What do you get when you cross 2000+ women with a few obstacles and a heap of mud? Miss Muddy!

Miss Muddy is Australia’s only female-only mud run and aims to get the ladies out of their comfort zones. I’d volunteered and run the event back in 2015 and I was excited to get another chance to do the same when it returned to Perth.

I arrived at Kwinana Motorplex early on a cold Saturday morning and patiently waited to be sent out to an obstacle. Luckily for me I was stationed at Big Bounce – a huge inflatable cushion that resembles the floor of a giant bouncy castle – which meant I not only got to spend hours bouncing around like a kid on red cordial, but I also got to encourage the women to let loose and have fun as they bounced their way (safely) to the end.

At one point I even had the chance to spear tackle one of my friends as she tried to escape my grasp. Onlookers were confused as to why a volunteer was running towards one of the participants at breakneck speed (as fast as one can run on a giant inflatable) but thankfully my friend was a good sport and laughed it off.

After my volunteer shift ended I had a quick lunch and headed out on the 5km(ish) course with hundreds of other excited women.

Our fitness was tested with potato sack races (they’re surprisingly hard!) and sandbag carries before cooling off in a water balloon fight. There were walls to climb (and Defence Force personnel on hand to shove us over the walls), monkey bars to swing off and wooden planks to walk across.

When I returned to Big Bounce I thought I was all bounced out, but the second I jumped back on my inner child was excited and I bounced around for a few minutes before heading off.

The water obstacles were next with a jelly bath, slip and slide and ice bath. Some ladies let off epic shrieks of pain as they entered the ice bath and I just laughed and threw my entire body in.

Then came the mud.

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered mud that thick before. It was nearly impossible to drag yourself through the rocky mud, and standing up was a challenge as it clung to you like glue. I had so much mud on me that my feet seemed to double in weight despite my feeble attempt to get as much mud off me as possible.

There wasn’t much point to getting the mud off me as another mud pit loomed in the close distance. I joined some others in crawling through the second mud pit before giving a friend a muddy hug and heading towards the finish line.

A huge pit of bubbles at the end was the cherry on top of an awesome day. I posed for a photo before awkwardly bumping into a former colleague whilst I stood there in my undies, hosing the mud off myself.

I finished my day with another hour of volunteering at the finish line, handing out well deserved medals. Another fun mud run done and dusted!

Event: Miss Muddy

Type: Mud Run (female only)

Distance: ~5km

Location: Perth, Western Australia

Date: 29 April 2017