Pig Trail Mud Run obstacle races, mud run, and OCR information, distance, cost, dates, calendar, discounts, obstacles, reviews, and more

A Fun, Local Mud Run

I enjoy supporting local, home-grown mud runs. The Pig Trail Mud Run was only 15 minutes from my house and supports the benevolent work of the Springdale, AR Rotary Club.

Pros:
- Great weather!
- Close parking ($5). Easy registration and (free) bag check.
- Scenic course - woods, fields and streams
- Fun obstacles - zip lines, rope swing across creek, creek crawl, slip-n-slide
- Difficult obstacles - the triple, inverted wall climb was tough but awesome
- Loved the monkey bars with the ring option
- Free hot dogs, hamburgers and all-the-beer-you-wanted after the race (but they ran out of condiments). They also had bananas, raisins, Powerade, water, etc.
- Decent medals and t-shirts
- Sufficient water stations, though it was cool, cloudy and humid

Cons:
- No clocks for comparing times -- not a big deal.
- Waves were too large creating long waits at obstacles. There were only 3 waves at 8:00, 9:30 and 11:00. Very strange. It would have been much better with smaller waves every :30. The wait at the zip line and innertube crawl was over 15 minutes each if you were not at the front of the pack.
- Some obstacles were not maintained - the innertube crawl had fallen apart after the first wave and the 'string and chicken wire crawl through the mud' had fallen apart after the first wave.
- No lifeguards. Several obstacles involved water. Though not too deep, there is always risk, especially when the visibility in the water is zero.
- Dangerous obstacles. The Fireman's pole only had padding under one side of the pole. I saw a girl slide down hard onto the ground. The Balance beam was fun but the drop was over six feet into a dry creek with rocks. The landing area at the zipline had volunteers helping, but it could have been safer. I saw an elderly volunteer gentleman fall down the embankment.

Overall it was fun, but there is room for improvement, especially regarding safety and wait times.

I will do the race again to encourage friends to get into OCR.