you will be prepared for at least 90% of the event.

I’ve just mixed it up my training this time around because circumstances in life kind of pushed me to do the things I’m doing, so I’m making the best of it and helping it prepare me for the Beast.

How I’m getting ready:

1) I am doing at least 10 hours of martial arts training weekly.

I typically fill in those 10 hours on 3 days of hard training and I study several different arts that I believe will be of great help to me once the event day comes.

I actually attribute most of my ability to beat these mud runs to the training I’ve been through in martial arts, but here’s some of the specific classes I’m doing:

Boxing: Great cardio work. 

Kickboxing: Even tougher cardio work. I have a personal training who is a champion kick boxer who puts me through some insane ordeals over a period of 1 hour where I literally feel like I want to throw up sometimes, but this intensity is both mentally and physically useful on the event. When I did the Super, having a strong mental game was necessary to push through the insane length of that event.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: One art I was not doing in the previous mud runs I’ve done is this one and honestly, it’s been a mistake because a lot of the training in this art deals with exercises that involve you using your body weight to train you. 

We wear gi’s and literally practice grabbing other people’s gi collars to control them as well as drag them. This type of body weight exercise mixed in with awesome grip strength training (here’s some more exercises for grip) are making my body a lot more resilient and the grip strength I’ve attained will help me climb ropes, walls and other vertical obstacles. 

If you aren’t already doing something like this, I would strongly recommend you take a martial arts class. There’s no need to get into fights, just do things like pad work, bag hitting, and put yourself in a tiring regiment (or have a coach train you if possible). 

2) I’m walking up the stairs whenever possible.

I technically live on the 7th floor of my building and whenever I am not too tired, I make sure to try and walk up the stairs as often as possible. If I can do 2-3 walk ups, that equals to 14-21 stories climbed. 

The first month I started doing this, I would run out of air and my leg muscles would stiffen and that’s because I sprinted all the way before, but as I kept repeating this regiment, I noticed my resilience to climb the stairs dramatically improved and I found myself sprinting to the top in about 30 seconds, not even realizing I’d already reached my floor many times!

One of the absolute BANES of the Spartan Race is the climb up the mountains they have you do.

In fact, I swear, sometimes I think of the whole event as a scam because so much of it is hiking that you can do yourself, but never the less, it was the single biggest problem I had when I did the event back and my quads were absolutely shot afterwards.

No amount of martial arts training would help me with this, I literally needed to train my quads and knees to hike for long period of time and distances and since I live in the city, and in a building, what better way to do that than climb the stairs? 

Now more than ever, I feel confident in the strength my knees and quads have gained from doing something as simple as walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator and I know it will come in handy event day! 

3) I purchased a bicycle and try to ride it to places I’d normally take a car, bus or train to:

It literally happened yesterday, I purchased a nearly $700 bicycle.

Yeah it’s a lot, but considering how much money I’d save on gas, it’ll end up being a smart decision for my health and wallet! 

But as for it’s uses, well obviously, riding anywhere is already exercise, but the way I look at it is that for things I’d normally take buses, trains and my car to, that would be under 10 miles away, I’ll just bike there whenever the weather makes it possible.

My grandfather lives a mile away from me. I used to take a car or train there, no more, now it’s only a bicycle, it takes me 15 minutes to get there and best of all, since this is a topic on mud runs, bicycle riding is great for the knees and quads, an additional supplemental exercise that will help me climb the stairs better and on the event get up the mountain faster!

If you have a bicycle, use it!

4) I added a strength training regiment to the list.

Carrying weights is a big thing in the Spartan Race and while I hate it, it is necessary to be ready for it. When I go to training, I typically carry about 20-30 pounds of weight on me which is clothing, gear, water and other things. 

Carrying that on me for a long period of time helps my body get used to the weight.

In addition, in my martial arts school, one of my lessons involves heavy lifting of barbells, dumbbells, pull ups, and working on my core, all essentials to helping me successfully carry the heavy sadistic props they make you carry on the Spartan Race (sandbags, gravel, tree logs).

I have also started carrying my bicycle up to the 7th floor of my building too.

5) Training on playgrounds (at night so people won’t laugh at me if I fall)!

