I just did the Tough Mudder event in Indiana. I call it an event, becuase “times” obviously didn’t seem to matter. So, in my mind, it isn’t a race. I am having a hard time coming up with how I feel about this event. Maybe becuase I keep comparing it to triathlon events or Ironman. I suppose it is because they market the “event” as being one of the toughest things you will ever do. I am not quite sure of that.
Thoughts?
Congrats on the event–
I can’t answer your question, but I’m curious to hear what you thought about it? I’m planning on doing the Tough Mudder with a group of people from work in April. I admittedly don’t do many triathlons anymore (maybe one or two a year), but still swim/bike/run. So far the workout variations have been a challenge! But besides not worrying so much about speed, how was the experience?
Jen
congrats on finishing. It looks like a bad ass event, even if they’re not recording times! My brother-in-law did the mudder on Saturday. I spoke to him yesterday, but he was pretty fried. I may add it my to do list. I think the hypothermia would get me more than anything else.
I just did the Tough Mudder event in Indiana. I call it an event, becuase “times” obviously didn’t seem to matter. So, in my mind, it isn’t a race. I am having a hard time coming up with how I feel about this event. Maybe becuase I keep comparing it to triathlon events or Ironman. I suppose it is because they market the “event” as being one of the toughest things you will ever do. I am not quite sure of that.
Thoughts?
Just did the spartan race. Same kind of deal but spartan uses chip timing. Seems a bit more motivating to push hard if it is an actual race.
I’m getting ready to head down to Tampa and take part in the Tough Mudder there. I’m doing it on a 5-6 person team. I’m looking forward to doing it. I’ll let you all know how I fair. I’m just trying to have a good time and not hurt myself!
Bruce Gennari
I just did TM in NJ last weekend with some friends. They make it pretty clear that its not about time and isn’t a race but more about the camaraderie with teammates and the experience. I thought it was tough in the mental sense mainly because of the water aspect. I knew it would be cold, (40 deg air temp and 50-ish water temps) but until I was in and out of the water the first time I dreaded going back in again, again and again. Some obstacles were tough while others were easy and there wasn’t much running between them, no more than half a mile or so. I had a blast but probably won’t end up doing another one.
I’ve seen vidz. It’s not a race. It’s camaraderie with a clock in the background… Most folks seem to be high or drinking beer from a Camelbak.
Signed up for the SoCal February race and then found out they don’t time it!?! I’ll reserve my comments until after the race, but not real happy about the timing issue! Probably be one of those races that I’ll do once, and move on. Unreal they charge that much but don’t time it!?!
I did the NorCal Warrior Dash 3 weeks ago. 3 1/2 miles cross country.
Waves of 500 every half hour, with about 10 military type obstacles. Catwalk, climbing wall about 10 feet with water pouring down, rope bridge dipping into muddy water, short walls with interspered under-barbed wire, ropes up sloped slippery boards, jump thru the fire pits, several cargo nets traverse and climb overs, and near the end a 15 foot wall with cleats and ropes. All before a 20 yard 2 foot deep sloppy mud crawl under barbed wire.
All followed by rock bands, BBQ and beer.
Plenty of Crossfit looking types, girlfriends-daring -girlfriends, guys in tutus, Viking and Roman warrior looking people, fat husbands dragging unwilling spouses around the course, wanna be HS and college speed demons. About 12 guys in 60-64AG.
All in all not much of a challenge for the ST ‘elites’ which does not include me.
So, shades of "Nam era AusArmy Reserve Commando that I was, I put together a basic combat webbing and combat pack, 40 pounds all up, and just gave it a go. I did a few runs in boots and progressive pack weights in the 6 weeks before, happy to see a 61 yr old can run 6 miles in full gear and boots.
So I finished last/ 10/10 AG60-64 in about 1 hr 04m, and had a ball. A serious 60 yo did it in 33 mins.
It was chip timed, required to hand it in for the first beer.
=-
So, in my mind, it isn’t a race.
Why does it matter?
I’m just trying to figure out what would change if it was a race or it wasn’t?
