It began with an uphill climb followed by a downhill slide. From there, runners bounced, hobbled and toppled their way through the Insane Inflatable 5K at UMass Dartmouth.

Back in its second year at UMass, Saturday morning saw teams of participants dressed as superheroes, Disney characters, video game icons, and even as little yellow Minions.

Hundreds of people participated in the 5K obstacle course to benefit the Krystle Campbell Scholarship Fund. This endowed fund is dedicated to the memory of Krystle Campbell, a UMass Boston graduate who was killed on April 15, 2013 at the Boston Marathon bombing.

The family-oriented obstacle course is based out of Charlotte, North Carolina and initially took place in San Diego, California but has expanded to over 70 different locations throughout the U.S.

The race is 3.1 miles of running interspersed with enormous bouncy slides, a ball pit and obstacle courses. With names like “Wrecking Ball,” “S.O.S” and “Pure Misery,” the course speaks for itself.

Today was Katie Devlin’s first time on an obstacle course of this magnitude.

“I plan on face-planting at least once or twice,” said Devlin.

“The reason I wanted to do this was because today is my little sister’s birthday and tomorrow is my dad’s birthday, and they’re both runners. I’m not athletic, so I figured that I would do something that they like to do,” she said.

Disasters aside, Devlin was thrilled about the run. She said she woke up a 4 a.m. to prepare for the course.

It wasn’t enough for Jenna Levesque and Shelby Soule to run the race, they decided they’d do it in style. Dressed as the iconic Nintendo characters Mario and Luigi, the duo happily toted their hard-won medals for completing the course as well as complimentary bananas from local vendors.

While the bouncy obstacles were all fun and games, Soule couldn’t say the same about the sections of the course that required running for long stretches.

“There was a part… where I definitely fell on the ground. I tried to stick my legs out to catch myself, but I’m not tall enough,” Soule said.

“She just wiped out on the ground and it was pretty funny,” said Levesque, who deemed this the funniest part of the entire run.

“The hardest part I think was not laughing the whole time,” she added.

“I think the most challenging part for people is the starting line,” said Logistics Director John Hamrick. “They don’t know what to expect and it’s kind of a bum-rush… everyone’s kind of on top of each other.”

With 11 different inflatable obstacles, vendors and tents, and a 3.1 mile run, organizing the Inflatable 5K is an enormous feat.

“It takes a lot of people. We plan about a month out and we arrive the Thursday night before the event, we set up all day Friday… wake up at 5 a.m., get here at 6 a.m. for the race,” Hamrick said.

Because of the Insane Inflatable 5k’s emphasis on the importance charity, many people ran on behalf of a loved one. Tilly Oliveira, dressed as Snow White, and her friends as her dwarfs, participated on behalf of her aunt, Connie.

“She is in remission from Stage 4 colon cancer… She was diagnosed a year ago in July, and she’s been in remission since January 2015,” said Oliveira.

The Inflatable 5K has been growing rapidly in popularity. There are currently 76 inflatable events throughout the country and next year the number will rise to over 100, said Hamrick.