Thomas Alan Smilie
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, filthiest 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 and taking a dive down a 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 minimud-mountain—we all remember the joys of mud deep down inside us. The muddiest and funnest event of the year
will be on Camp Hansen on Sunday, April 9. This doronko (Japanese for mud race) consists 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. If you’d like to test your strength on the notoriously brutal course, register for the competitive 5K or 10K race for individuals. Awards will be given to the top three male, female and team finishers. For those wanting to savor the mud, there will be 5K and 10K waves in which the only competition is for the most spectacular spill for immediate uploading to social media. The entry fee for both the competitive and non-competitive 5K and 10K runs is $35 per
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Register for the 2017 Camp Hansen World Famous Mud Run at mudrun.jp or any staffed MCCS fitness center by 4:30 p.m. April 3. person. The 10K team race fee is $90 per threeperson team. The 3K for youths 9 to 14 and the 1K Kids Challenge for children 5 to 8 are $10. For more information about the Camp Hansen World Famous Mud Run, contact Semper Fit Athletics. English: 645-3521/3522. Japanese: 098-970-3534.
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