Mud Run Triathlon

Water levels in San Angelo area lakes and rivers are dropping fast, leaving dry shorelines and mud flats where there used to be water.

The annual drag boat races have been postponed this year due to the low water level in Lake Nasworthy.

Mud flats are starting to appear in the Middle Concho Park inlet of the lake that for years has been
the swim course for the Wool Capitol Triathlon.

However, there’s a silver lining in every non-rain-producing cloud. The shrinking lakes and residual mud could provide a once-in-a-drought opportunity for a new type of event.

Given the growing popularity of ‘mud run’ obstacle courses and short course sprint distance triathlons, I propose that we leverage the emerging mud flats to combine a mud run with a sprint triathlon and hold the first ever Mud Run Triathlon right here in San Angelo.

The format would be similar to a normal triathlon with three distinct ‘legs’ that solo competitors and three-person teams must complete.

Instead of beginning the triathlon with a swim, Leg 1 of the Mud Run Triathlon would be a 400-yard slog through a section of shallow water and mud with several ‘get down and crawl’ obstacles along the route.

The second leg would be on the bike just as in a normal triathlon, but the ‘mud athletes’ would face a course that’s reminiscent of a muddy cyclocross race.

Competitors would complete 6 challenging miles during the bike leg that included several obstacles plus (you guessed it) a section or two where they had to pedal through some of our high-quality Lake Nasworthy mud.

To ensure that the event is spectator-friendly, the bike course would follow a serpentine route close to where the water used to be that lets spectators see all of the action as racers complete each lap on their muddy bikes.

After completing the mud crawl and bike leg, racers would face a final 2-mile run leg that finished by going back through (in reverse direction) the same 400-yard shallow water, mud and crawl-through section they faced at the beginning of the race.

Spectators at the Mud Run Triathlon would enjoy the event as much or more than the racers, with multiple locations on the course designated as ‘heckle zones’ where spectators would offer encouragement while commenting loudly on each racer’s skills (or the lack of).

Loudspeakers around the course would blare music such “Mud Bog” by Matt Steel and “Muddin 4x4” by Dale Rogers.

Just as at the drag boat races, spectators would be encouraged to bring large coolers filled with fermented beverages to ensure they stayed well hydrated and to help them get into proper enjoy-the-race mode.

Kids would also be able to join in on the fun — they would be recruited to help create the mud-on-white cotton T-shirts awarded to each event finisher.

Top finishers in the race would receive one-of-a-kind Mud Run Triathlon awards. Art students would be commissioned to create unique mud sculpture trophies for the top female, male and team category winners and also mud medals for first, second and third in each age group.

Holding the first-ever Mud Run Triathlon would be better than lamenting the fact that our lakes are disappearing and maybe even be something that could attract out-of-town mud-seeking visitors to our almost-waterless city.

The only potential problem might be if heavy rains fell before the mud run triathlon took place and raised the lake’s water level back to normal, thus covering up those beautiful mud flats.

We all hope that big rain happens — we’ll be glad to postpone the Mud Run Triathlon until the next severe drought.

Remember — a mud-run triathlon could be some dirty fun.

Upcoming Events

April 24: Mountain bike TT Series, angelobike.org
April 26: Lone Wolf Run, roadlizards.org
April 26: Colorado River Bikefest, ballingernoonlions.org
May 1: R oad bike time trial, angelobike.org
May 15: Mountain bike time trial, angelobike.org
May 16: Relay for Life, relayforlife.org
May 16: Relay for Life 5K, roadlizards.org
June 7: Run in the Sun 8K, roadlizards.org