The culture of cyclocross racing seems to value mud, frankly beyond all reason:

This is a difficult fetish to support here in the high deserts of New Mexico, where the terrain ordinarily looks more like this:

One must admire Rich Plunkett, organizer of Sunday's Psunshine Psychocross (that's rich in the second picture in the red and white KHS uni) for his diligence in finding mud. (I don't race this stuff. But it was fun to go out and watch.)