The first wave of the TM is timed, and is the only qualifying wave for the Toughest Mudder competition that is a serious endurance test. That race involves a typical TM course, about 10 miles with 30 or so obstacles, but the race is not how fast you can complete the course. The winner of the Toughest Mudder will be the one who can go the farthest, repeating the course over and over for 24 hours. The race is schedule in December, ensuring that the temps are as cold as anyone can handle, and former winners are seriously tough mudders.
This from the FAQ section under “Is the Tough Mudder a race?”
Tough Mudder is not a race. A Tough Mudder event is a personal challenge — the goal is simply to complete the course. This is why we do not time people and why we try to avoid using the word ‘race’ when describing our events. This is a critical tenant of our philosophy and our pledge. However**, at the request of elite athletes from around the world, we do have an elite start wave for those that can run a marathon in under 3.15 or an Olympic distance triathlon in 2.15. **For these folks, we also have the World’s Toughest Mudder event in December each year, where they can compete against other Mudders from all over the world. We thought long and hard about having this event run alongside our other events and how it impacted the sense of camaraderie and non-competition that we are trying to achieve through our standard format events. Ultimately, we decided that if we put all these guys together in one separate group away from everyone else, they could have the competition they want, and everyone else can focus on enjoying Tough Mudder with their buddies instead of having a bunch of guys trying to push past them in a mad dash to get to the finish. We can see why some people think this is inconsistent, but with the number of requests we were getting, we decided that rather than saying ‘no’ again and again, we could satisfy these guys and let everyone else focus on just completing the course and having fun.
You also missed Fact #2 from the Tough Mudder:About page:
FACT #2 – Mudders do not take them selves too seriously.
Triathlons, marathons, and other lame-ass mud runs are more stressful than fun. Not Tough Mudder. As hardcore as our courses are, we meet you at the finish line with a beer, a laugh, and a rockin’ live band. It’s pretty hard to take yourself seriously when you’re covered in mud and have just finished an obstacle called ‘Just The Tip’, so please don’t show up at a Tough Mudder without a sense of humor. Just check out the ridiculous team costumes in our event photos to get a feel for the spirit of Tough Mudder.
I just did the Tough Mudder event in Indiana. I call it an event, becuase “times” obviously didn’t seem to matter. So, in my mind, it isn’t a race. I am having a hard time coming up with how I feel about this event. Maybe becuase I keep comparing it to triathlon events or Ironman. I suppose it is because they market the “event” as being one of the toughest things you will ever do. I am not quite sure of that.
Yeah but they also market Ironman as one of the toughest things you will ever do and well…
It is a fun event so take it for what it is worth and have fun…Novel concept I know.
I was seriously contemplating entering one of these type events but then read some of the finer print that talked about how you are expected to help others over obstacles. I pretty much lost interest right there. It just doesn’t seem to be my thing. Add the lack of timing and outrageous entry and I’m definitely out. This makes me acknowledge my type A, “too competitive to have fun” attitude but I would rather spend my precious time and $$ on tri entries.
I thought a Tough Mudder was a marathoner who craps themselves and still goes on to a negative split and a PR.
Thanks for the info though, I now know that it’s just a silly event.
I did the event in Indiana as well on Saturday. I did not enjoy it. Physically I didn’t think it was too challenging at all but the cold weather/wind combined with jumping in ice cold water made it a miserable way to spend a Saturday. I think if the event was held in the summer, it would have been more enjoyable but as it is, I didn’t get much sense of accomplishment and felt like I just paid money to get chinese water tortured.
It’s definitely not a race and if you finished first, you probably didn’t help anyone out. Our team took our time at the obstacles and some were fun but like I said, it was hard to take my mind off how cold I was.
I did it Saturday. If you are an very self driven person who enjoys running marathons, tris, and other solo events you MUST change your thinking going into this event. This is a business made for the masses, not the driven 20%. I estimate they generate between 1.2 and 2.0 million per event (gross). The only thing that makes it more difficult than a marathon is the cold/wind and water torture.
