Mud marathon of Schermerhorn 2005
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Sunday 10 of July we were there again. Ton come in the early morning and we go with my car to Schermerhorn in the north of Holland. It was nice whether. We both had subscribed. So we have to start at twelve o'clock with the veterans. We didn't a good job. Within a couple of hundreds meters we were last. May be we have to practice more often. There are now a days all over the country runs across ditches and canals. But at none of them you have to start in long trousers. We were somewhat late. So I haven't time to change. I just pin my number on the back of my jeans jacket and went in a hurry in my normal clothes to the start. Where I tend to be the best clothed participant of the day.
Again the participants aren't recognizable within some minutes. The boy in yellow was after the first big canal still yellow. But above you can hardly see this color. It isn't advisable to wear white clothes. Within short time the color disappear completely under the thick layer of mud. Besides newcomers like number 102, there are a couple friends of previous years. Number 69 participated several years in almost the same clothing. Number 29 jumping in the canal is a known participant too. The group in black participated previous year for the first time.
This year the ditches were full of nice flowing thin mud as never before. In Schermerhorn there are deep ditches of more then a meter. Within short time they are filled up to the surface with mud. Along the central grounds the participants have to cross more then half a dozen time the ditches full of mud. Just jumping with a big splash, you are covered from head to foot with a thick layer of mud. The eyes and hears totally plastered. As well inside as outside your clothes the mud splashed down the body when leaving the ditch. The clothes beautiful tight against the body.
This year I concentrated me on the video, while Ton used his brand new digital camera. The most full sized pictures are of his camera. Only before the start of the seniors I toke some pictures of the clean participants myself. It wasn't easy to take nice shots. When you are carefully, then you don't see anything. Did you going near the shore, then you get a lot of mud over your camera and clothes. Nevertheless I decide to go for it. I was clothed in a nice bleu jeans and leather jacket. Standing on the edge of the ditches, I got a lot of splatter. It seems to me that the participants jumped deliberately as near as possible to me.
Almost screen wide I have a great number of shots from number 69. He was with a friend. To the end of the race they fight to become in front and pushed each other several times back in the muddy ditch. Unfortunately the distance was that big, that the battle can't be seen very well. Other participants clean at the start, can be find beneath, when you search devotee. Number 102 can be seen several times as number 9 do. The boy with the green letters on the back was participant with the groups, where 4 gents and one girl have to enter 22 ditches twice. Determined I did my duty with the camera, although the beautiful mud was well attracting me.
To the very end of the day me and Ton ended by the last two ditches of the runway. The mud was up to the surface like the ditches around the main ground. It should be tempting to end with my current clothes in this beautiful mud. But I didn't have a change and my leather jacket was of course to nice and expensive to jump with in a ditch. It's true my clothes weren't completely clean anymore, because of the spatter. But just jumping in the mud was another story.
Ton had totally different ideas. Suddenly he attacked me and starts to push me in the direction of the nice with thin mud filled ditch. Of course I fight back and he didn't have any chance and ended fully clothes in the mud. But he managed to take me with him. I become completely submerged. From one moment to the other I was completely plastered with mud inside and outside my clothes. My leather jacked wasn't black anymore. Afterwards we jumped several times in the mud again, before we headed to the car. We jumped several times in a canal to become somewhat clean.
Ton does have on his site a great number of pictures of the boy beneath. He was there for the first time with his father. After the first head of the veterans his father attacked him so from one moment to the other the nice clean jeans and orange tshirt was covered with mud. During the head of the seniors you can recognize him with the number 9 on his back. It wasn't easy I suppose. Above you can see him in the middle of a ditch foaming mud, while to the left and the right the other participants jumped in the mud.
