If you're looking for a different thrill, take part in a Mud Run, a wild dash across the countryside. It's probably the dirtiest race in the sporting world and the most fun you can have running. Local mud runs attract participants of all ages and fitness levels.

The entertaining courses of around 5k are mostly through wet and muddy stubble-strewn fields, with a few stream crossings breaking the stride, before a twisting and turning woodland trail including a high embankment and several log jumps bring the runners towards the finish.

The Prumarathon in Schermerhorn, Netherlands, is on the second weekend in July.

Run like the Marines

A mud run is the one event you don't want to miss. This course will be CHALLENGING! Would you expect anything less from Marines? A mud run is undoubtedly your ticket to the dirtiest, wackiest and most fun event you'll ever enter. You can race individually, within your age division, or as a member of a team.

Choose the "Open" category with no restrictions on attire and footwear, or the "Boots and Utilities" category, which requires regulation military boots and camouflage utility clothes. Shoes are required. Change of clothes is recommended. Clean-up hoses or showers are usually provided to rinse yourself and your outfit.

Gain Confidence

In the beginning you may feel apprehensive and nervous while you attempt to keep your clothes dry. Ironically, this reduces your confidence and could hold you back.

Once you've jumped into the first mud pit or water ditch, you gain a sudden new confidence. Now that your clothes are soaking wet, you're more relaxed and less worried and move about more sure footed. That gives you a new boldness.

No diving into mud holes, they are less than 4 feet deep. Diving will cause you to be a safety violator and be escorted off the course for your safety and the safety of other runners.

Start of the Mud Run

To kick things off, some mud runs start with a fire-truck shower. That's right, all those who forgot to drink their morning coffee can enjoy a cold, "eye awakening" shower from fire-trucks parked at the starting line.

After just a few meters into the run you'll meet up with your first shoe eating mud pit. This is why you should wear tall lace up boots. The course continues on through miles of soggy fields, several mud pits, water pits (with obstacles) and enough mud to make a million mud pies.

A typical mud run consists roughly of 5 km of off-road running, with obstacles, hills, and of course, mud pits. The last mud pit is usually the most challenging because it was covered with ropes and nets. This of course, meant you have to get down into the mud on your hands and knees and crawl under the ropes to get to the other side.

Mud Pit

The final obstacle at every event is the famous mud pit, full of water, sand, mud and a lot of fun! This area is consistently lined with spectators to witness the muddy mess.

Team mates go through the mud pit together and must belly crawl below ribbons hung across the mud pit. Failure to crawl on your belly is met with jeers from the crowd. Once team mates finish the mud pit, they must carefully (the mud makes things very slippery) cross the finish line together.