2012 Muddy Monster 5 &15K race--Cedar Rapids, Iowa

The morning was super cold and crisp out. It told everyone in the family to layer because it would be super cold to run outside. I have loved this race in the past because it seems to be a family race. Almost all of my children were in this race and seemed to enjoy it. My oldest son is serving a church mission so he wasn't there and my 3rd son Jared has decided that he didn't want to run so he came along to take pictures and just hang out with the family.

This year the race didn't seem quite as good as in past years. I don't know if it was because there weren't as many sponsors, it was super cold, or if they changed race directors, but all of my children commented how it seemed different this year and I agreed.
Good Points:
It was chip timed so you got accurate results.
You get a shirt: However, the shirts were cotton short sleeve, in the past they were cotton long sleeve and we would have preferred that.
There was food at the end, not as great as last year, but there was food to fill your belly if you felt you needed it.
Print out of your results: There is a machine there where they type in your bib number and you get an instant print out of your results.
Racing Bib for your scrapbook: However, the bibs this year seemed cheap compared to last year.

Bad Points:
In years past this race seemed super kid friendly, pumpkin decorating, face painting, coloring, lots of candy and other things. This year seemed like they didn't have hardly anything for the children. Many people were making comments about this that brought their children.

Having to pay for an upgrade to a technical shirt. Most races around include tech shirts as part of the entry price.
No choice of beverages besides beer and water. There was beer so if you are an adult that wants to drink beer at 11a.m. then great, but if you are an adult that doesn't drink beer, or brought children that really could have used anything except for water, then there wasn't anything.   Last year they had soda and other drinks.

Here are the results if you care to see them.

Below are pictures from the event:

Stephany and I dressed up.

Brenden decided to do the 1 mile race this year instead
of the 5K.  He placed 1st in his age group and 3rd overall
in the 1 mile race.  Way to go Brenden.  Here he is running
in for the finish.

Brenden finishing!

Brenden, Jason, Me, Alyssa and Scott

Jared being silly, Courtney (Dan's girlfriend) and Dan.

Courtney and Daniel.

Jason and Alyssa about to start the 5K

Brenden being silly.

Daniel running the 5K, here he is 1 mile into it.  He was super fast.

Daniel almost at the finish.

Daniel finishing

Jason almost at the finish.

Alyssa sprinting to the finish.