Tough Mudder?

[Dorothy Zbornak]

Hi Ladies. I'm sure some of you bad asses have surely done a Tough Mudder and can give me the low down. There's one coming to my region of Germany in September, and I am like 80% sure I want to do it. Or more like 99% sure I want to do it, but I don't know if I can handle it. I'm in pretty good shape now (but not Tough Mudder shape. It would probably kill me right now) and would ramp up training for it.

Should I do it? Any tales to tell?

[spunkypenguin]

I did one with a group of my coworkers back in October. We signed up crazy early because it is insanely expensive. I had grand plans of working on my strength training in the months leading up to it, but that never panned out for me. I ran a lot, so I knew I had the running portion covered. I really wanted to back out at the last minute, but I didn't want to let down my team, so I went - unprepared. I made it through. It was definitely tough. I swore the whole time that I would never subject myself to such torture ever again...and about a week later, I was thinking about when I might want to do another one.

A lot of people who do TM are in good shape, but there is a lot of team work and you can get through even if you are not in super shape. There were a few obstacles that I just couldn't conquer (Everest, for example) because I just don't have the upper body strength. I was able to do almost all the obstacles with some help. Before I do another one, I will definitely be working on my upper body strength (that's an on-going goal of mine anyhow). My whole body for like 3-4 days after...

[Dorothy Zbornak]

Feb 13, 2014 6:40:53 GMT -5 spunkypenguin said:

I did one with a group of my coworkers back in October. We signed up crazy early because it is insanely expensive. I had grand plans of working on my strength training in the months leading up to it, but that never panned out for me. I ran a lot, so I knew I had the running portion covered. I really wanted to back out at the last minute, but I didn't want to let down my team, so I went - unprepared. I made it through. It was definitely tough. I swore the whole time that I would never subject myself to such torture ever again...and about a week later, I was thinking about when I might want to do another one.

A lot of people who do TM are in good shape, but there is a lot of team work and you can get through even if you are not in super shape. There were a few obstacles that I just couldn't conquer (Everest, for example) because I just don't have the upper body strength. I was able to do almost all the obstacles with some help. Before I do another one, I will definitely be working on my upper body strength (that's an on-going goal of mine anyhow). My whole body for like 3-4 days after...

This sounds very encouraging. I run, too, so that's not the problem for me. But I am a puny little girl as far as upper body strength is concerned.

Even if you're not on a team, people help you through obstacles when you get stuck, right? And you can skip some?

Tell me about the electro shocks. And ... will you do another one?

[spunkypenguin]

Yes - our team ended up getting spread out, so we were in smaller groups. Other people were definitely there to help you out! You can skip obstacles (I skipped a couple). My friend didn't want to do electric eel, so we skipped that one. I did go through the one at end. It was not that bad. I spent some time living on a farm - if you've ever hit the cattle fence - that's basically what it is...little zaps.
Here's my pics of the "Electroshock Therapy" - the second one is right after one got me in the butt!



I will definitely do another one. Not this year b/c I'm aiming for my first Marathon. I'm hoping to do Boston/New England 2015!

[breezy8407]

Hi DZ! I was going to ask the same thing last week...

A team is forming at work for the TM here this summer. They know I am a runner and are trying to get me to do it...but I don't know if I can commit. I can run sure, but the training above and beyond that... not sure if I have time or discipline right now.

[melodramatic26]

I've not done one, but I did watch MTV True Life: I'm Running a Tough Mudder.

and holyshit. It looks hard core. Though, one of the girls they show wasn't very physically strong and she made it through.

I know it's MTV, but it was actually a good episode (on demand).

[spunkypenguin]

Feb 13, 2014 13:13:16 GMT -5 @vtcupcake said:

I've done two of them now, and I have mixed feeling about the entire TM experience.

I did my first one in October 2011, when it was still a fairly new phenomenon. It was a blast. The course support was great, the entire thing was the best challenge I've ever put my body through (26 obstacles up and down a mountain all day? Yes please!), and I was left with a huge feeling of accomplishment that I was able to successfully train and get myself strong enough not just to get me through the course, but also my teammates.

