5k Foam Fest

Note: I received a ticket to run this race. All opinions are my own.

One week ago, today, my two friends and I got in the car and headed to Ottawa, IL to participate in the 5k Foam Fest! I had no idea what was in store for me besides a little bit of mud, some foam and a giant 3 story slide. We arrived at the fest and it was a bit chilly. The high was only supposed to be 62 while we were there. We went over to the tents, checked in, dropped off our bags, and hung out for about 45 minutes until it was time for our wave. (Side note, if you’re over 21, make sure you bring your ID so you can get a wristband for a free Mike’s Hard at the finish line!) I didn’t take advantage of that because of being pregnant.

Before you head out, you line up at the start line where there is a DJ playing some music to get you moving and they talked to us about the fact that the Chicago 5k Foam Fest goes to help the Illinios Special Olympics organization. I joined the Foam Fest just for fun, but how neat that it also goes out to help a charity as well!

At 9:20 am they let us loose on the course! As we rounded the corner, it was a total shock to me to find that the entire course was mud/wet clay. This race was muddier than the Pretty Muddy run I took part in last year! My friends and I ended up walking slipping, sliding and falling through the whole race. There wasn’t many places that you could get footing enough to RUN.

Some of the obstacles were insane! We had to wade through a “lake” that came up to my chest. The mud that was at the bottom came up to my knees. That was disgusting! They also had one obstacle that was three walls you had to climb over. The slats weren’t really big enough to get your feet in between so many people fell. I decided to skip that obstacle because it wasn’t worth it to me to fall down. They also had two very tall ravines that you had to go down and climb back up. With the course being muddy, I ended up sliding down most of each ravine on my butt! Only one ravine had a rope, which made the second ravine nearly impossible to climb! I was on hands and knees, digging my fingers into ground like claws.

Other obstacles were fun and foamy! They had inflatable slip and slides and an inflatable pool that you had to run across a huge piece of foam that sinks if you spend too much time on it. Getting out of that pool was hilarious because you couldn’t grab anything to pull out and it was inflatable, so you would just slide right back in every time you tried. This is definitely a course that you want to do with a friend so you have someone to help you out!

Overall I would totally do the 5k Foam Fest again. My suggestions to the team, though, are to have some kind of working shower (all people could do was rinse off their feet) and a tent for people to change in. My friends and I took turns in the handicap port-a-potty. Also, for mud pits and steep ravines, have a rope to pull yourself out. Check out the website to find a 5k Foam Fest near you.