Photo By Kristen Wong | Swamp Romp participant Meghan Lee laughs with her teammates after taking a tumble over...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, Kaneohe Bay - The Boondocker Training Area was crowded with more than 2,400 runners from several military installations and the local community waiting to get down and dirty during the 18th annual Swamp Romp, Feb. 25.
The one-mile course, hosted by Combat Logistics Battalion 3, consisted of a run through Fort Hase Beach, Nuupia Ponds and along the roads on base. Participants ran the course in backward order from its previous years, according to Mike Li, the coordinator
of the Swamp Romp this year.
While some participants chose to wear regular running apparel, others opted for creative costumes, from angels and bunnies to Captain America and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
“We traveled many moons to get here,” said Jason McNutt, from Port Operations at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
McNutt and his team were dressed from head to toe in spandex suits of varied colors.
“It was a flash of brilliance from a TV commercial,” McNutt said of his team’s costume idea.
Teams were staggered at the starting line and were allowed to begin the race when their number was called. At the end of the primary dry, dirt road lay a murky wetland, where participants scrambled down a hill directly into muddy waters. Volunteers standing by the race route called, “High knees! High knees! It’ll be easier with high knees!”
Some participants were not so lucky during the first leg of the race. Ja’Nissa Hughes, of Aiea, Hawaii, tripped several times, and came out of the race early. Navy hospital corpsmen were on hand to suspend her injured arm in a makeshift sling.
“I was feeling adventurous,” Hughes said. “I came, I saw … I left.
“My friend said the first person who falls, wins!” she added with a smile.
But clearly it wasn’t necessary to fall to get muddy as participants playfully splashed each other throughout the race. David Sprouls of the Mud Monkeys, a Combat Logistics Battalion 3 team, said it was nasty getting a big mouthful of mud as his teammates threw
mud-balls at each other.
Retired service members also participated in the Swamp Romp, like retired Capt. Dan Brown and retired Navy Cmdr. Jack Savage, who ran with Team Makalapa. Brown, of Kailua, has been in the Swamp
Romp at least six other times.
“I think this is probably one of the muddier ones,” Brown said.
Savage commented that the obstacles weren’t as backlogged as they were in previous years.
“It was a good combination of running, mud and sand,” Savage said.
One portion of the Swamp Romp included a run along Fort Hase Beach. Several participants took a quick dunk in the ocean to wash off the mud.
“It really tuckers you out running on the beach, then going in mud,” said Gregory Thoroman, of the Easy Riders team from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 37.
The Easy Riders took second place in the race, with a time of 56 minutes and 46 seconds.
“[The Swamp Romp is] a lot of fun,” Thoroman said. “You get to exercise [and] dress up in costumes. There’s a lot of team spirit.”
Many others agreed Fort Hase Beach was quite a challenge.
“The beach was the worst part of it, a lot of thick sand out there,” said Jordan Arredondo of the Funksters, who romped in the swamp for the first time, from 647th Security Forces Squadron at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. “I slipped a couple of times, it was really nasty. Overall it was a good course. Whenever you thought you were finished, you weren’t quite there. It was fun.”
This year, the Swamp Romp included 16 obstacles. Participants crawled beneath cammi netting and through crates; climbed over logs and barrels and more.
“I thought it was great,” said Erin Ellis, of Team Swordsmen, representing Patrol Squadron 47. “The obstacles were awesome.”
Swordsmen team member Rebecca Giguere said running through the mud [as opposed to the normal race track] “gave us a chance to catch our breath.”
“We just gotta keep our mouths shut [to avoid accidentally inhaling mud],” added Swordsmen team member Joyce Peter.
Many teams crossed the finish line with linked arms, cheers and smiles. Participants peeled off duct tape from their shoes and rinsed off beneath a large hose spraying water.
The Hula Hotties, with representation from Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 24, wrung out their muddy, brown grass skirts.
“My daughter did it last year and I was jealous,” said Becky Bujaki of the Swamp Romp. “You get filthy [and] you have fun.”
Bujaki said the last leg of the run was the nastiest.
“After the ponds it was just coffee mud,” she said.
Bujaki’s daughter ran the Swamp Romp for her second year. This year she said she enjoyed the fact that there were more obstacles, though running in the sand was difficult.
“We passed a lot of other teams,” she said.
“It’s a fun team race,” said Emma Shaul, an Army spouse from Schofield Barracks.
Shaul and her team, called the Cereal Killers, came out for the race wearing T-shirts bearing brand name cereals. Shaul’s daughter said the race was fun because teams could dress up in costume, though she, like many agreed that running along the beach was indeed difficult.
Teams coming in first, second and third place were awarded medals at the end of the race. This year, the first place-winning team was R.I.S.E. (the letters stand for the core values of the Air Force). Above, consisting of service members from the 352nd Network Warfare Squadron aboard Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
The team completed the race in 53 minutes and 23 seconds.
“It was tougher this year,” said Christopher Perez, the team captain of R.I.S.E. Above. “They put out a lot more obstacles ... [the beach run] gets your feet tired pretty quickly. It was a challenging course.”
Perez said he considers winning the romp a “great honor,” and his team was very excited. The team had also competed last year, but found difficulty running in pants and boots, so cut down to bathing suits and short shorts. The team also hopes to run in the Hood to Coast Relay in August to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project.
| Date Taken: | 03.02.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 03.02.2012 16:40 |
| Story ID: | 84655 |
| Location: | KANEOHE BAY, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 213 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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