I did my second in September of 2012, and by then it was obvious that the race company was too big for its britches. The race logistics were terrible (so much, in, fact, that the town shut the course down the second day), safety had been somewhat compromised (among other things they let us do the course in a tornado warning...yeah) and I felt the obstacles didn't have enough supervision or medical staff around. That feeling of something shitty is going to happen came to fruition a year later when someone died on a similar course- drowned on the walk the plank obstacle because no one saw him go under and the safety officials were not organizing the bazillion and a half people jumping off the plank appropriately. Others have experienced altered race dates with no refunds, similar parking and registration disasters as I did, and have only been addressed with rebukes of "Mudders don't whine! Kids whine!" (part of the TM creed). I think it's just getting so overhyped with no scaffolding plan to account for the surge in registrations. Plus all that talk of supporting Wounded Warrior? None of your registration $ goes towards that charity. It all goes into the RD's pockets.

Am I glad I did them? Yes. Would I do them again? Not until better organization and concerns for safety become well publicized.

I was a volunteer at the event where the participant died on the obstacle.  It was definitely a horrible day.  The event that I did in October was at the same site...they may not have publicized their increase in safety, but they definitely stepped it up during the event I did.  I was content with the amount of staff there.

[tuggyruns]

I did "Atlanta" back in 2012. It was one of the more miserable experiences of my life. I'm still SUPER proud to say I did it, but I'm not sure I'll do another. It was in February, and being Atlanta, it was 17 degrees when we started, I'm sure not what the promoter planned for because, well this is the South, but clearly, they don't know the South.

I was mainly miserable b/c of the cold- there were over 300 cases of hypothermia- much longer out there I'm 100% sure I would have been one of them. Other than that I think it would have been really fun. I didn't do much to train other than stick to a half marathon training plan I had just come off of and I was pretty helpful (I think) to my team.

[lightbulbsun]

I did one with some friends last year. I loved it. My training basically consisted of running, lifting, and rock climbing. I think the rock climbing helped a lot because there were a lot of climbing obstacles.

The hardest past for me was the running in between obstacles, mostly because the entire path was tilted, so you were never running on a flat surface. By the end my feet really hurt just from being shoved to the side of my shoes by running on the incline. The obstacles were a good break from that.

I did all of the obstacles except the boa constrictor I started that one, and then I freaked out and had to go back through. Not my finest moment, but I panicked and didn't want to drown in muddy water.

Overall it was a great experience, and I'm doing another one next fall. I just wish they weren't so expensive so I could do more than one a year!

ETA:  I would say a good attitude makes it so much better.  Most of the people in my group were really positive the whole time, but this one girl was whiny and annoying, and she ended up quitting halfway through.  It was so much more pleasant after she left the group.

[spunkypenguin]

Feb 13, 2014 16:45:57 GMT -5 lightbulbsun said:

Overall it was a great experience, and I'm doing another one next fall. I just wish they weren't so expensive so I could do more than one a year!

Have you considered volunteering?  They have an awesome discount if you volunteer.  You could volunteer Sat and run it Sun or run Sat, volunteer Sunday, then get a discount on the next one.  I think my entry was ~$40 instead of $100+ because I volunteered.  It was a ton of fun to volunteer too!!

ETA: toughmudder.com/mudder-volunteer-program/

[jamalynn]

I did one last year with 5 other people (3 girls and 3 boys). We all stayed together which was good b/c we all ended help to get over the 12 ft. Walls. for training, we did some of the workouts TM had on their website, Jillian Michael's, P90X, other various circuit training, and on the weekends, we hit the school playgrounds for our own circuit which included monkey bars and pull ups. The big thing is upper body (think push ups, pull ups, mad monkey bars). Make sure your cardio is up too. It's fun and they do a good job with it. I would do it again.

[Dorothy Zbornak]

Thank you all so much for your input ... aside from the tales of someone dying, this has helped convince me that I should do it! I hope it's OK if I mosey over here from time to time!