One of the most talked about races in all of OCR is the Indian Mud Run. This race is only held once a year, so it’s penciled in on most racers calendars very early. It’s held on a golf course and state park, so there’s lots of land for miles. Another reason it’s talked about very highly is that many of the obstacles at Noram and OCRWC are also used at this race. So it gives you a great opportunity to try these obstacles without paying the high entry fees.

The statistics for this race is 6.6 miles and 72 obstacles. However those stats are very misleading. You see, the land itself is the biggest obstacle of all. For most of the race you will be climbing up rock faces and mountains, traversing over rivers, swimming in a lake, and rappelling down various descents. Your grip will be truly tested with all the climbing as much as it will from the many rigs. There are very few flat parts of ground where you can open up and really run hard as the terrain is very technical, so you are constantly watching your footing.

This race is Mandatory Obstacle Completion. However the once nice wrinkle they’ve added is you can still podium as long as you don’t fail 5 obstacles or more. You can retry obstacles as many times as you want. Every obstacle you fail or “give up” at, the officials will take down your number and mark your band with a sharpie. When you finish the race, you show the officials your band and any marks. They verify that with what the course officials have, along with your finishing time. You have to finish with the band you started with. If you lose it you are automatically disqualified from podiuming.

Speaking of podiums, this race also has some very unique swag. If you complete 3 laps of the race, the Chiefs Challenge, you get a handmade indian arrow. Pro winners get a handmade spear. Age group winners get a handmade tomahawk. All of these items are quite impressive to see and are highly sought after.

Venue

The venue itself has minimal parking at the course for race vendors and anyone who paid for VIP. The general parking is only a short 5 minute shuttle ride away. The venue itself is well setup with various vendors to see and purchase items from. The beer vendor is a local brewery and the selections were quite good. You can only see one obstacle in the venue area, the Floating Walls. However if you take a short walk in several directions, they would lead to various other obstacles as well like the Nuclear Rings, Destroyer, and the obstacles on the lake. There’s plenty of room in the venue for team tents and for people to bring their own seating. The start and the finish are both right next to each other, so its great for cheering on your favorite racer.

Pros

As I stated before, the fact that so many amazing obstacles are at this course, make it a must race. You have Skull Valley, Nuclear Rings, Dragons Back, Floating Walls, Force 5 Gibbons, and many more. Also the terrain is so much fun to race on. You’re constantly being challenged in this race with cliff climbs, and even a net over a canyon. There were multiple volunteers on hand at the obstacles to officiate and also explain the rules for each obstacle. All the obstacles had multiple lanes as well as a retry lane, so it helped prevent bottlenecking.

Also Coach Pain is there to send every racer off at the start line. If you haven’t heard Coach Pain in person, I posted a video of him sending my wave off on my Facebook page. He’s truly the best in the business.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/DaMENACE37OCR/posts/?ref=page_internal

The race swag is also really cool. The finisher medals and finisher shirts are very unique, as well as the previously stated winners items.

Cons

There were only a few water stations on this course and the first one wasn’t till about 2.5/3 miles into the race. That’s way too far and it showed. The volunteers there were running out of cups very quickly. the next couple water stations where only a mile between them so I’m not sure why so much distance for that first one. Also there was no water to be found in the venue itself, which I thought was kind of odd.

The timing chip used for the race is on a race bib. Race bibs I detest because who wants to put holes in expensive race gear. Also with all the crawling and swimming, the bibs are destroyed by the end anyway and some people lost theirs. I understand they’re cheap, but maybe allow racers to keep them in their pockets and just show them when they’re needed. I’m pretty sure the only timing mats are at the beginning and end of the race anyway, so the only time you would even need it is to tell the course officials your number when you give up at an obstacle.

Also only one food vendor was a bummer. The food was good, but the lines to wait for it were quite long. Also minimal food choices. Maybe bring 2 or 3 food vendors next time to give some variety and cut down on the lines.

Final Thoughts

Indian Mud Run is a must race for any Obstacle Course Racer. Between the Challenging terrain and obstacles, you can’t get this experience anywhere else. I’ve never been to a venue that tests you as much as this race does. That being said, for any new racers I wouldn’t recommend this race to a beginner. It can be very treacherous, and there are many spots were a slip or a fall could mean injury or worse. You definitely want to have some good footwear and training. But don’t let that scare you away, this race will be the best experience you will probably have all year!

Any questions or comments feel free to message me! Thanks for reading!