The night before the race, severe thunderstorms and heavy rains passed through the area.The course was totally water logged and extremely muddy. The crux of the race happened on a mountain bike leg where the best way to get from one checkpoint to the next appeared on the map to be a trail that was shown going through a lowlands/marshy area. When teams got to this spot, the trail disappeared into the water, and it looked like this would go on for miles. When we got there. Most teams carried their bikes through chest high water and deep mud for miles.