Never mind the smoke, here’s a faceful of soggy dirt. Hundreds of Yellowknifers braved elements of all kinds on Saturday to set a mud run attendance record.
The CIBC Run for Our Lives Mud Run, held annually, raises funds for cancer-related equipment at Stanton Territorial Hospital.
While this year’s event coincided with a smoky blanket enveloping Yellowknife for much of Saturday, the opportunity to tackle the course at the city’s ski club proved too big a draw for many to resist. (Except where indicated, all photos on this page by Sarah Pruys/CIBC Run for Our Lives.)
“Even if there wasn’t any money involved, I would do this,” said Gi Debogorski, lining up to tackle the mud run for the first time.
The mud run takes place with the support of various local businesses and a crew of volunteers. Getting the course ready takes days, not least time spent distributing mud in all the right places.
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“We all thought we were coming into a really dry run just because of the way the season’s been,” said participant Shannon Barnett-Aikman, referring to the dry summer and ongoing drought affecting the region.
“But they did a great job setting up the whole thing. It was fabulous. So much fun.”
“Muddy, wet, stinky. The bogs were really smelly,” said Corey Segboer, who was competing in at least his third mud run and had learned some lessons from prior outings.
“You learn to wear plastic shoes instead of real shoes, because all the water drains out,” he said.
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“Crocs. Crocs are good.”
Like many other entrants, Barnett-Aikman ran in memory of a relative.
“My dad passed away of cancer a few years ago,” she said. “We’d be here anyway, but when we do this one, we think about him. It’s a great fundraiser, it’s a great cause, and we’re just so happy to be able to support it.”
Gloria Gaudet, originally from Délı̨nę, similarly ran on behalf of her late father.
Invited by friends and cousins to take part in her first mud run, she said: “We all decided to get together and run for our loved ones.”
The mud run took place on the same weekend as the city’s Terry Fox Run. A young contender named Avery said she was channelling both events.
“When I was running, I was thinking of how Terry Fox did it every day, and how strong and how hard that would be,” she told Cabin Radio.
Patty Olexin-Lang, who helps to organize each year’s mud run, called 2025 a “record-breaking year.”
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“We’re super excited to see the number of participants, which is over 500,” Olexin-Lang told Cabin Radio.
“We’ve never had that many. I think 460 was our top before, so a great turnout.
“The smoke has kind-of hampered things a little bit I think for some people, we understand that. But for the most part, everybody’s been coming out.”
Rene Hawkes certainly wasn’t thinking about the smoke after completing the course. The bog at the end had made more of a lasting impact.
“The run through the final bog, you’re knee-high or deeper the whole time and it smells terrible,” Hawkes said.
“That’s probably the most ‘fun’ – and I put that in quotation marks.”
Final fundraising figures from the event are set to be confirmed in the near future.
