November 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 22
Who, What, Where & how Around the Parks
S P O R TS
Down and Dirty Park Style
Mud-filled obstacle courses catch on around the country.
ast Apr i l, a st retch of
mud was so soft at the
Run A muck Mud Run at
Rock Creek Regional Park,
in Rockville, Maryland, that
runners had to kneel and crawl through
the mud lest they sink in and lose a shoe.
Racers also overcame military-style obstacles, such as inclines, balance beams,
and a slushy mud pit to make it to the finish line-where a pile of muddy sneakers
attested to the volume of mud.
These mud-filled obstacle races are
sweeping the country as a challenging
and messily fun alternative to clean-cut
road races. A handful of event groups
organize these races, which are held on
both private and public properties. Parks
& Recreation talked with park operators
around the country to learn about hosting
such muddy obstacle races.
At Rock Creek Regional Park, all responsibilities are spelled out in the race
20 Parks & Recreation N O V E M B E R
organizer's permit. RunAmuck Mud Run
came in as a self-contained event, explains park manager Doug Ludwig. The
park was already doing typical park
maintenance when RunAmuck delivered and set up obstacles, portable toilets, dumpsters, and shower units the
week before the event. During the race,
organizers paid for 10 park police officers
to be on hand, and afterwards, paid the
park's horticulture crew to reseed and
straw the mud pit area.
" The majority of the cleanup and a lot
of the grounds repair takes place afterward by their core staff as well, " Ludwig
says. " They go through the course after the event to remove signage, remove
obstacles, pick up any shoes or shirts left
behind. "
Other parks have had similar experiences with other groups. Down south,
when Spartan Race organizers approached Oleta River State Park, in North
2 0 1 1 w w w . N R P A . O R G
Miami, Florida-the largest urban park
in Florida-park manager Barry Stevens did due diligence researching the
race online and via phone calls before
he agreed to let the park play host. " People said it was a fantastic event, " Stevens
says.
Spartan Race, designed by ultra athletes and a Royal Marine, is an obstacle
race with barbed wire crawls, mud jumps,
water obstacles, fire leaps, an eight-foot
wall climb, cargo net climbs, and more.
" We didn't let them do any fire jumping, "
says Stevens, who adds that during planning, race organizers and a park biologist studied the park on Google Earth to
determine the best course for park, over
areas that were already disturbed.
Then on race day, some 2,200 participants nearly exceeded Oleta River's
carrying capacity. " They [Spartan Race]
came in and did everything, " Stevens
says. Setup began a week before the
Nuvision Action Image
L
By Carrie Madren
November 2011 - Parks & Recreation
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2011 - Parks & Recreation
November 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 1
November 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 2
November 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 3
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