Torrington's Wyld Mud Run held at Minetto State Park, challenging athletes through natural and man-made obstacles (with slide show)
RICKY CAMPBELL
1of3RICKY CAMPBELL/ Register Citizen Racers in the Wyld Mud Run 5K had to trek through a pond Saturday at John A. Minetto State Park, using a rope for guidance, before getting out on the other side. Prior to their dip into the water, participants had to fill buckets and run around a grassy perimeter, holding the buckets. Show MoreShow Less
2of3MATT DeRIENZO/ Register Citizen Participants of the first-ever Wyld Mud Run 5K got a little dirty Saturday at John A. Minetto State Park after crawling through mud, running and swimming through water, climbing walls and racing around the wooded trails. The race tested both endurance and strength, while allowing racers to have some fun and benefit the Northwest Connecticut YMCA. Show MoreShow Less
TORRINGTON -- A 5K run through mud, water, tires, up walls, down ravines and along wooded trails pitted more than 500 participants against a course laden with strength and endurance obstacles at John A. Minetto State Park Saturday for the first-ever Wyld Mud Run.
Click here for a slide show of photographs from the event.
Registrants paid their way to support the Northwest Connecticut YMCA and to have a unique run through the state park, where the course provided more than 15 obstacles along the way. The sun was out, air was warm and sticky and the runners were many -- each one with their own purpose for running the race.
"It was tough," said Manny Rollo, a member of Team Connecticut Care who rolled his ankle near the race's beginning. "It was definitely tough. Fun, but tough."
Rollo's teammate Chris Kirby said the race tested his "explosive strength and endurance", something he wished had been fine-tuned with fitness programs such as "Insanity."
"It was challenging in a way I didn't expect," Kirby said. "I'm going to be back next year and beat my time from this year."
Both Rollo and Kirby said they weren't completely satisfied with their finishing time, but said they hope the race is held next year.
"I think I'll start climbing trees to prepare for next year," Rollo said with a smile.
Not all the runners were too worried about their finishing times. A team of pediatricians said that for them as a group, the race was all about having fun and getting some exercise while doing it.
The most challenging part of the course, pediatrician Lucia Benzoni said, was "crawling under the tarps."
Some felt that tadpoles swimming along with them in the bog were a clever twist. Others joked that there was no rope swing. "I was looking forward to a rope swing," Benzoni said.
"We had so much fun," her teammate Jessica Magda said. "That's what we were here for."
The Mud Run was about having fun and getting exercise -- but for some, it may have been about experiencing a new -- or old, but forgotten -- task.
"[A mud run] is one step below transformative," Mud Run organizer Dr. Michael Curi said earlier. "I've done the (Goshen) Turkey Trot and (the Kent) Pumpkin Run and Litchfield Hills Road Race, but when you go through a series of 'I can't believe I just got to do that' tasks, not only do you feel like a kid again, not only have you accomplished something on the epic side of tasks, but you're going to have a series of stories where you say, 'Can you believe they made us do this?'"
And they did make participants run through water, crawl through mud, climb walls and dance through tires.
But the Mud Run, some believe, is better than wasting time inside playing with too many gadgets.
"Put away the computers and the video games," Benzoni said. "Put away the GameBoys. Just get out and enjoy nature. Get dirty."
Information from a previous report by staff reporter Michelle Merlin was used in this story.
Reach Ricky Campbell by e-mail at rcampbell@registercitizen.com, on Twitter @ReporterRicky, or by phone at (860) 489-3121 x343. Follow us online at registercitizen.com and on Twitter @RegisterCitizen.