Just seven hours after arriving home from her college commencement ceremony, Warrenton native Melanie Raterman was trading in her cap and gown for a neon green shirt and a pair of running shoes.She and her father, Terry, hit the course at the Battlegrounds Mud Run in Wright City to compete alongside one another for a second straight year.Melanie, who graduated from Missouri State University Friday, May 19, arrived home around 2 a.m. for just a few solid hours of sleep before taking on the excessively muddy course.“We ran it last year and really enjoyed it, so we wanted to compete again,” said Terry Raterman.Torrential downpours on Friday evening complicated the course and even closed part of it. Those running the competitive 5-mile course had to complete a series of obstacles twice, because the creek splitting the course was impassable.Warrenton native Scott Schulze, who has competed in every Battlegrounds race since the inaugural one in 2012, says the closures were frustrating. This year he competed with his wife, Krissy.“We had to wait in line at a lot of the obstacles due to the delays and closures,” said Schulze. “Unfortunately, some of the cooler new obstacles were not accessible.”Krissy noted that having to do the course twice was “mentally defeating, because I knew the ones I couldn’t do when I came through the second time.”This year’s event had nearly 2,300 competitors who waded through mud trenches, traversed cargo nets, plunged down the water slide and scaled over walls before arriving at the gauntlet near the end.“I liked the slide and the big water jump,” said Terry Raterman. “I’m not a big fan of the water jump,” fired back Melanie Raterman. “The whole course was muddy and swampy, so that was kind of fun.”Terry says he had competed before with a group from work and talked his niece and nephew into joining for this event. His team, the Mudpack, donned neon green shirts that helped them stand out among the waves of competitors.“I think it’s fun to run with Melanie,” said Terry Raterman. “She’s not much of a runner, and I can’t get her to run on 5Ks, but I was able to talk her into this last year and now she likes it.”Both agreed that the gauntlet was one of the most challenging parts of the course.“There was caked-on mud from everyone going before us,” said Melanie. “We had like 4 pounds of mud on the bottom of our shoes before even going onto it.”“It was a fun 24 hours,” added Melanie.

Melanie Raterman, Warrenton, scales down one of the obstacles during the Battlegrounds Mud Run held on Saturday, May 20. Raterman and her father, Terry, competed alongside one another for a second time just hours after she had graduated from Missouri State University. Record photo/ Derrick Forsythe.

Warrenton residents, pictured from left, Debbie Rotach, Jeanel Darity and Nancy Bruns celebrate after completing the course at the Battlegrounds Mud Run on Saturday, May 20. Record photo/ Derrick Forsythe.