I did this in preparation for Tough Mudder last year and only had about 2-3 weeks to get ready. What I did was I’d visit a playground when it was empty and basically just go through the monkey bars and other poles to train my grip and resilience in hanging in the air.

I did this about 2-3 times a week, the session only took me about 30 minutes and I was done. 

You can literally go wild with this idea and do things like American Ninja Warrior type stuff on the playground where you make up your own obstacle list and have to pass through it.

One thing I’ve done is prepare a course on the playground where I have to only be in the air hanging on no matter what, without dropping once until I make it to a point B I’ve targeted which could be a bar or whatever other prop.

Will this be enough? 

I honestly feel far better prepared for this event than I’ve ever been for any previous one I’ve done. Although I’ve been able to pass through ever single course I’ve done so far, the hardest challenge thus far was the Spartan Race and this one will be the longest one yet.

And even on that race, my cardio was fine, but I lacked in the 2 other essential qualifications I listed above: Strength and having strong quads to hike for a long time and this time around, I’ve focused a lot of my training on that. 

What I do is obviously a lot, but it’s necessary if I’m to beat this event and do it in a good time. Like I said, read the 10 challenges you need to be ready for and you’ll be pretty much set for this event as well.

For me personally, it just works out that my weekly training just happens to have exercises that benefit me in my training for this event. Once I finish the Beast, I will let everyone know if what I did to prepare was enough or not!

And of course, the same gear I took on my last mud run will be coming with me again 🙂

Until then, bring it on Spartan Beast, bring it on!

If anyone has done the Beast, I would love to know how it was! 

Update: Finished the event in excellent condition, the preparation was mostly a success!

For the longevity part of this race (here are details), I was more than ready and finished with more than enough energy to spare. Where I struggled was on some of the obstacles that involved having strong grip.

There were at least 2-3 that were like monkey bars that I could have done better on, but this is a minor part of the event that pales in comparison to the MAIN difficulty I had to go through which was the hiking and having strong resilience and my prep work for that was more than optimal! 

I’m glad that hardest part (the bane) of the Spartan Beast which was the long hiking was completed with ease. Those stair climbing exercises really paid off!

Finally it’s happened. I have completed one of the most challenging mud runs in the world: Tough Mudder.

For months I was waiting to compete in this course and after finally doing it, I am ready to fully review it for you guys and let you know how to beat it.

Many of the obstacles took me by surprise, mainly at how intelligently they were designed, with their purpose not really to test your strength, but your ability to work with friends and other Tough Mudders to complete them.

I had previously written on the many obstacles people would face on Tough Mudder here, and before I partook in this event, I had studied them and had a strategy planned. Well when the time came, about half the strategies worked while some required that I improvise. 

7 things I totally got right for this race:

1. I definitely wore the RIGHT shoes.

My recommended shoe model was the Salomon Speed Cross 3. It still is.

2. Wearing a lot of compression clothing was also the right call.

It helped keep me warm and protected me from anything that could have been inside the mud as well as the electrical wires as even when I got zapped, it didn’t hurt as much if it capped my skin. Everything I had suggested people wear to these events carried me through this race.

3. I was pretty prepared physically!

Despite not finishing some obstacles that I’ll go over, it wasn’t because of a lack of strength but because I didn’t have the right technique, a mistake I’ll fix the next time I do Tough Mudder, but overall the workouts I had planned for this race ended up helping me a lot. 

My cardio was definitely more than enough and the only area I lacked was just doing more squats and leg workouts. I had also taken several cold showers before the race. On the day of it, the weather was cloudy with a little drizzle happening throughout the day and it was between 50-60 degrees. 

4. I ate the right things before the race happened.

I had 5 cooked eggs and ate a vegetable mix of spinach, arugula and other plants. I drank some tea also. Prior to the race, I had also drank some natural ginger tea I had made. This was to ensure my immune system was strong throughout the race.

On the race, we were fortunate to have nearly each mile include not just a drink of water (and even a sports drink!), but in some cases foods such as bananas and pieces of energy bars. 

5. I used the right GoPro.

Specifically the GoPro Hero 4 Black. Most of the pictures you’ll see here were taken by it. Also get yourself a chest and head strap if you want to take it with you, I wore both!

