One of the unique qualities that sets the Titan Macquarie Mud Run apart from other social sporting events is its inclusivity for all types of athlete, secretary Kate Astill believes.

This year, the 13th running of this great community event is being held on Saturday, March 14, from Regand Park along the muddy banks of the Macquarie River.

“I think the biggest thing it has going for it is that is that it caters for runners of all fitness levels,” Kate said. “You don’t have to be a certain level of fitness, with the lead runners starting first, and the social runners taking off after them,” she added.

In fact, Kate revealed that for this year’s event, competitors won’t even have to undertake the daunting swim across the local waterway that is so much a part of the race.

“We normally require adults to be able to swim 200 metres but, in saying that, one of the options this year is that competitors don’t have to take part in the swim.

“This year the route is going to be quite different and, if runners are not confident, they can walk across the Tamworth Street footbridge; this also has the ‘cargo net’ section that you have to cross over,” Kate explained.

While many serous athletes take-on this multi-disciplinary event, there’s also plenty of opportunities for great social fun for groups in their favourite costumes to get down in the dirt.

“If you want to be competitive, be in our ‘Elite Waves’ that go first with $500 prize- money for winners. For our teams, everyone gets into the dress-ups; we’ve had one lady who’s been in it every year in our Elite Wave, and she ran as Superwoman last year,” Kate recalled.

As a committee member, Kate and other organisers don’t actually take part in the event, too busy each year making sure our biggest fun sporting event operates smoothly and (mostly) incident-free.

“We’re very happy just to watch everyone else participate and have a good time. Many of us take part in other events during the year, such as the Spartan and Tuff Nutterz races, we love it,” Kate explained.

The mud run, she revealed, was always conceived as a fun local sporting community occasion, that also raised important money for sporting infrastructure in the Orana region.

“When the committee first formed, we wanted something fun and for everyone,” Kate said. “To get involved, and to put back something into the community in the way of projects and infrastructure.”

With the temperature being decidedly on the warmish side in Dubbo over recent weeks, she said, however, that this no guarantee of a baking day for the mud run itself.

“The weather each year can be quite different, with one recent year being quite cool,” Kate remembered. “With the last obstacle, the Ice Pit, a slippery dip into a sort of pool topped-up throughout the day with bags of ice from DMC, the runners were in-and-out in pretty smart fashion,” she laughed.