Mud Running

What can you do with your children in the holidays when it rains and rains and finally you get outside?...

Try a mud run obstacle course with kids on a friends farm like we did.  We got the idea a couple of weeks ago when we completed a 5km mud run fundraiser in the Hawkes Bay, hilarious challenge for friends, one I thoroughly recommend even with minimal training.  The hills were the hardest, not for goats I bet, but definitely for us.

We balanced over logs to cross rivers and crawled under cargo nets in thick mud, it was a great feeling to get out of our comfort zones and swim in mud up to our shoulders...ugh.  You don't have to be a 'Tough Girl' but you will feel like one afterwards!

To view the official School Fundraiser Mud Run facebook page click here

The children looked at our pictures and videos from this event and we planned our own version the next day, to be followed as well by a warm shower and hot lunch.

We started the race in the woolshed on a friends farm, the kids went down the sheep shots to the yards, over the fence and around a pond.  Hurdles included fences, posts and hay bales and loads of fresh sticky mud :)  Children from age two and upwards could compete, my eldest daughter planned and explained the course track to the smaller ones which was wonderful to see as a parent who likes to be the organiser.

What learning did the kids get out of this...

Risk taking
Good old competitive buzz
Sequencing/number order-who was first, second and third on our tree stump podiums
Moving through water and mud without concern over clothing and other superficial things like that
Endurance and fitness 

After cheering on the children we raced each other, I think we took longer than the children, it's pretty hard to run in gumboots but it's surprisingly awesome fun.

Go ahead try it and get dirty!