IRISH VALLEY - Even though the attendance didn't equal last year's event, Saturday was a great day to get dirty at a local motocross park.
Runners of all ages tackled mud bogs, rope climbs and even some barbed wire at the Braveheart Freedom Mud Run and Music Fest at the Irish Valley Motocross Park.
Park owner Tim Krebs designed the course himself this year, modeling it after many popular military-style obstacle races across the nation.
"Everyone had a great time with last year's run so we wanted to bring the event back," Krebs said.
This time, the money raised went to local charities, such as Boy Scout Troop 250, which helped clean the
trail for the race, Coal City Revitalization Inc. and the Kidsburg 2.0 playground in Bloomsburg.
"There are disabled people who came from out-of-state to that playground, and it was wiped out in the Flood of 2011. We hope our effort here today helps to bring it back," Krebs said.
Adult runners had the option of participating in either a five-kilometer race or the full five-mile trail. Regardless of their choice, all faced the same challenging obstacles. The fun started at the beginning of the trek when racers had to crawl through mud or risk having their clothes snagged on barbed wire.
"That's real barbed wire," Krebs said. "I cut myself making the pattern for it."
Near the end, runners faced three obstacles.
First, they needed to traverse a two-rope bridge, one above and one below.
Race volunteer Dan Horengic offered encouraging words for the runners as they slowly shimmied across the bridge.
"Don't worry about the snapping turtles in the water. We've already fed them today," he joked.
After that, runners came across a muddy water pit. Some entered the pit cautiously, others sped into it. All of them soon discovered a hidden dropoff, putting them chest-high in the water.
"Last year, the pit was a little deeper and we put some ice in it," Horengic said.
After another crawl through the muddy water under two-foot high ribbons, the finish line was in sight, where a food and music festival was awaiting participants at Krebs Grove.
"It was a great race to run and always challenging," said competitor Heather Yost. "We had a lot of fun with it, and I'm glad they had the shorter option available this year."
Younger runners also had a chance to compete at their own levels with pee-wee and intermediate courses available. Those tracks were not as long as the adult version, but featured scaled-down versions of the obstacles, making the intermediate course a little more challenging for young runners.
"We added a mud crawl and a climbing obstacle to this year's course," Krebs said. "The kids really enjoyed it and everyone had a great time. That's what this event is all about."