It. Was. Great!

This event was great! We did the Texas event in 2013. We had read plenty of bad reviews concerning the Mud Factor, but it was nothing short of an awesome experience. I ran the Warrior Dash, Mud Factor and the Rugged Maniac last year and the Mud Factor was the most difficult of the 3.

Crazy fun!!

This event surely set the standard in the 5k mud run field. The weather was a bit cold, but other than that the course was soooo much fun (11 am wave). This was my second Mud Factor event and they just keep getting better! Already signed up with 4 of my friends for 2014.

My kids and I ran this race today and we had a great time. We got there later than we wanted to but had no problem getting a parking spot (for an additional $10). Picking up our packets was easy, as was finding the starting line. There were plenty of outhouses to use and they did not smell bad (at 9:30 am). The race started exactly on time (10:00). We thoroughly enjoyed the run. There were plenty of mud pits and obstacles. My daughter enjoyed it more than the Warrior Dash because she liked the many mud pits. I preferred the Warrior Dash myself. The reason I liked it less is because they do not time your run at Mud Factor and I prefer the competition. The reason I gave this a 3 instead of a 4 is due to a safety issue. They had a series of pits that you had to jump over which I felt were actually quite dangerous. They really should have lined the pits and filled them with mud/water or at least lined the bottom with foam. If anyone fell into one of those pits they would have been quite seriously injured. Another safety issue was the last obstacle which required you to run and jump onto an inflated slide. I did not slide down and had to push myself but instead of holding up the next group they were came barreling down right behind me and knocked me into the water. I could easily have been seriously hurt there. At the end of the race we were given a very nice, good quality medal engraved with the year. They also had a water truck there to wash off with. Overall we are very glad we participated in this race. If they fix the safety issues I would give this event a 4.

This was by far the worst mud run I have done. There was one person collecting money for parking which resulted in a huge and slow backup. As we were walking in with our bag, we were informed bag check was closed or not accepting any bags. Not sure how you are supposed to run with keys? We hardly saw any one working the course, never saw any medics on standby or at any obstacles. The obstacles were poorly put together, a few didn't even look safe. Other obstacles had huge wait times. We had to wait over 25 minutes to climb up a cargo net which only allowed 3 people at a time, the net was so small, and not accommodating for a large group of runners. None of the obstacles were challenging, it was cheap and not much effort put into this series. The few workers I did see didn't want to be there and we're rushing everyone. The slides were very scratchy, the bottom of the slides was way too shallow. Some of the obstacles were just holes to walk through. They ran out of safety pins, and at the end we got stuck with last years medal...that's pretty weak, how is that for planning. No shirt, but I was aware of that....beforehand. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

TERRIBLE! Waste of $$

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS RUN SO BAD. Worst obstacle course race ever. Horribly disorganized, extremely lame obstacles with huge lines at each one. If this was my first obstacle race I would never want to do one again, this should get shut down so it doesnt ruin the sport for first timers. And from reading the other reviews here I didnt even experience the worst of it, as bad as the sandpaper slides were.

Not worth it at all

This is by far the worst Mud Run I ever been too. When we arrived they had shut down the bag check in.. SERIOUSLY!!! what are people supposed to do? Run with their keys and IDs, leave their cars unlocked with the keys in there? They also ran out of safety pins for the bibs.
There were not enough obstacles or even anything that could resembles a slight challenge. There were a few trenches that you could just walk through. I did not bother as I was irritated by the long lines at several obstacles. 20 minute wait time is not acceptable.
It was clear the course was not designed by someone that cares about their reputation. I will never participate in this even again. Could have watched the Seahawks play instead.

SEATTLE MUD RUN 2013

Event Name doesn't list the Seattle run on my page, I am assuming this is due to the reviews it is receiving so they pulled it to hide the fact that it was very disappointing. I showed up at 9am for the 10am wave, I have to say the parking should have been free for one, the other was as stated earlier, a huge field on the side of a hill, which i did take my truck and was glad for that. The bottom line here is the race was poorly constructed, this was an amazing spot to make an obstacle course outside of a crappy parking situation. They failed at both. I found it to a run through trail with potholes for obstacles pretty much. I don't understand how you can have a small cargo net knowing the waves were all booked out. I also want to note what the heck was up with the slides. They felt like sandpaper all the way down due to a trickle of water. Too cheap to turn water on more i guess. And a show tree, what a fail. We just ended up using out towels to wipe mud off and just called it a day. I hope this thing gets shut down for good next year. GOD HELP US.

