Before Spartan Race, before Tough Mudder, before Warrior Dash and Mudderella and all the rest, there was the Camp Pendleton Mud Run. It’s the OG mud run, and despite my general desire to stay mud-free, I really wanted to do it.

Last year, my face broke about two weeks beforehand, and I wasn’t allowed to run it because I couldn’t close my right eye all the way (the joys of Bell’s Palsy). This year, my knee had been acting ridiculous since Valentine’s Day, and running 13.1 miles in early May didn’t really help the situation. I hadn’t run at all since then, but I figured I would try the mud run anyway… after all, it was only 5K, and there are obstacles throughout, right?

Things got started off on the wrong foot when we had to use a back entrance to get onto Camp Pendleton (the traffic was backed up on the freeway for miles), and then waited about 45 minutes for a bus from the parking lot. Everyone was cursing me for not buying VIP tickets, which come with parking closer to the event, but we didn’t need them last year! Anyway, by the time we got to the site and went through the overly complicated check-in process, we had missed our start time by a few minutes. We weren’t the only ones, though — because of the traffic backup and the delays with the buses, they let people scheduled for earlier times start in later heats.

But since they were alternating between 5K and 10K starts, we had to wait about an hour. We used that time to check out the store, take photos and eat acai bowls.

Can you tell this was the day after I got my hair done? I also used some blue hair chalk, but I don’t think it’s that easy to see in these photos. Anyway, once we finally started the race, I was fine… for about the first mile or so. There was a section where everyone was supposed to do lunges for a long stretch of the course, which was problematic for me because of my knee, so I kind of cheated on that. Then we had to climb up and over a big rope grid thing…

and later crawl through lots of mud under a wire/camo net thing. I tried crawling for a bit, but with my knee issue and the rocks digging into my knees and hands, I decided that walking in a bent-over squat was probably better, so I alternated between the two.

By that time, I was pretty muddy, but it was only going to get worse.

I can’t seem to find any photos of the crazy mud hill that we had to climb near the end — a Marine had to grab both of my arms and drag me up until I could grab a rope and get to the top. But the most epic mud pit was at the end. We were basically forced to swim through the waist-deep mud, and Marines were dumping mud on people’s heads. My hair was caked.

Then, right after this, we all had to get down in the mud and do push ups.

It was fun, even though it was a little more challenging than it should have been because I hadn’t really been training. The issues with getting on base, parking and checking in were pretty annoying, but by the time we got done we were over it. Unfortunately, the problems weren’t over. There was a foam chamber thing to help everyone get clean while still saving water (since there’s a major drought in California), but there was some kind of problem with it, so they had to open the showers. The lines were crazy-long, but eventually we got to rinse off a little.

Overall it was a good experience, and I would recommend running the 5K or the 10K if you’re interested — just make sure you give yourself TONS of time (like, hours) to get on base, park and get to the site, and know that it will still take at least 15-20 minutes (minimum) to check in once you arrive. You may even want to consider the “VIP” option, which comes with parking that is much closer to the start line. And one more thing: Rip off your “free beer” coupon before you start, and put it in your checked bag. Otherwise, you might lose it in the mud!