Overall it went well. It was cloudy/misty and in the mid 50s this morning when we started. The course was one big loop of 2 miles around the perimeter of the farm and then a 1-mile loop inside. Not too hilly, just slightly rollilng. The very beginning was uphill on a gravel road, then the course was mostly on grass and dirt (or I should say MUD)! After turning off of the gravel road we got to the first obstacle almost immediately, which was a bench to jump over right into a huge mud puddle. It was funny watching people try to stay out of the water as much as possible--I just went right through it! Not too long after that I started feeling pretty rough and realized I had started out too fast (easy to do when you're in the middle of a bunch of people and are excited), but fortunately was able to settle into a reasonable pace and started feeling better soon. There were a few hay bales to jump over throughout the course and one was where a golf course abuts the farm--a group of golfers happened to be standing nearby and commented on my technique for getting over it, which was kind of funny (the comment was positive--I had accelerated a bit to launch myself over the bale and they said "now that's how to do it!"). Going into the second loop, we had to run up that gravel road again and I took a little walk break, which I wasn't that happy about doing (it was embarrassing and also allowed two people to pass me, including one I had passed earlier) but felt I needed to recover a little before heading into that unknown territory. The second loop had a few more hay bales and a 5-foot ladder stile over an electric fence; the stile caused a bit of a bottleneck as only one person could go over at a time. A lot of us climbed to the top and just jumped off into the pile of hay that was at the bottom, rather than going down the steps. After that it wasn't long before the finish chute was in sight. I was able to muster the energy for a final sprint and pass one person just before the finish--maybe I COULD have gone faster throughout the course! My time was 29:11, so I did manage to beat my predicted time of 30:00 but not by much (and still, a speed demon I am not--I came in 59th out of just over 100 runners). After the race they had a little barbecue, which was nice, and gave out the prizes to the age group winners. It was fun and I could see myself doing this race again, even though it was a bit of a drive to get there. BTW, I saw one other runner in VFFs there! The ability to toss them in the washing machine is a big advantage after a race like this.