6. I had an awesome team. 

One thing that is synonymous with Tough Mudder is team work as I would learn. I didn’t just have 3 other amazing people with me, but I was also humbled at how great the other participants were in helping everyone out. It wasn’t even a matter of favor, it was just the thing everyone was happy to do.

No one got turned down when they needed help and every time you reached out, a hand was always there to help you:

And let me say that obstacle is called Everest and it was one of the many fun ones I’ve tried.

7. I made the right choice in picking this event. 

Tough Mudder was one of the final hard races I had yet to try until this past Saturday. It gave me a good idea of how it compared to the other hard and easy races I’ve done before and now I can compare it to it’s most common competitor: The Spartan Race. 

And I wrote a comparison between the Spartan Race and Tough Mudder here.

What I got wrong about this race and what adjustments I will make and recommend to you:

Again here is the list of obstacles and details. The only problems we had were on the actual obstacles, so if you get confused by them here, the list will clear up what they look like.

1. I though one of the obstacles, the pyramid would be easy...

Without a doubt, this was THE most technical obstacle in the race because you literally had to use most if not your entire team (or someone else’s team members) to help you get through it. Alone, it was impossible unless you had a rope, so here’s how we learned to do it:

The key to the pyramid obstacle is to have at least 4 people do it. Let’s imagine each person is labeled from 1-4. 

• Persona 1 lays on their back on the pyramid. Person 2 climbs on top of them (person 1 needs to extend their knees and provide their shoulders for person 2 to step on). 

• Then person 3 needs to get on top of both persons 1 and 2 and get on top of person 2’s shoulders. 

• Then the last person (4) needs to climb on top of all these people, but this is where the trick to beating the pyramid is most important:

• Person 4 will likely be able to reach the top of the pyramid by then, however, they shouldn’t climb over and finish the obstacle because then the problem is you still have at least 3 other team members who are stuck.

• Instead, to beat the pyramid obstacle, do this: Person 4 who is at the peak of the obstacle has to hold on to the top (Have other people at the top hold you as well for extra grip). Then person 1, the one at the bottom, will climb on top of person 2 and 3, then finally 4 to reach and pass the obstacle.

• After that, the next person at the bottom, now person 2, climbs over person 3 and then 4.

• Then person 3 climbs over 4 and at the final stage, person 4 climbs over, completing the obstacle.

• Should you have more than 4 people, just have the 5th person and anyone after that just climb over the 4 original people laid out on the pyramid, when there’s only the original 4 left, just repeat the same climb upward. 

2. The tube obstacle was not scary at all. 

What is the tube? Well it’s a small dark tube you have to climb through. Several Tough Mudder events had different variations of this. In some, you had half of it filled with water, in others you had to climb up it, sometimes down, but in the 2016 one I did, you had to sit head first into the tube and use a rope to slide down it. 

Now what was I scared of? Well I was a little bit claustrophobic prior to it, but what I got wrong was how much space there actually was inside this tube when I got in.

3. I should have practiced swinging from one monkey bar to another. 

Another constantly changing obstacle is the one where you have to climb up a gradually increasing in height monkey bar up and then down. But they changed it this year and had you climb it, then swing or reach to grab a movable pole, then use that pole to grab onto a decreasing in height pole and scale it down.

While I practiced climbing monkey bars a lot and really developed a lot of resilience, I underestimated just how slippery the transition from one pole to the other would be and that’s where I slipped and fell into the water. 

As a result, what I recommend practicing when you are good at monkey bars and have excellent grip is to still scale the monkey bars wherever you practice them, but learn to skip a bar and/or swing and let go both arms to grab onto the other (usually one holds onto the next one you grab).

This will help your grip get stronger and help your mind get over the fear of grabbing it in the race. 

4. Mud mile could have been easier if I just did “this”.

So basically mud mile was 3 different variations of crawling, climbing and walking over piles of mud. The first one was us jumping through trenches, the second part was crawling through very deep mud and the third was just walking over puddles.

