This race will not disappoint! The first two miles and the last two miles are definitely some of the trickiest. These stretches of the race are full of thick, thick mud. At the start, the mud isn't too bad. But by the end of the day, when hundreds of runners have trekked through this mud, it becomes ankle-deep and shoe-sucking. When I was about a half mile from the finish, the mud sucked my shoe straight off my foot (Dances With Dirt? More like Fights With Mud!). It took me a couple minutes to yank it out and get it back on! The first half of the race went by pretty quickly. It was a beautiful day, and I was just admiring the beauty of Brown County State Park. As I started to grow a little tired, I found a running buddy. Some of my favorite times in ultramarathons have been when I've run with someone and just chatted for a few miles. In this race, I ran about five miles with a high school teacher. It helped the miles go by super fast and I didn't even think about how much I still had to run. Once we went our separate ways, things got a little more difficult. Around mile 18, I was hit by hill after hill for a few miles. As someone that lives in West Lafayette, IN, I was not used to hills in the slightest. The hills wore me out, and to make matters worse, we then had to run a mile or two off course. There was no trail, and the only thing to guide me were small little pink ribbons. I almost got lost a time or two, but the race volunteers did an overall good job of marking the trail! Once I thought I was finally done with most of the hills, I came across a set of wooden stairs. And when I say a set of wooden stairs, I mean a LOT of wooden stairs (146 to be exact). This is the last thing you want to see towards the end of an ultramarathon, but I eventually made it to the top! After this, the end was only a few miles away. If I could handle the hills and the stairs, I knew I could handle the rest of the race. I finished in the top ten overall, but boy was I exhausted! Despite all the mud and hills and stairs, it was a great event and so much fun! I would definitely recommend this race to anyone and everyone looking for adventure! But make sure and bring an extra pair of shoes in case the mud takes yours.