"EXTREME" KIDS' MUD RUN AND MORE At the Samish Bay Bivalve Bash - Notes from Jon Rowley After her fall Place: Bow, Washington Date: July 31, 2004 Our Bivalve Bash was quite successful. We were blessed with a glorious day. The only problem was not being able to shuttle people in and out fast enough. Some people missed the Mud Run waiting for the shuttle. The Mud Run was a big hit. Patrick Spilsbury, a 14 year old from Mt. Vernon who hasn't done much running beat some top runners in the men's division with a fast time of 1:05.6, 1 1/2 minutes faster than the next finisher and over 4 minutes faster than the third place finisher in field of good runners. Very impressive. I have a feeling the running world will come to know the name Patrick Spilsbury. Chris Ashby, 41, from Bellingham, was the top woman finisher in 1:39.4.  We had 88 finishers (more than twice what we has last year) in the 250 yd adult Mud Run and 15 finishers in the 100 yd Kid's Mud Run. The Kid's Mud Run was fun to watch.  Julia Monroe, 11, kept up with the top three boys until the final turn when she fell down (runners fall down frequently in the Mud Run), but she got up and gained ground to win the girl's division and place fourth overall with a strong 34.2.  Morgan Cassidy, 9, finished second in 39.9.  Jacqueline Monroe,10, finished third in 49.5. Jordan Stopinski, 11, finished first in the 8-12 boys division of the 100 yd Kid's Mud Run. Tyler Thompson, 10, came in second in 30.9 with Curtis Whan, 10, third in 31.8. This is an infant festival in a rural shore side setting. Here is last year's winning "oyster shell castle". We put a sign up on the beach reading "Shell Castle Contest" and without further prompting or pitching there were five castles to judge. The photo on the right is of this year's winning Bivalve Bash oyster shell castle in the world's first such contest that we know about. It was built by Russ and Pam Leno and son. The tide is just reaching the castle. In another two hours or so it will be covered. We had five teams building oyster shell castles from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Lot's of work on a hot day! The project got people's attention. The shell castle building area had quite a few people going through it all afternoon even when the water was knee deep. When only the tops of the castles were showing they became targets for swimming kids who were playing some form of king of the mountain resulting in toppled castle towers. For your reading pleasure, here is Indro Neri's Running with Forrest Gunk account of his first Bivalve Bash 250 yard run. Indro at the Finish Enjoy the story and let it inspire you to sign up for your first "extreme" event at next year's Bivalve Bash and Kids' Mud Run. And more from Jon Rowley, Race Director: The Mud Run is part the Samish Bay Bivalve Bash, a fund raiser for the community clean water awareness programs of the Skagit Conservation Education Alliance. The idea is have fun while drawing attention to the need to keep our waters clean. And what is more fun for kids and kids-at-heart than MUD. Kids love the idea of running in mud (but they found out soon enough it is HARD). More than a few fell down (great race to watch) A couple of kids got stuck. A few lost their shoes. All part of the allure of a Mud Run, yes? From Keefer Whan, last year's Samish Bay Mud Run winner I have raced NCAA Division 1 competition, run marathons, Mt. Erie, Ski to Sea, and Hood-to-Coast relay. Even though only 300 meters, this is the hardest race I have ever competed in. Everyone should attempt this race once... if only to learn a little something about what is inside them!! LINKS: Bivalve Bash Web site MUD RUN goodrow@infionline.net