Ugh!

I have to give it one star????

Ok, first of all, the event was not in Seattle. Not even close. If you are going to label it geographically, Tacoma is much more accurate. I'm sure that this probably wasn't an issue for most people in the area because we KNOW how long it takes to get from place to place, but if people didn't pay attention, they would be in for a huge surprise if they lived anywhere close to Seattle.

Second, the location was a joke. On the top of a hill, one way in, one way out. Huge traffic jam going in. Took forever to get up the hill and parked because of the traffic. And the parking area was just a big field. I was lucky that I didn't get stuck going in/out. All of this, for $10! Yes,they charged us $10 for parking in a grass field. Awesome.

Third, there was no packet pickup prior to the race. Now, a lot of races do this and usually it goes off without a hitch. Here, there were huge lines. By the time I got there, they had ran out of safety pins, and were told "good luck figuring out how to attach that to yourself." Um, ok. Who runs out of safety pins at a race?! All I got for this frustration was a bandana and a race bib that I couldn't even pin on. And this was a race that they were charging $100 bucks for day of registration. If I paid $100 bucks for this, I would have beyond livid. I'd be livid if I paid $50. But I got out easy and only paid for a groupon. Thank goodness for that. They should really consider having a pre race pick up somewhere. Since they don't offer a shirt with the entry fee, it would be relatively easy for them to load up the boxes and lists to the local Sports Authority (or whatever) and sit and check people in for a few hours.

After picking up my packet, I made my way to the start area. There was so much mud. And it was cold and raining. (This wasn't the fault of the race organizers, well, a little, they scheduled it for the rainy season in WA). I looked at the course, and it just looked like a traffic jam at the obstacles I could see. Ridiculous. The announcer wasn't enthusiastic at all. Everyone looked miserable. I weighed my options and decided to cut my losses and go home. That's right. I was so disappointed by everything that I just left without running the course. It just wasn't worth it to me.

As stated, the price is incredibly excessive. I hope that no one actually paid $100 to run this thing. Honestly, I don't think it was even worth the $24 groupon. Just choose another race. Blah.

Very disappointing!

Mud Factor Seattle 2013: Poorly organized event: no bag check, no before/after photo op, no clock at start/finish to figure out your time, and most of the obstacles were incomplete (trenches dug with no water/mud) or inadequately constructed for the number of entrants. The first cargo net could only accommodate only three people at a time. We skipped it after calculated it would be a 20+ minute wait. There were only three true obstacles of any merit. A 12ft high wall with ropes, the "roof" climb in which you had to get a running start to get up a 12ft wall sitting at a 45* angle then clamber down the "rafters" on the back side and one final cargo net climb. Other than that the course was lots of trail running, two slides (one was an inflatable and the other was deflated) and a couple of ditches with water and muddy berms in between. We passed up at least 4 incomplete water ditch obstacles. Had 2-4 inches of rain not fallen here yesterday the course would have been dry and dusty. Many who prepaid for their shirt didn't get the right size because it was first come, first serve and an hour into it they only had one style of shirt left in small ladies sizes or an ugly mens XL with cutoff arms. Thank goodness I used a Living Social coupon because had I paid full price I would have been livid. Won't enter this one again! Many people complaining the entire race. One water station mid-way through. When we crossed the finish line less than 45 mins later, the "DJ" was gone, no sign of race officials and only half the PVC pipe rigged as a "shower" worked. The volunteers (?) at the merchandise booth were subjected to lots of mumbling, grumbling the entire time I was near it which probably accounts for the bad attitude they had dealing with people.

Did not enjoy this at all. Deserves 0 stars. Pretty much a trail run with very few obstacles. Lots of up and down hills that no one expected. By the time I got to the only only water station, petty much everyone was walking. There was only one person at the water station and mentioned many times that there were no more water until the end. Plus the water tasted horrible and my wife and I felt sick and then at then only time you got muddy was at the end when you crawled under wire. My wife did this event last year and enjoyed it. Last year there were more obstacles, less trail running plus they gave you a free beer at the end. Not this year. I saw a lot of people not happy with this event and count me on this list. Don't waste your time.

