Last Updated on August 28, 2020 by Corinne Schmitt
I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Mudderella. I received complimentary admission to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item to thank me for my participation.
A few months ago I shared that I had signed up for my first mud run event. I wanted to try something different than the traditional road races I was used to. When I discovered Mudderella, I knew I’d settled on the perfect introduction into the world of mud runs. This is event is designed by women for women so I was confident I could finish it and was happy that I’d be surrounded by a sisterhood of like-minded women on event day.
In the weeks leading up to Mudderella, I was:
- Excited and terrified about the prospect of tackling obstacles
- Looking forward to participating as a team so that I’d have some built-in encouragement and peer pressure to help me get through it
- Embarrassingly unsuccessful at sticking to my training program
- Terrified that my team would have to literally carry my poorly-trained body for the last half of the course
- Glad I had a team of friends to motivate me and for me to share my fears with
My Team
The one thing I wasn’t worried about before the event was my team. All three of my teammates are smart, funny, and driven–the three characteristics I considered vital to surviving a day of running through mud together. As far as physical skills, we were pretty diverse so I knew no matter what we faced on the course, at least one of us would know what to do. My team consisted of:
- Wendy – my BFF gym rat who kicks butt on strength training and HATES running
- Margaret – my sister-in-law who is a runner AND CrossFit beast
- Lisa – an amazing woman who I’ve forced to be my friend. She runs every day but turned me down multiple times when I asked her to join us because she was worried about the obstacles
- Me – runner and sporadic exerciser
The Morning Of The Event
When we headed to the event that morning, everyone but Margaret (whose every day workouts consisted of running, climbing, and lifting heavy things) had some concerns. Wendy was worried about surviving the running, Lisa was worried about the obstacles, and I felt poorly prepared for both. Once we arrived at Mudderella, we had a lot of other things to focus on to keep our minds off of our concerns. The Mudderella theme color is purple and it was everywhere. And similar to when you go to a sporting event and the stadium is full of the team colors, the sea of purple immediately bonded us all together and created an atmosphere of acceptance. Of course, most teams had their own team colors. I LOVED this team’s uniform (for obvious reasons).

My team opted for sarcasm.

Mudderella’s motto is “Own Your Strong” because the creators wanted to empower women to take pride in their strength (physically, emotionally, and mentally). The event is designed not only to help participants achieve this goal, but also to inspire and help others. These boards in the staging area were inspiring.

Before we hit the course, we stopped by the main staging area where participants were using body paint to decorate themselves for the event. We skipped the paint but did take advantage of the temporary tattoos.

We were discouraged from bringing cameras/cell phones on the course since mud and technology are not great partners. Thankfully, Mudderella has photographers posted throughout the course though so you still get plenty of action shots from the event. Here are some of ours:
Obstacles Throughout The Course
As you can see, there were a variety of obstacles throughout the course. In addition to the ones pictured above, we also did:
- Dirty Downward Dog (an obstacle where you position yourself in downward dog across a trench and have to edge sideways from one end to the other)
- Break the Glass Ceiling (crawl under a cargo net)
- New Heights (climb a wall using wooden slats as hand and foot holds)
- Squeaky Clean (crawl through a human car wash)
- Mud Majesty (make your way through a pit of mud and dirt hills)
The entire course was 5 miles long. Lisa, the runner, was really happy with the course since it was a lot of running and only ten obstacles. Even though I love to run, several parts of the course had participants run for running’s sake (e.g. the next obstacle would be a mere 5 feet away, but you’d have to run a 1/4 mile horseshoe to get to it), which I found frustrating. Much to our surprise, the obstacles were not daunting at all.
Good Event For Moderate Fitness Level
While I don’t recommend taking on Mudderella with no physical training at all, anyone with a moderate level of fitness should be able to handle the course with no problem. For runners looking to get your feet wet in the mud run world, Mudderella is ideal. Mudderella includes a fair amount of running with super manageable obstacles.
For those individuals who aren’t in shape but are looking for a goal to train towards, this event is perfect. There is absolutely NO competitive pressure from anyone at Mudderella. One the contrary, all participants cheer each other on, applaud each other’s efforts, and help one another if needed. So, even for seasoned mud runners, Mudderella is worth running at least once just to experience the camaraderie and girl power atmosphere. That being said, I’d love to see Mudderella incorporate easy, medium, and difficult options in the obstacles to appeal to a broader audience. It would be nice to come back year after year and work towards greater challenges.
Need help convincing your friends? I pitched it to mine as a fitness spa day — mud bath, outdoor shower with scented body wash and luxurious lotion (thanks St. Ives), sauna (the changing tent felt like one!), and of course, plenty of exercise. All the goodies were a nice perk too! Headbands, t-shirts, protein bars, arm band phone cases, and plenty of other prizes from sponsors, along with the beer garden and retail area made the event a fun-filled festival.
Ready to “Own Your Strong”? You can learn more and register at www.Mudderella.com. Use the code MUDDBLOGGER20 to save 20% off any 2015 US Mudderella event!! Then, head over here for training tips to make event day a breeze.
Here are some of the upcoming scheduled Mudderella events:
- Colorado – August 22, 2015 – Snowmass Village, CO
- Pittsburgh – September 12, 2015 – Slippery Rock, PA
- Whistler – September 26, 2015 – Blackcomb Mountain, Whistler, BC Canada
- New England – October 3, 2015 – Thompson, CT