There was plenty of all as 1100 participants took part in the Titan Macquarie Mud Run yesterday but more importantly there was pride and smiles as they crossed the finish line after the nine kilometre course.

Competitors faced 24 obstacles including river crossings, barbed-wire crawls, a 2.5 metre high wall, balance beams and tyre carries.

Getting underway at 8am, a new wave of teams left every 15 minutes and made their way through the course.

Organisers said a time of an hour was extremely quick but most were taking between 90 minutes and two hours.

Volunteer co-ordinator and media manager Ann-Maree Chandler said the plan was to make it an annual event and the feedback has been overwhelming that contestants wanted it too.

“It’s been absolutely brilliant. Participants are loving it,” Ann-Maree said.

“We’ve heard great things, people come past the finish line with a big smile on their face. People are saying it’s hard but not impossible and a really good challenge. That’s the kind of feedback we want.

“There’s been a great turn out. We wanted to take care of our spectators and make sure they are catered for too. We had food, drinks and entertainment. We want this to be a community event and show off these great facilities.

“Going off feedback, people are saying they can’t wait to come back, others who didn’t get in this year are saying on Facebook ‘wish we had registered, will be there next year for sure’.”

Friends Ryan Riley and Mark Pinnock took part in the mud run as part of a team and completed the course in an hour and a half. Ryan is a local but Mark traveled from Wagga to take part. They were impressed with the course layout and said they were keen to do it again next year.

“It was great. This is the first time we have done a mud run but it was quite enjoyable,” Ryan said.

“The slip-and-slide was probably the best obstacle. It wasn’t much fun carrying tyres and logs up the hill and the barbed-wire crawl on grass was pretty tough. Got a few cuts and grazes there,” Mark said.

Dubbo competitor Nick Hubbard also finished about 90 minutes and he was a big fan of the event.

“I loved it. It was bloody awesome. Great to get amongst the mud,” he said.

“Getting under the barbed wire, the river crossings and the slip-and-slide, it was all awesome. Like going back to your childhood.”

“I’ve done a few 10-kilometre runs but never an obstacle course. This is a lot harder because when you are running you build up a rhythm but here you keep stopping and starting and you carry about five kilos of mud as well.

“I would definitely do this again.”