Now the second part, the deep mud area was much more difficult if you tried to step slowly through it. I almost guarantee you’d lose your shoes there if you tried that. The way they made it was that you had to crawl to get over it, BUT someone told my uncle, and then he told me that if you run quickly through on your tippi toes, that would get you over it fast.

5. My Gopro rocked, but I should have taken a few more of “these”.

Apparently lots of people lose their GoPros in Tough Mudder and I think I know one of the reasons why…

One of the ways to attach your GoPro either to your head or chest is to use a special strap, BUT the strap comes with a holder for the camera which you tie in place with a special screw. I had 2 of those screws with me on the race, one for the head and chest and I lost them both because as I went through the course, I would unscrew the camera to check things and each time, there would be more mud piling in the creases, which weakened the hold of the screw.

Eventually I ended up losing BOTH of them and had to hold the camera or give it to someone else to record, otherwise, I’d risk losing it. So the tip is to take at least 5 or more of these screws with you and when possible, WASH the area where you put the screw to remove any mud to improve the hold it will have. These screws are cheap, but they protect an expensive investment!

6. When going on the “King of Swings”…

You can actually reach the bell if you stretch out with one hand before letting go of the pole.

Most people on this obstacle let the momentum of their swing launch them towards the bell. Unfortunately, I tried this and I failed at hitting the bell.

However, one of our teammates tried a different strategy, swung himself on the pole, and just at the moment when the pole reached it’s final point before swinging back, reached out with one hand and whacked the bell successfully, then let go and fell into the water.

So apparently there is enough distance between the end of the pole at it’s final point before it swings back and the bell for you to reach it. 

CAUTION:

Be careful NOT to swing back and let go, otherwise you can crash into the area where people are standing on. I saw a few people do this and almost break their necks. Swing forward and if you’re unsure, at least let go when going forward rather than going back.

Should you freak out, start to swing back, don’t let go then, wait until the momentum carries you back forward before letting go!

7. Work your leg muscles, otherwise they’ll hurt like mine do now.

I really though I’d learned my lesson after the Spartan Race so I figured I’d have a similar problem in Tough Mudder, the problem being so many uphill climbs that it would cause my legs to hurt the next day, a lot.

So I did a lot of squats, walked up a lot of stairs instead of taking elevators and hoped it would be enough. Well, I should have done more!

While my legs don’t hurt now as much as they did after the Spartan Race, they still hurt a ton. Luckily I learned that a foam roller would help shorten the pain length so if you also have muscle sores particularly in the legs, the foam roller will be your best friend…

Overall, how did Tough Mudder 2016 rank with the other races I’ve done?

It was a fantastic race. The obstacles like I said were really well designed in many areas and again, I can’t stress how much I loved the team element. 

If you enjoy participating with other people in fun events like these and you’re in shape, do Tough Mudder. Do it carefully, slowly and have a great time!

Next up, my team and I will be doing the Spartan BEAST, a 12 mile race. By the way, Tough Mudder was 10 miles for us.

Update: The Spartan Beast was done!

Another update: In 2017, I completed another Tough Mudder (my second one). And in that one, I saw different obstacles and even had a major injury. But I still loved that race, though not as much as the first one I tried here.

I got lucky with picking out knee pads for my first mud run because the same ones I will recommend here have been used over and over by me.

Having had existing knee problems before I entered my first mud run, I was worried about getting them injured and it was then that I purchased a pair of pads to protect me on the race. 

While I don’t think that there is actually a specific type of knee pad that’s best for mud runs, the ones I had were more than fine and frankly, I think they’re perfect. Although they have taken tons of damage in the several years I’ve had them and to add to that, I haven’t taken good care of them, they are still used today and as I will be entering my 5th mud run in October, they will be coming with me yet again.

So what is this brand I’ve used? They are called the Mizuno T10 Plus Knee pad. 

How did I hear about them? I didn’t, I just went to a Modells (like a Sports Authority store), saw what was on the shelf and purchased these without any prior experience. Here’s a picture of me on the right wearing them, post a Spartan Race I did.

It’s not the biggest picture I have of them and they look very dirty because this was right after we finished, but they didn’t rip and felt great to have on.

Although I purchased them at a local store, you can get the same Mizuno pads I use here.

