Tough Mudder – A Recap
I am a proud owner of the bright orange headband that is only awarded to the insane realms who believe that crawling through mud and racing through elements makes for a fun Saturday afternoon.
I completed the race on Sept 28 with a friend that I met in one of the classes I taught. She had participated in a few Tough Mudders before, but I had no idea what to expect.
We parked at a location that was about 30 minutes from the race and shuttled to the starting line. We had some time before our wave started after checking our bags and picking up our race kits so we wandered around the area watching other starting waves and witnessing a marriage proposal at the finishing line!
When it was time for our wave to start, we lined up and scaled the 10′ wall to the starting line. The course was at Mount St. Louis Moonstone so the first portion of the race was climbing the ski hill. From there, we did the first obstacles which involved a pit of mud, water crawl under cages and electrical wire and scaling another wall.
It took about 10 minutes into the race to be completely soaked, covered in mud and smiling broadly. I was quite nervous about the race because it wasn’t timed and I am a competitive person. However, the sun was shining, I was running a solid pace and I was able to chatter with my friend.
It felt like playing outside with a friend at the park back in the day. (Sort of)
The race distance was 17 km with about 13 obstacles. We braved monkey bars, mud, freezing water and electricity and had a laugh doing it. Near the end, we were passing people who started at 8 am and our wave started at 1 pm, so I was able to get a bit of my competitive nature out of my system.
Upside: One thing I really enjoyed was there was all kinds of people in all shapes and sizes doing the event. It was not easy but it was not exclusive. I was proud to see people doing a difficult event.
Downside: I am not sure if it is because I working in marketing, but it felt like I was being marketed to at every turn. It was a well planned and fun event, but it was quite expensive when compared to other races I have done.
Do I recommend it? Yes. I love to try new things and experience new trends in the fitness industry. That being said, I will not be making a huge practice out of obstacle races as I like the competitive aspect of it and when all was said and done, the hefty price tag was not worth a repeat.
Have you done an obstacle event? Would you try it or do one again?
Welcome to the club! I joined it 1 week before you on September 21st, 2013 at Tough Mudder Kansas! I’m finishing my recap myself soon.