I would have given this 0 stars if I could. The event was more like a trail run with a few lame obstacles and very little mud. Lots of waiting for obstacles, water, and medal at the end. No t-shirt, no water/food at finish. What a poorly run event!

There are several reasons why this is the worst mud race I've done:
The race had only 1 water station halfway through the course.
Most of the course was though the woods with no obstacles.
The course map was poor planning having you weaving in the middle of fields and around the woods.
The only mud was the mud pit at the end of the race under not barbed wire.
$5 for bag check!
4 obstacles (a small inclined ramp, jumping over empty plastic barrels, climbing a vertical wall, and climbing a 20 ft cargo net) that's it for a 5k mud race?
And the 1 hour long wait at the the water cow or hose to get cleaned up.
Spent $30 on Groupon for the race and it still wasn't worth it!

This is the 1st Mud Run I've done, so I don't have any to compare it to. But, I will say, there was very little mud until the end when you had to crawl through a mud pit to get to the finish line. Very few obstacles and easy at that - going up boards and climbing over, running through the creek, hopping over downed trees. The major obstacle was that the majority of the run was uphill!! Only one water station and staffed by one person. No staff along the way to make sure everyone was okay. Parking was $10!, not enough wash stations, so the crowd to get through was so thick, it wasn't worth it. Not enough port a potties. Not enough staff at any table, so lines were long. The weather was good and I like hiking, so it was fun, but this was more of a big group hike rather than an obstacle run.

Great obstacles, great run, great fun and looking forward to next year!

Worst event ever

If I could give this event NO stars I would! Out of all the mud runs I've attended, this is the worst one I have ever seen. The venue parking filled up so fast that the majority of people had to park/walk a mile to the event. The staff still tried to collect $10 for this parking even though it wasn't their property. The lack of obstacles was a joke! There was a ton of mud/water but only due to all the severe weather and floods our state had the week before; so it was stagnant pond water, not man made mud pits. There were only 4 main obstacles...2 of them you had to wait 10-20 minutes because of the line so most people just skipped them. The course…I mean motocross track…was so poorly marked that many people were running around in circles. They even showed a huge slide on the course via Facebook, and then took it down before the event started! $10 parking, $5 gear check, no free shirt, no free drink…this was my first Mud Factor, and it is definitely my last. PLEASE save your money and try a different event!!!

Disappointed

Disappointed at the lack of obstacles......registered and tried it due to the obstacles listed on the website, which we only had 1 or two of. Not worth the money and won't do again.

Save your money

I give this so called mud run no stars but i had to choose one. There was no mud obstacles at all. There was only one water station. The obstacles SUKED!! There was poop everywhere, flies everywhere too. The only good thing about it is that I didn't pay full price for it, and still think it was a waste of money. I have ran a lot of mud runs, and this one totally sucked. PLEASE DO NOT waste your MONEY people.

Not worth the money

This event was so disorganized and nothing but a lot of time waiting. I would definitely not call it a mud "run". The whole run was only about 3.1 miles but it honestly took almost 3 hours with wait times of 30 minutes at each challenge. Many people walked off the course due to the long lines and only one water station. When offering suggestions and reporting our disappointment, a guy introducing himself as Scott Davis the course developer told us "that was too bad and if we don't like it to go F*** ourselves. We were shocked to say the least, he was the most unprofessional business man I have ever had to deal with. Truth be told we didn't even as for our money back (Which we should have) we just wanted to make him aware of how unhappy everyone was and that people were sick from no water etc. He said he had not had any complaints except for "you whinny babies" and dismissed us. Granted there were only 8 people with us but when we offered to show him the video of many other unsatisfied participants he told us to leave. So ... if you're thinking of doing a mud run, I suggest you save your money and not participate in this event. We have been to 4-5 mud run events in the past few months and every single one of them was worth the money ... but not this one. If you watched the video of this event when you signed up don't be surprised if it's nothing like that .... the only mud you see is at the end after you wait 30 minutes in line and go down the slide. Needless to say ... most people didn't stick around they jumped out of line and said "forget this" I typically don't do reviews but this time I just had to warn people that this is a HUGE waste of money.

Lame obstacles

Very lame obstacles. One mud obstacle. Lots of running. Probably six total obstacles. Needs to be upgraded with many more challenging obstacles. Worth the registration $$ fee.