In Quanticos mud race, finishing first isnt necessarily the goal

Publish date: 2024-08-29

The anticipation of the six signature words that start many races became too much to bear for John Moortgat.

“On your mark,” race director Rick Nealis dragged out before a long pause. “Get set.”

Moortgat didn’t need to hear the last word. He went into a full sprint down the concrete path toward the woods, eliciting Nealis to turn his head and smile.

But it wasn’t just the false start that deserved a double take. Moortgat didn’t look like your average runner and especially not one ready to take on the Run Amuck — the annual four-mile obstacle course run through the muddy trails of Marine Corps Base Quantico .

Moortgat arrived at Quantico on June 13 in a black pair of shorts and a white T-shirt, which oddly had a long, diagonal slash through the middle that exposed his chest. Even weirder, Moortgat’s hair was heavily gelled, raised at the end of each side of his head and slightly curled to resemble animal ears.

This race is no jog in the park

Obstacle races and mud runs aren’t new, but the costumes runners wear can be rather unique.

On this day, Moortgat wouldn’t be just himself, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout in Fairfax’s Troop 1548. He was also a superhero: Wolverine. His fellow scouts, troop leaders, family members and friends who joined him weren’t exactly themselves, either.

There was Thor, with a long blonde wig, cape and self-made hammer. And Flash, sporting a red shirt emblazoned with a bright yellow lightning bolt. There were a few Ninja Turtles, a couple of Jokers, some Poison Ivies and even a Despicable Me minion. All were ready to get dirty.

Nealis turned away from the eager Moortgat and focused his attention back on the starting line, where the rest of Troop 1548 stood, anxious for the mud pits, monkey bars and any other messy mysteries the course had in store.

“Go!” Nealis finally got to say, unleashing 16 scouts group by group, all dressed as superheroes, along with the two dozen or so adults who wore villain costumes for the day.

“At one time, we used to keep time for scores and awards. Then I realized this one is not about score or speed. It’s more about fun,” Nealis said. “It’s all about bonding. You see so many people dressing up as superheroes, and it’s great. It adds to the color of the festivity.”

Run Amuck began in 2008 , originally as a timed raced, as part of the Marine Corps Marathon Event Series, which features a Thanksgiving 10-kilometer race, a 17.75K and a triathlon. The last timed mud run came in 2012. By eliminating results, Nealis said, a newfound sense of creativity was brought to the event. Unique costumes now emerge, and participants as young as 10 show up.

Some of the nation’s oldest mud runs were started by the Marine Corps, said Matt. B Davis, co-founder of obstacleracingmedia.com and author of “Down and Dirty: The Essential Training Guide for Obstacle Races and Mud Runs.”

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton has hosted the World Famous Mud Run since 1993, while the Marine 5K Mud Run in Roanoke will celebrate its 20th anniversary in September. Mud and obstacle runs are a large part of the rapidly growing non-traditional race industry, especially in the D.C. metro area. According to mudrunguide.com, there are nearly 20 mud runs scheduled within the next year.

“People’s lives have gotten very dull. They’ve gotten very stagnant,” Davis said. “So it’s a chance to experience the world in way that they haven’t. And once people do it, the reason they keep coming back is that they tap into that stuff they did when they were a kid that they loved so much, like rolling around in the mud, jumping around on the monkey bars and hanging out with people.”

Phil Quinn, a 49-year-old ex-Marine and the scoutmaster of Troop 1548, has completed several obstacle courses and treks through the mud in his lifetime. Two years ago, he ran the Run Amuck for the first time with only two scouts who were up for the challenge. In 2014, 10 scouts came out with him, dressed in all white down to their socks.

Alex Mendoza was among those brave souls.

“Last year when we finished Run Amuck, I saw a couple guys dressed as Spartans,” said Mendoza, a 16-year-old troop patrol leader. “So I figured, let’s do our own thing. And since there’s a lot of younger guys in our troop, we decided superheroes would be the best fit.”

Mendoza started planning for the race last August and made sure no two scouts dressed the same. He chose Batman, while Sean Quinn, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout and the scoutmaster’s son, luckily got Superman with the last pick.

“What are you doing!” Quinn asked Saturday morning at the sight of his father dyeing his hair green and painting whiskers on his face.

The scoutmaster arrived at Quantico in a lime green body suit. The scouts gave Quinn the trail name “The Grinch” because of his tendency to sneak a brick he calls “Mary” into one of his scouts’ backpacks during a long hike. So Quinn ran the Run Amuck as the Grinch, though he wasn’t the only one in a body suit.

“Where’d you find that outfit? That’s what I want to know,” the scoutmaster asked scout Benton Pelczynski before the race. The 14-year-old wore an all-white morph suit because the store was out of the silver one he envisioned for his Silver Surfer costume.

Pelczynski ran with his father, Tony, whom he convinced to squeeze his head into a bald cap to resemble Superman villain Lex Luthor.

“When it was described, I was just very excited to have the opportunity to run and crawl around in the mud,” Tony Pelczynski said. “I haven’t done that in a while. I’m ex-Army, so playing Marine is always a lot of fun.”

At about 9:40 a.m., the troop followed Moortgat’s lead into a forest that the Quantico Fire Department had been pumping with water all week because of a lack of rain. By the first pit, Quinn already was pushing his scouts down into the cold water and sloshing mud into their faces, which he playfully denied doing after the race.

“It must’ve been somebody else in green,” Quinn joked.

But it was hard to miss the scoutmaster or anyone else who was part of Troop 1548’s band of superheroes and supervillains. At the third and final mud pit of the day, Mendoza navigated the water and a steep hill to the tune of “Batman!” cheers from some of the race’s 2,000-plus participants. Mendoza was then greeted by an “Is that all you got?” Marine sign.

The Marines throughout the course kept the scouts going. “Finish strong,” one said in Moortgat’s direction as he cranked out crunches, his white shirt now in a tan ball he used as a pillow.

Up the next hill they went — a steep, winding road that minutes before provided the path of another participant blaring the Rocky theme song on her portable speaker. Three and a half miles down, one hill and two obstacles to go.

“I was so tired,” Mendoza said of the final stretch. “Going down was even pretty hard.”

Around 11 a.m., the superheroes emerged from the trees and sprinted toward the finish line, eventually followed by their villains. Pelczynski’s once pure-white morph suit was now light brown. The green of Quinn’s hair had faded, and a ring of mud lined his mouth. Moortgat’s hair took original form after the water, and humidity in the 86-degree heat deflated the Wolverine look.

On Saturday, Troop 1548 added running through the mud to its long list of adventures from the past few years: raft building in Paw Paw, W.Va.; axe grinding in the Northern Neck; and a coast-to-coast hike along Hadrian’s Wall in England.

“Life is kind of just about getting these experiences,” Sean Quinn said after what was his last major event with the troop before going off to college.

No matter whom they were dressed as at Quantico, the scouts all represented what they collectively call themselves: “The All-Weather Troop.”

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In Quanticos mud race, finishing first isnt necessarily the goal