Rykar Crowley, 3, and his mother Lori of Ghent celebrate the conclusion of the Mud Run with big smiles.

The amazing mud run of Rykar Crowley

Some of the area's elite athletes found it difficult to catch their breath upon completion of the grueling Challenge of the Lions Mud Run race as part of Belgian-American Days festivities this weekend in Ghent.

They found it even more difficult to watch as three-year-old Rykar Crowley complete the race without even breathing hard.

In fact, he seemed to have gained even more energy after completing the multiple-obstacle course. “It was fun,” he said with a big smile on his face and mud running down his legs. “I like the wall the best,” he added, in reference to the “Think Snow” wall in which runners climb over a short wall and drop into a snow pile on the other side. Crowley was arguably the youngest runner in the large field of competitors, yet held his own in the untimed portion of the Fun Run.

Several onlookers commented and pointed to the pint-sized boy as he sped along the course with his mother, Lori, close behind. “Look at that little kid running,” one woman who was watching the competitors commented to her friend.

“He's never going to make it all the way through (the course),” remarked the female friend. Participants would run over walls, zipline over mud, crawl under a tarp-covered mud pit, run across a narrow balance beam, climb over hay bales and large dirt piles, crawl through drainage pipes and other obstacles placed throughout the course. When runners got to the end of the course, they turned around and re-ran the same obstacles en route to the finish line.

Minutes later, Rykar made his return trip, much to the amazement of the two skeptical onlookers.

“Oh my, he is still running,” the two women said almost simultaneously. Rykar did have an advantage during certain portions of the course, however. Instead of crawling through tractor tires like the majority of the competitors, he took advantage of his low center of gravity.

And he just ran through them without even having to duck his head. The young Crowley had plenty of support, too.

The Mud Run was a family reunion of sorts with nine other relatives also running the race, including his mother, who was running the race for the second straight year.

“It's a lot of fun and I enjoy it a lot,” said the mud-covered mother, while high-fiving Rykar after the race. “I think I’m more tired than he is.”

Rykar did have to skip the zip-line and climbing wall due to his size, or lack of it. And he got some assistance climbing the stack of hay bales from spotter Brad Hennen.

But otherwise, the future star athlete never broke stride.

When asked if he wanted to run the race again, Rykar quickly nodded his approval, then turned to his mother and said, “I want to do it again.”

After all, it's a chance to get muddy with mom's approval.

Who could pass that up?

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