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February 26, 2015 • mccsokinawa.com/mudrun
Thomas Alan Smilie
Get down, get dirty and get muddy!
t’s primal, written into our DNA since the dawn of humankind. Children know it instinctively, without even being taught or guided. Mud. Is. Fun. Playing in the mud is the cleanest filthy fun one can have, and the child inside all of us never forgets this. Whether it’s a repressed longing to charge outside in the rain while yelling joyfully like a maniac and taking a running dive headfirst down a slippery muddy hill, sprinting through an ankle-deep, 50-yard-long mud puddle splashing everyone in the vicinity or crawling up the slippery slope of a mini-mudmountain—we all remember the joys of mud deep down inside us. If this resonates with you, then rejoice; MCCS Okinawa is going to offer a golden opportunity to unleash that inner-kid and get down, get
dirty and get muddy at the 2015 Camp Hansen World Famous Mud Run. The muddiest and funnest event of the year will be taking place on Camp Hansen on Saturday, April 25. This “doronko” (Japanese for mud) race will consist of a 5K or 10K jaunt through mud trails and obstacles in the jungles of Camp Hansen. The event is open to participants island wide—both SOFA ID card holders and Japanese citizens. For those in the mood for some conquering, there will be competitive 5K and 10K races for individuals with awards given to the first, second and third place male and female finishers in each category. Teams of three can compete in a separate 10K race against fellow mud-trios with awards going to the top three. For those that just want to come out for a leisurely muddy frolic, there will be 5K and
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10K waves in which the only competition will consist of who takes the most spectacular spill suitable for immediate uploading to a social media site or who is sporting the wackiest costume and/or makeup. Actual kids can participate alongside the young-at-heart on 500 meter (for kids 5 to 9 years of age) and 1K (for kids 10 to 14 years of age) fun runs on a separate course. The action begins at 8:15 a.m. with the individuals competing in the 5K hitting the course. At 8:45 a.m., competitors (both individual and team) in the 10K will start. The non-competitive runners in both the 5K and 10K categories will be broken into Continues page 3.
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