2011 Muddy Monster 1 mile, 5K & 15K--Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Today was the race my children have waited for all year. Muddy Monster is truly a family event. It has something for all ages and all running abilities. This race was awesome for these reasons:

Chip timed so you get accurate results
Instant result machine so you have a paper to take home that says how you did that day at your race.
Costume contest with prizes for winners
Very cute shirts that you will wear even after the race
Little Monster Dash for the little children
Monster Mile for kids up to age 18
Massages after the race (unfortunately my wait was over 45 minutes and I had to leave before getting mine, but Jason got a great massage post race)
Lots of great samples and coupons in your race packet.
Activities for the children during the adult race
Massive amounts of food after the race to consume if wanted.

Here are a bunch of pictures to enjoy:

Alyssa dressed up as a pumpkin, Brenden decided to be Flash.



My friend Stephany was a fairy.  I was the bearded lady and Daniel behind us was too cool to dress up.  I won 4th place in the costume contest.



This is my friend Tracy (on the right of the picture) with her friend Denise and daughter Sydney.



Daniel was boasting he would be faster than all of us in the 5K.  I wasn't so sure since he never runs and hasn't practiced.  But he ended up getting 22:56 for his 5K time.



This is my friend Janeen and her sister Danyel.  They went as Dwayne "Dog" Chapman the bounty hunter and his wife Beth.  They won 2nd place in the contest.



A new running friend of mine named Rhoni Jo with her children Gabby and Grant.



Alyssa running her mile race in her pumpkin costume.  My friend Tracy and her son Eric are also running the mile race.



Another view of Alyssa, Tracy and Eric running their mile race.



Scott getting ready to race.



Scott just finished his race, he won first place overall!



Brenden running in for a fast finish.



Daniel, Jason and I posing for a picture just after the race was finished.



Alyssa, Scott, Brenden, Jason, Daniel and I at home with our race shirts on.



Post race food.  There was also hot dogs, popcorn, pop, animal crackers, pretzals and many other kinds of candy.



All of the items in our race packet.



All of our race numbers, except for Scott, he didn't have a race number since he did the Little Monster Dash.

Alyssa ran the mile race and got a time of 11:22

Last year my time was 31:03, this year my time was 28:59. I was very happy to beat my previous time. Last year I placed 6th of 20 in my age group, this year I placed 5th of 22 in my age group.

Last year Jason's time was 28:10 and this year it was 27:56 (this year he even has a very hurt knee that probably needs surgery).

Last year Brenden's time was 23:32 and this year it was 23:46 and he has a massive amount of stitches in his head from an injury he had just over a week ago. (I was surprised to see him run this race with his head injury, but he insisted he felt fine.)

Daniel ran the mile race last year and had a 6:25 time for the mile race. This year he boasted that he was faster than Jason and I and that he could beat us in a race. So he ran the 5K race. Daniel never runs that I see, or practices running, so I wasn't sure how he'd do, but he pulled off a finish of 30th place out of 382 people with a 5K (3.1 mile)time of 22:54 beating all of us. His mile pace was 7:23