When Fei Liu showed up for the Joint Base Lewis-McChord Down & Dirty Mud Run outside Soldier's Field House on July 4, he thought he was about to run a 5K race.

"At the beginning I was pretty confident," said Liu, of 9th Finance Company, 593rd Special Troops Battalion. "But then I found out it was a five mile (8K). It was pretty crazy."

Liu, who returned home from Iraq on June 20, ran the course in his Army Combat Uniform, which was no easy feat considering the course featured obstacles, hills and three mud pits.

"The boots were killing my shins, and I had to stop several times," Liu said. "But now I got it."

Danielle Joyce, 7230th Medical Support Unit, also had an added challenge with her uniform. Dressed in a banana costume in the spirit of the race's theme of cartoon characters, Joyce was a little water-logged after she crossed the finish line.

"(I bought the costume) because it looked funny in the picture," Joyce said. "It got very heavy."

Overall race winner Cameron Freshwaters, a 16-year-old cross-country runner at Stadium High School, had no problem finishing the race in less than 40 minutes.

"My Family does a lot of runs around here, and we thought this one would be fun," Freshwaters said. "We never did this one before."

Minus the obstacles, Freshwaters usually runs a 4 minute, 40 second mile, but the added obstacles made it a race to enjoy.

"It was fun and challenging," Freshwaters said.

Other spectators were amazed by the top finisher's performance.

"That was amazing," JBLM Intramural Sports Coordinator Kathy Salcedo said. "I don't know how he did that. We did not expect a finisher that soon."

Being the first finisher had its perk in that Freshwaters was nearly spotless when he crossed the finish line. Runners who followed - including Smurfs, Flinstones and Mickey Mouse - were unrecognizable after finishing the race.

The finish featured a mud pit low crawl that looked so daunting a young spectator asked her father if there were alligators lurking in it. If runners escaped the first two mud pits without a spot, there was no escaping getting down and dirty to cross the finish.

It is the mud that makes the run a tradition for some.

"It's not like your average trail run," Lakewood Police Officer Michelle Garcia-Hector said. "I like the obstacles and getting muddy."

Garcia-Hector runs the Down & Dirty Mud Run every July 4. She was the first female finisher.

The runners were rewarded with an outdoor shower beyond the finish line. The showers were well received, unless they forgot to pack towels.

Down & Dirty Results

MALE

?1: Cameron Freshwaters, 16, 0:32:11

2: Patrick O'Neil, 27, 0:33:43

3: Jacob Zeise, 30, 0:35:08

4: Brett Freshwaters, 52, 0:35:25

5: Time Hsia, 28, 0:35:41

FEMALE

1: Michelle Garcia-Hector, 30, 0:37:28

2: Jordan Thurston, 15, 0:43:12

3: Tanya Huson, 23, 0:43:42

4: Lynne Reder, 44, 0:43:54

5: Gwen Nyman, 41, 0:45:09