COPPER MOUNTAIN — If he'd been anywhere else at the time, Ryan Thomas would've looked ridiculous. Well, maybe he still did; he just didn't seem that out of place standing on the cobblestone street of Copper Village, hands on hips, yellow cape dangling off his shoulders, as fellow runners raced past the finish line.

He was caked head-to-toe in slimy, sticky mud, making his full super-hero garb — complete with full-body spandex and tighty, ah, muddies? — look a little less, well, super.

“I usually wear this any day I'm not at work,” the firefighter from Fort Collins deadpanned.

And the way most went about Saturday's Warrior Dash at Copper Mountain made the extreme running race — which had more than 9,800 participants — seem like anything but work.

Put aside, for a moment, the 3.27-mile course with 12 extreme and bizarre obstacles peppered up and down the ski slopes, and the scene around the finish line at Burning Stones Plaza alone made it seem like no other running race around. Someone wore a full skunk outfit, another wore a suit and tie. Even more were dressed in “warrior” outfits, and there were more kilts at Copper than on the set of Braveheart.

And everyone was covered in mud, dirt, sweat and, in some rare cases, blood — all of which was barely noticeable behind their ear-to-ear grins (or beer steins put to their lips).

“If we're going to have fun, we're going to have fun,” Thomas said. “It was hard, but the fun more than made it pay off.”

“It's for all levels,” said Ryan Mclean, part of a group of 15 or so Fort Collins firefighters up for the event. “You can walk through this thing and have fun. It's not really a race.”

Most people interviewed had a hard time describing exactly what the Warrior Dash is, except to say it was a whole lot of fun.

As for the nuts and bolts of the race: Competitors began their romp by heading through the base area of Copper, where a field of car tires, a rusted heap of wrecked trucks and a mountain of hay barrels stood in their way. They then headed up the mountain on a switchback trail until heading back down below the American Flyer Lift. Then, they hit the mud, a 30-foot-long stretch of slop with barbed wire hanging just above their heads. Some racers elected for a head-first dive into the pit (“That's the only way to do it,” one competitor said) while others went in gingerly as to limit the amount of muck plastered to their bodies. These people received loud “boos” from the crowd.

Before coming to the finish line, racers still had to get through a section of tunnels, three wooden walls, a net climbing section, a narrow walk across a ditch on wood planks and a jog through a creek. And once in Copper Village, everyone had to hurdle two rows of burning logs before finishing.

“The obstacles were awesome,” Mclean said.

Racers were let onto the course in massive waves of up to 350 people. Times were kept based on when a runner entered the course, and at the end of the day — there were heats every half hour from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. — awards were given to the top three runners overall and in each of the 11 age divisions. There were also awards for “best warrior beard” and “best costume.”

During all the mayhem on the mountain, Burning Stones Plaza was transformed into a party zone, with a stage for live music and stands selling food and beer.

And while Thomas stood at the finish area, he had a simple message for people debating whether or not the Warrior Dash may be right for them.

“Don't do it if you don't like fun,” he said.

The event continues today, beginning at 10 a.m.

Bryce Evans can be reached at (970) 668-4634 or at bevans@summitdaily.com.