Last Updated on September 27, 2019 by Heather Hart, ACSM EP, CSCS
The following post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of The Dirty Dash.
In my quest to do my little part in helping to advance and grow the world of obstacle racing, I’m more than happy to help cover and promote race organizations that are positively contributing to the community. In other words, putting the racer first, and not, you know, canceling races last minute. While I am personally a huge fan of brutal, physically and mentally challenging races, I will also be the first to recognize that there is a definite market and need for the non competitive “fun” races. Anything that gets people up and encourages them to be active, and to have fun while they are at it, is fine by me.
One of the PR groups I work with, FitFluential LLC, recently teamed up with “The Dirty Dash“. I did a little background research, including talking to some people who have actually done the race, and decided this was an event I’d be happy to share with you guys. Turns out The Dirty Dash is run by the same people who put on the wildly successful Color Me Rad series. They know how to put on a good time.
And if nothing else, they already had me at their hilarious “about” section:
Have you ever said to yourself, “Marathons are too easy, and Triathlons are for sissies?”
We haven’t either…those races are really hard. Think about it…the first person to run a marathon actually died. HE DIED!…and he probably didn’t even have fun along the way!
photo courtesy of The Dirty Dash.
Well, welcome to a new kind of race: THE DIRTY DASH. This race that puts all other races to shame. The Dirty Dash is a mud run obstacle course where a military boot camp meets your inner five-year-old’s fantasy and subsequently converts boy to man and then man to swine.
You’ll need endurance to trudge up mountains of sludge, courage to overcome uncompromising obstacles, a complete lack of shame to wallow in pits of mud and a smile to show through at the end!
So let this mud run obstacle course become your new guilty pleasure. Go solo or with some of your dirtiest, filthiest, & uncouth friends. Either way, you’ll be able to look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I am a Dirty Dasher!”… and then proceed to clean yourself off.
photo courtesy of The Dirty Dash
It’s a non timed, non competitive, silly, fun, muddy obstacle course race with obstacles boasting pig themed names such as “Porks Peak” and “Slop n’ Slide”. Family, kid, and rumor is even dog friendly, The Dirty Dash is a great beginner course for those looking to get their feet wet muddy in the OCR world. Further, there was mention of beer DURING the race. Quoting one athlete from an online OCR forum: “One ‘obstacle’ is to finish a beer about 3/4 of the way through the race – which is a great way to get the….let’s say….hesitant boyfriend to join you.” Simply fantastic.
READER INPUT: Are you all business (i.e. competitive, challenging, etc) when it comes to racing, or do you like to partake in fun runs from time to time?
Heather Hart is an ACSM certified Exercise Physiologist, NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), UESCA certified Ultrarunning Coach, RRCA certified Running Coach, co-founder of Hart Strength and Endurance Coaching, and creator of this site, Relentless Forward Commotion. She is a mom of two teen boys, and has been running and racing distances of 5K to 100+ miles for over a decade. Heather has been writing and encouraging others to find a love for fitness and movement since 2009.
triathlonmami
I tend to shy away from mud races but you make it sound enticing!
Erika Whitney
It’s too bad the locations they have are clustered so close together, and so much of the country doesn’t have one within driving distance 🙁 Looks like fun, but not I’m-going-to-schedule-a-vacation-so-I-can-participate fun.
Courtney @ Don't Blink. Just Run.
I had TONS of fun at the Dirty Dash in Amesbury. The only really, really, really big negative was waiting 30-45 minutes before we could cross the finish line because they were taking pictures. The course itself was lots of fun and everyone just had a blast that was out there.
Cy
That description was hilarious 🙂 And it looks so fun, I wish I lived near one of the locations so I could participate.
This is a really cool event–I’m new here but it’d be super interesting hearing about more unique events like this!