How it felt to wear them on my races. 7 instant benefits:

1. It made bending down a lot less painful. Being that there is a lot of bending, jumping, falling, crawling and explosive movements done in mud runs, you can be rest assured that your knees are going to get tested and being that mine were already in pain prior to the race, wearing these pads made it a lot less painful.

2. There’s something about the fabric that made it absorb the water/mud and it actually gave me extra protection. From what I know about the material, it combines cotton, spandex and polyester. Being that there was a lot of dirt and water on all these races, these pads were constantly soaking. 

However, they were also absorbing and retaining some of that moisture too and it turned out to be very helpful for extra protection because in addition to the existing padding that’s on them, the moisture they absorbed felt like an extra protective layer was added.

Basically, the existing protection I had before I started each race while already being good (and clean), felt even more covered during the race (when it was already mixed in with the water and dirt).

You would think that the more liquids it absorbs, the worse and less mobile you’ll get, but this will not impact your running at all. Now it doesn’t completely absorb every liquid it comes in contact with, so you don’t have to worry about them getting too heavy. In fact, by the time you are well into your race, they are going to feel like a part of your body. 

3. The basic protection you get from this feels comfortable and keeps you mobile. There is protection on the front and sides of this pad. I’ve ran into walls and banged my knees a few times against them as well as trees, rocks and when I slipped and hit the ground. With these things on, the impact was felt, but it didn’t hurt my knees at all. 

4. It basically cushions any area you run into and protects from things like rocks. Having crawled through the pits of many mud runs, a lot of them tend to have rocks sticking out so it would have made for a terrible test on my knees had it not been for the protection I had.

Ironically, despite them being classified for volleyball, they have been used for a lot more than just that sport: 

5. I’ve used them for the following activities as well: Basketball, strength training workouts, soccer, MMA, and I also use them when I go hiking so as you can see, the Mizuno pads have a lot of uses beyond just being used for volleyball. 

And like I said, in addition to all of that, I’ve already crossed 4 different mud runs with the same pair and still put them through ordeals in other places where I train.

6. Basically, this all adds up to an incredible amount of durability these things have which is also another major bonus of having them. And they are also easy to clean up after you’ve used them. Ironically, if you just leave them outside, they’ll dry up fast, but I do always recommend you throw them into the washer after they do. 

I’m not really sure why they are classified under just volleyball protection gear because their uses go beyond just having them for that sport.

7. It’s difficult to tear them. Despite dragging them a lot through dirt and other areas, the friction didn’t really do much damage to them. This just adds to that durability. Of course I do not recommend that you go around and literally try sliding on rough areas with these.

You should be trying to keep them useful for as long as possible so unless you have no choice but to drag them through dirt, don’t. 

Should you get 1 pair or more? 

They are pretty cheap but I would recommend having an extra pair of them in case you overuse them or something happens to your original ones. 1 pair is under $20 and considering how long they can be used, keeping another 1 is a good investment. You may find that bringing an extra pair on race day helps because often times I have found fellow teammates have neglected to bring them. 

Anyway, for these races, I strongly recommend using the Mizuno brand I used (get them). 

Will they provide your knees with full protection from any challenge on a mud run? Well for the most part yes, but it shouldn’t encourage you to be reckless on the course and put your knees through ordeals they don’t have to go through. 

Obviously you should treat wearing this as though you aren’t actually wearing them, to make sure you run through the course safer and prevent injuries like these from occurring. 

Although most mud runs tend to be alike, there are certain races which add their own flavor to it. With the Civilian Military Combine, also known as CMC, it’s a bit different.

The flavor is that they first have you go through a difficult strength “test” they call “The Pit” before starting the actual course. What is involved in this Pit and what else do you have to do to complete the CMC? Let’s examine this mud run to see if you can take it on:

Basic info on the Civilian Military Combine:

The obstacle course is about 5 miles long. No other version of it is available (For example, events like Tough Mudder have 4 different course choices for adults).

Most of the obstacles are said to resemble military type challenges but for the most part, if you’ve done a regular mud run, you’ll see pretty similar challenges here too. This race is not as mainstream as other races, but it is challenging and you can find events in places like NY state, including Brooklyn, Miami and Arizona. 

