At Sunday's Family Fun Mud Run, the lead of the race featured a neck-and-neck battle for first place between the overall male winner - a college freshman - and the overall female winner - a soon-to-be seventh-grader.
But the real excitement was at the back of the pack. At least to Corbin Gibson, who may have been pulling up the rear, but was probably too busy to notice.
The 4-year-old, while running with his father, Dan Gibson, left no mud puddles - intended or unintended - untouched along the 1.5-mile course.
"We just want kids to especially get out there and be active and see it can be fun to go run, or walk it - just keep moving," said Morris, the track and cross country coach for both Calvary and Trinity Lutheran School.
This year, organizers didn't need to do much to create the mud for the mud run, since rains had already made the course plenty wet, Morris said.
Toward the end of the race, Corbin ignored a helping hand offered by his Dad and climbed the last straw bale on his own. Then, in the last stretch and right at the finish line, he continued to do what he appeared to do better than all of the other 45 racers - splash in more mud puddles.
Some 45 people participated in Calvary Lutheran High School's second annual mud run. The school raised more than $500 for its booster club, organizer Kerri Morris said.
For overall male winner Todd Rakow and overall female winner Baileigh Morris, it was about 10½ minutes of hard running over obstacles and through mud. (For the record, Rakow won the race by about four seconds.)
For Corbin, it was 27 minutes of playing in the mud that Mom might not have otherwise allowed.