As far as I can tell, there are two types of people in this world: people who would be interested in a mud race and people who would never, ever want to do one. I am one of the former, so from my perspective this race was a blast.

If you are on the fence, there are some things you should know:
1. You will get mud... everywhere. In your ears, in your belly button, in between your toes. It's going to be a little gross. You just have to be able to deal with that fact and you'll be fine!
2. You have different preparations for a mud race: you'll want to bring towels, garbage bags, bug spray, sunscreen. It will require more cross training if you are taking the race seriously because a lot of the obstacles will demand more work out of your upper body.
3. You have to be careful. There are a lot of little rocks and grit in the mud that can scratch you, there's a lot of random pits that can twist an ankle, there are a lot of obstacles that you can hurt yourself on if you are not paying attention.
4. Bonus, though: great exfoliation for the skin! It doubles as a spa day :), right? And you will be so grateful for a shower afterwards.

Pros:
+ This race had several start times to choose from which I believe really helped with spacing. In a past mud run I did, it seemed like all the effort you gave to get to the next obstacle quickly was somewhat worthless as you often sat and waited in line behind people to complete it. There was some of this at the race, but it was very minimal due to so many groups & start times throughout the day.
+ The obstacles in the beginning are significantly easier. I don't know if they did this on purpose, but I think that also really helped space runners out.
+ This is a race most people can probably do. It is not that difficult, so if you are looking for a "tough mudder" experience, this may not be challenging enough for you. I think this obstacle race is very approachable for a large group of friends or family to do together over a great range of athleticism. You can make it a little harder if you are really pushing for a good time, but on the flip side if you find any obstacle too challenging you can always opt out and walk around it.
+ obstacles were fun and included: jumping over hay bails, army crawling through mud pits, climbing ropes, going down slides, swimming/wading through a creek, jumping barricades, running through tires, climbing ladders, making it through 2 HUGE mud pits, climbing up steep slopes
+ this particular race is set on a farm that has a creek running through it, so the race utilized the creek a lot for obstacles. The creek provided some help getting some of the mud off your body so you weren't as weighted down.
+ the course was pretty shady (I'd guess about 1/2 of it was shaded) which definitely helps for a race in mid-July.
+ I thought it was pretty well-managed, there were a good amount of water stops and people set up at different obstacles to help guide you through. Packet pick up was easy (same day, pre-race), they have some "showers" set up post-race so you can rinse off a little bit, a burger/brat, chips & a beer are included after the race (you think beer tastes good after a run? it tastes even better after a 1 hour excursion in mud).
+ There is a giant water slide at the end that is really fun to watch (and fun to do!). The attached picture is my friend and I after we went down it.

Things that could improve:
- Like I said before, it's not extremely challenging, but for most people I think that's a good thing. If you are the person that is looking for a really tough mud obstacle course, maybe look into other options with further distances
- The mud pit after mile 1 and on the way back to the finish (same pit, split going two ways) was a little extensive. It honestly took about 20 minutes of the whole race to get through that thing (10 minutes going each way). I think this race would be perfect if you only had to go through the pit once and then ended right after the water slide (and you would be a little less muddy with the water, too, making the post-race shower lines go faster).
- Races like this don't really hold people accountable for doing all the obstacles (though they claim to, but it is a really hard task for management to actually enforce), which is a good thing for some people because you shouldn't push yourself and risk injury, but it is bad for others who view this as a true competition.

Overall, I thought this mud run was really fun and I would recommend it (especially to run with a group of friends!). It definitely mixes it up from the traditional road race 5k!