Getting dirty for a great cause

By Laurie Gordon
SPARTA — For Carly Swenson, Sunday's Mud Run was about getting muddy. “I love the mud part,” she said. Her twin sister, Tate, had a different take on the event: “I like all of the obstacles,” she said. The Swenson girls, of Sparta, raced through the three-quarter-of-a-mile course filled with obstacles in the fifth grade girls' division, navigating a spider web, climbing over hay bales, hopping through slicked down tires, jumping up to reach bars to climb rung-over-rung to the far end, through several other obstacles then got really muddy crawling under barriers in a slimy soup and finally sprinted to the finish line.
The fourth Annual Sparta Mud Run was held at the Sparta Evangelical Church, throughout it's sprawling grounds and finishing with a host of obstacles around a field. The smell of hot dogs on the grill and the sound of cheers and the wooshing of water from hoses filled the air as the kids came trough, starting with the first graders and going up through the sixth grade.
The beneficiary of the event was Project Self-Sufficiency, in particular, its Toy Shop. The Toy Shop is held each holiday season and brings in thousands of toys which are put in a large room. People who are not able to buy toys for their children are then invited to pick out toys.
The event's director was Jenni Jones, a Sparta resident and member of the church. “Part of our outreach to the community is helping charities such as Project Self-Sufficiency,” she said. “We came up with the idea a few years ago as something fun and different and healthy for the kids as well as an activity most had probably never tried.”
And so, for the first three years, the kids loved it... but the moms got jealous.
“Last year, several of the moms approached us and asked if we could add an event for them, so this year, after the childrens' events, we added an event for the moms that involves the same obstacles but is a little longer," she said. "This race is for girls and women 13 and up and drew quite the crowd."
“I can't believe how muddy I got,” exclaimed Ashley Smith, of Stillwater, after the event. Sunday saw the 11-year-old gymnast turn into a “mudder” as she raced through the course with a smile on her face.
Anthony Cortese, of Sparta, and his mom cheered on his sister, Giana, and brother, Nick. Nick Cortese said, “This was a lot of fun to do and it was great to go through all the mud.”