Ranch Romp Mud Run

Beautiful 5k run, with 11 fun obstacles and an awesome staff. .. couldn’t have asked for a better way to start off Cinco de Mayo!
For a first time event with over 2000 participants, it went very smooth and was a great success! We got to the event before 10am, and our wave was at 12pm. We got there right before the registration lines started to get busy.
The run itself was very hilly. On a warm Hollister day, I really wish there were more water stations. There was ONE water station halfways through the run. The trail can get narrow, so if you are walking, move to the side for the people that care about placing. Not sure if anything can be done to make this trail flatter, it was very angled at some points, but it would help to avoid some injuries.
Obstacles weren’t too difficult — there was a line at the rock wall climb that could have easily been avoided if the wall was made longer. The 150 ft water slide was the funnest, but it could potentially be the obstacle that is most accident prone. We were told the best way to slide down was on our stomach’s & to give yourself a good kick down. My friends went sliding down, top speed, but when it was my turn I got stuck halfways down. The guy that slid down after me ended up bumping me & caused us to slide down together in the mud pit and him landing on top of me (AWKWARD! lol). If you don’t feel comfortable about doing an obstacle, you can easliy skip it. The staff was also there on the side in case you needed any help or to just cheer you on. The last obstacle is the cargo net climb & the mud pit (actually, it felt like a mud swim!). Spectators and photographers are crowded around to watch you cross that finish line. I was expecting each obstacle to have a mud pit but they get you right at the finish line. .. you are just swimming in mud water.
After the run, I was expecting a medal but all we got was a Ranch Romp bandana, a banana and our free beer. I was really disappointed since I did this race for the bling. FALSE ADVERTISEMENT! The bandana was given to you when you were still muddy, so I didnt even keep it. Also, there was a long line to get your picture taken. Another tent for pictures would have been better. Pics were $ 5.
Showers were horrible, and EVERYONE was complaining. 16 shower heads with low pressure for 2000 people. .. really?! There was a truck that came every once in a while & hosed everyone off but it didn’t help much unless you were directly in front of the hose. It took us over an hour just to get in that shower, but it didn’t help much.
Wild Turkey was out there providing us with awesome entertainment. My friends 9 year old son was rockin out with them & he enjoyed the «concert». The band came over to him as we were leaving and gave him a hat. He was stoked, THANKS WILD TURKEY!
And I totally agree with Cathy K’s advice for future Ranch Rompers! Bring your own water to clean up with, cash, wear as less clothes as possible, plenty of trash bags to put your muddy clothes in & wear shoes that you can donate to the Make-​A-​Wish foundation. Next time I am planning to bring a disposable, waterproof camera just so I can take pics on the course.
Another suggestion is to have more waves. Waves started at 11am and the next wave was 30 minutes after. With about 400 people per wave, there was just way too many people on the trail.
Overall, I had a great time & I can’t wait for next year! One of the Ranch Ramp founders has already announced there will be plenty of showers for us! Can’t wait!

So we did the first annual Ranch Romp in Hollister, today. We had a blast and we could not have asked for a more beautiful day. This was our first mud run and it was my first athletic competition of the running kind.
The scenery was amazing and the race ran through vineyards, pastures and ponds. The run was fairly challenging, as there were a lot of hills. I am not a runner, per se, so it was slow for me at many times.
There were a number of obstacles, including hay bales, a barn climb, rock wall, 150 ft water slide and of course, the mud pool.
I am terribly afraid of heights, so going over the walls had me a bit nervous. The rock wall had evenly spaced pegs all over, so that was easy and the down side was a slanted wall.
The obstacle that had me the most nervous was the rope climb. It was a 16 ft. wall and I had to chicken wing myself over the top. Overall, I was pretty surprised I did as well.
The water slide was super fun, but you have to lay on your back or on your belly. I chose to sit up and that was a big mistake! I ended up getting this nasty slide rash on my thigh and STILL slid 10 yards through the mud at the end of the slide. So much for trying not to get dirty!
The last obstacle, before the mud, is the cargo net climb. Going up was easy, and like most others, the going down was much slower. After we got through the cargo net, most of my people dove into the mud pit. Since I CLEARLY didn’t learn my lesson on the slide, I thought I would walk in the mud pit and bend under the barbed wire. FAIL! I fell immediately, and my shoes must have weighed about 10 pounds… each. I finally gave in and must dog-​crawled through the muck, with everyone else.
OK…this is where they lose the final star. There were 16… count ‘em 16… showers for 2000 people. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot!!! 16 shower heads? They had two rows of 8 shower heads lined up like gym class. It literally took us more than an hour in line to even reach the pathetic heads. Once we did, the floor was all muddy and people taller than me kept putting their dirty hands above me. It was almost impossible to get cleaned. Forget about warm water. They had a truck that came by and sprayed people, but that was too little, too late, unless you were right in front of the truck. They just didn’t seem to plan this part well at all. It was miserable standing in the muck and mire for over an hour. Not to mention, the cold mud would not dry and the breeze was CHILLING!
Kids cannot race, but this place was SUPER kid friendly and offered a great venue for watching the race. Kids were rolling down the hill and running around, so they were plenty entertained. They had wine and beer for sale and free beer and bananas for competitors (one free beer per racer). This is a cash only joint, so hit an ATM before you get there if you want to eat/​drink. You can bring in a cooler and variety of your own accouterments, so that is awesome! If you are «racing» this and want to make time, get in front or you WILL be held up at the obstacles. It took us 42 minutes to run the whole 5k, but we spent a LOT of time in line at each of the obstacles, and you can’t do a thing about it.
Advice for Future Competitors:
1. Bring a couple five gallon jugs to clean yourself off (per person).
2. Bring lots of towels
3. Don’t wear shoes you like. (They collected shoes and cleaned them for charity, so it isn’t horrible if you leave them).
4. Bring LOTS of trash bags to carry your dirty clothes in.
5. Tutus are cute, but they SUCK with pounds of mud caked on them.
6. Wear as little as possible OR wear a wetsuit that you can peel off and be clean.
Advice to Ranch Romp:
PLEASE come up with a better plan for getting clean!
We will definitely do this again!