Playing dirty is team’s Dam Mud Run strategy

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

NASHUA — If this is teamwork, who needs politics?

The extended family clan that called itself the “Rocky Mountain Mutha Funkin’ Mudders” adopted a strategy rather superfluous considering the main event of the evening.

Afterall, why sling double-handfuls of sludge at your teammates when the “Dam Mud Run” is naturally going to make plenty of filth stick anyway?

But when it came to the obstacles, like scaling over a pair of slicked-up giant tractor tires, it’s nice to have a fellow “Mutha” helping you over the top.

“I’m here for a family reunion,” said Colorado resident P.J. Camarillo, who was part of the RMMFMs, and proved to be the team’s Most Valuable Mudder when it came to obstacle assistance.

“Some of us made the trip from Colorado,” Camarillo said. “Others live here in Nashua. This is the first time we’ve done this together.”

Friday’s seventh annual event at Cedar View Park was also the first Dam Mud Run for Waverly resident Mandy Gidley.

“I’ve done the ‘Warrior Dash’ before,” Gidley said of the 5K mud run series held throughout the country, “and that’s a little harder.

“This may not be as hard, but it’s much more fun.”

The Dam Mud Run is part of Nashua’s Water Over the Dam Days that took place over the weekend. And though it’s assumed that flood water is mud’s best friend, the flood that occurred last summer played a major part in altering this year’s course.

“The flood washed away many of our obstacles,” said Tori Ulrichs who, with husband Jeff, organized this year’s Dam Mud Run for the first time, though they’ve been a part of the Water Over the Dam planning committee in past years.

One of the obstacles — an I-beam contestants used to cross over a pond — was bent during the flood and was nixed from this year’s course.

“We basically had to start from scratch again and alter the course,” Ulrichs said. “It worked out. People said they had fun. People got dirty.”