16 kilometers through mud
30 September, 2025
Shoes filled with mud, eyes covered with sand, painful knee ligaments, breathlessness, intensive calf cramps, what if I told you that this is considered a form of recreation? Let’s say that someone offers you this delightful experience; surely you would decline, right? Well, two friends of mine; Soufian and Eric, and eventually myself, decided to do the 16 km Mudmasters obstacle run of hell.
Deciding to do something fun often results in the muscle memory choice of bowling or going to the cinema. However, when Eric and I met up, we decided that we had to do something new, something we haven’t done before. That’s when he mentioned a previous conversation he had with Soufian. They considered joining the 2025 Mud Masters edition in Biddinghuizen. With some hesitation, I agreed to join them and we bought the tickets. Well supposedly, but in reality everyone delayed until the last moment, avoiding to pay for the tickets and face the high likelihood of it falling through? However, finally, we were all in, and on September 27, 2025, we were on our way.
On the day of the event, we drove for one hour and arrived at the venue. The weather was pleasant, slightly cold but bearable. We placed our bags in the wardrobe while we discussed our preparation; apparently, no one had trained for this run. we rushed to the collective warm-up located at the starting line, where an announcer was hyping up the crowd. I was wondering, will this 5-minute workout be enough? I tightened my sneakers and joined in with the group. The atmosphere was positive, and everyone was optimistic. Then the announcer shouted the start signal. A moment of silence fell upon us, followed by the crowd rushing over the starting line.
The first few obstacles required a lot of muscle power, and as soon as I entered the forest, the muddy roads made running heavier. The mud stuck to the shoes and increased the overall weight of running. The running itself was enjoyable, and the fresh, cold air kept me going forward. Nearing the 6 kilometers, Soufian started to move more slowly, and he decided, after an obstacle that made us fall from a 20 meter long plataeu into the cold lake, that this race was over for him. He returned to the start location. Eric and I pushed forward; there were still 10 kilometers left to go.
While continuing, we managed to get to 10 kilometers. Here, I felt my knees giving in, a creeping feeling in my left knee made me rethink the last time I went for a run in the forest, where I had managed to get an injury in my knee at some ligament. It had recovered but managed to find its way back during this race. Eric was pushing on, but I was experiencing slowly increasing pain, forcing me to walk. No, I would not quit here; there were just 6 kilometers to go. However, these were going to be painful, and as we progressed through the obstacles, it got harder and harder. At the 15-kilometer mark, we had to do the last sprint. One of the obstacles was an ice bath. After jumping out like a frozen meatball and walking at a faster pace, I saw Eric preparing himself for the next obstacle, where I would put my feet in his hands and I would jump over a wall. The plan was to pull him up afterwards, but right after I contracted my calves while jumping up, I was hit with the worst cramp imaginable. The calf even jumped inside, like a soda can that was hit on the side. Eric saw me disappear but managed to get on the wall with the help of another racer next to us. I waited out the cramp and managed to walk; however, it did not look like walking anymore. The last hundred meters were in sight, just a little bit to go.
Do you know the feeling of jumping in bed during a cold night, and feeling a sense of euphoria trying to warm up by tightly wrapping the sheet around you? Or the feeling of freezing and then slowly feeling warm water relax your body in a hot shower? That is all I could think about when my jaws were shaking in every direction due to the extreme cold during the last hundred meters. We finally managed to cross the finish line where Soufian was waiting to greet us with a photo. We were happy, proud, and gifted a Mud Masters t-shirt as a memory for this dirty but truly memorable experience.