Now prior to the 4+ mile course starting, every person who participates must go through the Pit first.

Let’s go over “The Pit”:

You enter an enclosed area with barbells, kettlebells and other workout props. There is a space for each participant to stand in with each of these tools.

Your goal inside The Pit is to complete a series of exercises as many times as you can in 5 minutes. Here are examples of the types of exercises you’ll find:

Kettlebell swings, burpees (a common thing in the Spartan Race by the way), and with barbells, you’ll be squatting and doing things like the overhead press. There are also exercises with lunges and jumping. 

Now you can pick a level for which you can do these exercises and in some, there will omitted ones, but there is an order to which you do them and after you complete 1 set of these exercises, you go right back to doing them over again until your 5 minutes are up. This is actually similar to the types of things you see going on in Crossfit games. 

Tips for beating the Pit:

• Although the focus is on maximum reps, I would recommend doing it the safe way, picking a level out of the 3 available that correlates to your fitness level. 

• Make sure to study up on each exercise before you enter this area by hitting the gym long before and practicing the forms needed for each exercise or asking a personal trainer to assist you in helping you. Each exercise, especially those that deal with swings or lifting require excellent form, not just for the best results, but for safety. Make sure you practice and get used to doing them the right way before the race.

• While speed is emphasized in this area, I do recommend you make sure to take your time with each exercise you do. Generally the faster you try to complete an exercise, the worse your form will be and the more likely it will be that you can get hurt. Forget competing against the others or the clock. Do the maximum amount of reps you can, but not at the expense of form.

After you finish that area, then comes the actual race:

The test of the Pit is designed to really get you tired before you even start the obstacle course. If you’ve ever done any kind of strength training or lifting prior to cardio workouts, you know how difficult it can get and how tired your muscles are.

This is also going to happen when you begin the CMC course which makes that focus on proper form in the Pit that much more important. The less injured and more correctly you complete the challenges in there, the better of you will be for the next part of the race.

What kinds of obstacles are in the Civilian Military Combine?

Besides basic things such as hopping through various sized walls, there’s also climbing up poles and walking/pulling on ropes to get you across different points. If you have ever done BattleFrog or the Spartan Race, then you’ll have no problems here. But since Battlefrog isn’t around anymore, if you’re interested in something else similar to CMC, I’d say Bone Frog is an option, and it’s more difficult.

And if you though the strength training ended with the Pit, you would be wrong as there are a few obstacles on the course  where you will have to carry weights. 

What is the best way to prepare for CMC?

Ideally you’ll want to have to at least 1 or 2 mud runs completed before trying this out. But if CMC is your first introduction to mud running then you’ll want to do 2 things:

• Study the exercises they require you do in the Pit and practice them a lot.
• Do the following workouts that will help you on the course itself.

How difficult is the race overall?

The race itself isn’t that hard if you’ve already completed something as difficult as a Spartan Race and I would say that is harder, but what can really make this event difficult is that Pit element they put you through before the race.

Most mud runs have you start fresh and full of energy so you don’t get tired until well into the race, but in here, you’ll get tired before the race even starts which is why if you practice getting used to the workouts inside the preliminary stage of this race, then do things like long distance jogging or the other helpful workouts above, you’ll be able to complete this race much easier.

As long as you don’t go crazy inside The Pit and try to get as many reps done as possible, you’ll be better fit for the next stage. During workouts, lots of people like to prioritize speed over their form and like I said before, this leads to injuries and on a race as important as CMC, you want to be as loose and healthy as possible. The last thing you’d want is to start the race limping or pulling a muscle, then it would just be foolish to go further.

Overall, this event is very run and challenging! 

For any mud run you do, you will always get a checklist of things to bring, but that checklist is very basic and half the items they require are just things like your signed registration form.

They don’t really get into the kind of important details of what’s good to have ON the actual race, but we’ll cover that. Typically, there are 10 things which are very important to have, especially for the most difficult races. 

Here they are: Mud running gear you need to have with you:

1) The right clothing. Although this is one type of thing to have, there’s different kinds of clothes you should be wearing for mud runs and here is a list of them all.