As someone who enjoys individual events, I went into this event with the mindset to help my non-competitive friends feel some sense of accomplishment and hopefully push them to try more events that seem crazy. I believe that is the only way to feel some sort of satisfaction from the event. There are a few individual strength/endurance things that are somewhat of an accomplishment (getting through the monkeybars without feel in your hands, over the 12 foot berlin walls without help), but nothing compared to getting a marathon PR. The nature of the event and the idea of “everyone helping everyone” makes it even less challenging. Often times you would get to an obstacle and there would be someone there trying to help you up and over it, when your mind is thinking I don’t need any help. ANYBODY can finish it as long as they can keep putting one foot in front of the other.
I did it Saturday. If you are an very self driven person who enjoys running marathons, tris, and other solo events you MUST change your thinking going into this event. This is a business made for the masses, not the driven 20%. I estimate they generate between 1.2 and 2.0 million per event (gross). The only thing that makes it more difficult than a marathon is the cold/wind and water torture.
As someone who enjoys individual events, I went into this event with the mindset to help my non-competitive friends feel some sense of accomplishment and hopefully push them to try more events that seem crazy. I believe that is the only way to feel some sort of satisfaction from the event. There are a few individual strength/endurance things that are somewhat of an accomplishment (getting through the monkeybars without feel in your hands, over the 12 foot berlin walls without help), but nothing compared to getting a marathon PR. The nature of the event and the idea of “everyone helping everyone” makes it even less challenging. Often times you would get to an obstacle and there would be someone there trying to help you up and over it, when your mind is thinking I don’t need any help. ANYBODY can finish it as long as they can keep putting one foot in front of the other.
There you go. I guess that is exactly my thoughts. I can’t understand the help everyone out and no timing aspect of it. I had fun, at times. But, getting to an obstacle and waiting in line made me feel like I was at an amusement park. It was fun to be with friends, but even then… my group would break up because people were so cold they would leave and start running before all of us were over an obstacle. I won’t lie… jumping into ice cold water made me an instant wimp. Yeah, I did it… I was freezing and I couldn’t breath for about 30 seconds as I was in shock. But, afterward, I thought… I am a human being. I don’t see why freezing cold water would make you any more or less an athlete. It is, in this sense, more about torture. Constant hypothermia was getting old. Some of the obstacles were fun, but the water aspects and cold temperatures took the fun out of it.
Some friends were doing it, my schedule was open, and registration was suppose to close Friday, yet I was able to sign up Monday… so I did it.
Pretty much feel the same… I enjoy pushing my friends to do things they don’t believe in, but the constant freezing/unfreezing/freezing just got old. I guess I can see how it would be a mental battle for some people to complete, but I knew I was going to finish so it was more thinking… “oh great… more water” again and again and again.
I guess I would do it again if friends asked me too, but I would only sign up on my own if I could do that first wave timed thing.
Seems like a great business though, and highly organized for the most part. With their success you can expect the other similar races to start increasing distances and obstacles to compete.
I was seriously contemplating entering one of these type events but then read some of the finer print that talked about how you are expected to help others over obstacles. I pretty much lost interest right there. It just doesn’t seem to be my thing. Add the lack of timing and outrageous entry and I’m definitely out. This makes me acknowledge my type A, “too competitive to have fun” attitude but I would rather spend my precious time and $$ on tri entries.
Again…www.spartanrace.com. Same kind of deal with chip timing and you only help yourself. Shoot…ask the people I crawled over during the barbed wire crawl, or those who saw me tumble down the hill in the bushes carrying my tire to avoid the glut of people strolling downhill like this was a casual stroll on the trail. Banzai !!! Spartan is where it is at…crush the weak, get outa my way! ; )
I just did the Tough Mudder event in Indiana. I call it an event, becuase “times” obviously didn’t seem to matter. So, in my mind, it isn’t a race. I am having a hard time coming up with how I feel about this event. Maybe becuase I keep comparing it to triathlon events or Ironman. I suppose it is because they market the “event” as being one of the toughest things you will ever do. I am not quite sure of that.
Thoughts?
I see guys wearing these tough mudder shirts around and I have this girl at my gym telling me that the Spartan race is tough and blah blah blah…no offense these events are targeted towards couch potatos…
To be blunt corny.