At 8 a.m. on a recent Saturday, the first wave of runners set off along the Muddy Dash at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center. Many were clad in colorful tutus, capes and wigs, but all would be covered in mud soon enough.
The Muddy Dash is a three-mile fun run along parts of the hilly Olympic cross-country skiing course featuring numerous mud obstacles and other challenges. The Muddy Dash brand is based in Phoenix, Arizona, and has been hosting runs across the country each summer since 2019.
This was the third consecutive year Soldier Hollow has hosted Utah’s event, and runners from across the state came ready to get dirty. Thousands participated through a rolling start system that released groups every 15 minutes, with the last batch at 1 p.m. While runners are welcome to time themselves, the Muddy Dash offers no official timing and encourages runners to concentrate on enjoying the experience.
Connor Cheney from Crowdsourced Comedy in Salt Lake was MC-ing the event near the start and finish lines.
“Watching people run is the most exercise I’ve done in months,” Cheney said. “This is a great event and everyone seems to be having a great time. I’m glad so many people came out today.”
Jake Coover, 22, from Farmington, was running in the 9 a.m. wave, his first time at the Muddy Dash and his first footrace since boyhood.
“My mom has done it for a few years now and she asked me to do it with her, so here I am,” Coover said. “I’m ready to get muddy.”
Obstacles included a rope swing over a mud pit, a waist-high mud pit covered in ropes to duck underneath, a mud pit filled with tractor tires to hopscotch, irrigation tube slides into a muddy trough and monkey bars. Contestants took the course at their own pace, stopping after obstacles to photograph their friends running through the muck and finger-painting muddy strips beneath their eyes.
After the race, Coleman Malstrom from South Jordan took off his shoes and waited for his crew over by the showers, which were hoses hooked up to a semi filled with water. “The race was awesome. I’m not a water guy, but it’s a lot of fun. Some friends and my girlfriend were like, ‘We’re going to do a mud run.’ I thought, ‘No,’ but it ended up being a really good time.”