2) Hydration pack. A hydration pack is a great tool to have to store water and essential supplies while being on the race and the next few essentials you’ll see are great to be used for storage inside this bag just in case something goes wrong and medical attention doesn’t get there in time…

3) Band aid. Although being fully clothed with athletic gear is great for skin protection, some places are always going to be exposed such as your head and probably your hands as well as feet if you’re wearing shorts and that exposure makes it likely to get cut if you slip somewhere or mishandle an obstacle. 

Not all mud runs have all the necessary first aid gear and if the event you’re on does not have band aids, it would definitely serve you and your team to keep them around. You don’t need to have a whole box of a 100, just a small box that carries about 10-20. 

4) A small bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a couple of alcohol pads. Just as the band aid was necessary to cover up cuts, these will be important to disinfect any cuts you get (would have been handy when I did MudmanX!).

Although cuts themselves won’t often happen if you wear gloves, people do slip and since many of these events are also in the woods, it’s not uncommon to crash into a tree or bushes with thorns, making cuts a constant possibility. 

Luckily both hydrogen peroxide and alcohol pads (could be a bottle) can be found in small bottles in pharmacies.

5) Snacks (recommended for longer runs). You should never carry a large snack like a sandwich for these races, but here’s a couple of helpful energy boosting foods that will help you in the more difficult runs. 

For normal 5k races, you really won’t need to eat anything because it’ll go by quickly, but it is recommended to have them for any race that is above 5k in length and difficulty.

6) A plastic bag. Keep 1 or 2 handy in case you have to put a phone or something else that is electronic or very important that cannot get wet. 

Typically you should not be carrying a phone or anything that is very expensive and has a risk of getting destroyed and if you go with people who will spectate you on race day, leave those things with them.

But if you’re going alone of the people you’re with are all participating, leave all that important stuff in your car/s or use the bag to keep them in there.

Lots of mud runs have watery/dirty areas where even when wearing a hydration pack may still pose a risk of that stuff getting in and damaging your things. In the worst case, even if it happens, that extra protection from a regular plastic bag inside a great hydration pack like a Camelbak Rogue is going to protect your most important belongings even better.

7) A camera like a GoPro. Lots of people LOVE documenting their adventures on mud runs and you’ll often see them running around with cameras on their heads. Most of the cameras I have seen them use and will personally be using in my next race is a GoPro (Mine is a Hero Black). 

While this is a very expensive accessory, it is better to have this than a smartphone to take pictures and videos on your mud run experience because they are designed for that. They also come with protective covers so you can dive into water with them and record most of the other things you’ll do.

8) Regular water. People often fill up their hydration packs with things like Gatorade or other energy drinks. It isn’t bad to carry a small bottle of this with you, but for the big bladder which can fit several liters of liquid, it is better to fill it with water.

Usually this is the best thing to drink on these races and also by only using it, it makes cleaning the bladder much easier later on than having it be sticky and more difficult to clean out. 

If you are more advanced, you can forgo the water and just drink it at a water station, which are available on every mud run I’ve done personally. And if you have a hydration pack, you can use those water stations to refill it there.

9) A buffered salt tablet. This is used if to prevent or stop cramps. Keep them for LONG races. Also another good thing is tonic water.

10) A change of clothes. Sometimes people really do forget that they’re actually going to get very dirty and most of their clothes aren’t going to be salvaged and after all that, sitting back in your clean car is the last thing you’ll want to do.

Always keep a second pair of everything handy when you finish your race (underwear, pants, shorts, shirt, jacket, socks, ect…) and keep it in your car (do NOT take it on the race). 

Tip: As long as you have a hydration pack, most of the “carry on” supplies you’ll need on the race (3-8) can all be stored there.

Just about every good hydration pack has more than enough space to carry the important things: A plastic bag, water, medical supplies, ect… 

Even if you wear clothing on the race that has pockets, I don’t recommend keeping those things there or worse holding onto them. There’s a big chance they can fall out and keeping them inside your pack is the safest way to make sure they don’t get lost or broken (or spill out). 

While good mud running clothing is going to protect you from most outside elements, having a backup in case you get hurt or thirsty is going to help you prevent worse injuries. Safely making sure both your clothing and emergency gear is in place will make you have a much safer experience when mud running.