I'm done with Tough Mudder

About a 1 1/2 years ago, I started training for my first Obstacle Course Race (OCR).  I remember it vividly.  I had committed to running the Tough Mudder in Austin, Tx and started panicking about 8weeks out because I couldn't jog 1/4mi without collapsing.  Yeah it was pretty bad.  I had a been a gym and freeweight nut for the last 20yrs and had totally neglected my cardio.  And it showed!  I recall looking into trainers but everything was just too expensive (100/hr? really?)!  I turned to yelp and found a bootcamp run by some former Marines and decided to give it a try.

I remember showing up to Warrior Fitness Bootcamp (WFBC) on a Friday.  I distinctly remember this because I was schedule to go to DC later that day and I spent the entire weekend in some serious stiffed leg and body pain!  Every piece of motion I made resulted in muscles screaming out in terror.  Nevertheless, I was hooked and I went back for seconds the following Tuesday (It took about 4 days to recoop to a level where I had comfortable control of my major muscle groups again).  Within 3 weeks of going to bootcamp (about 3x a week), I was able to run 2mi.  The next week: 4mi, then 6mi the week after, and so on til I got to about 8-10mi at a clip.  It was an amazing feeling, I don't mind saying.

Anyways, I ended up getting through my 1st Tough Mudder in pretty good fashion, though I was useless for a day or two after.  Since then, I've done 3 more on 2 other continents and several Spartans to boot. So why the proclamation?

Simple.  It's the electroshock obstacles.  

In Tough Mudder there are 2 obstacles that induce about 10k volts (their claim, not mine) into your system if you happen to touch the wires while crawling on your belly through the mud or running through a set of haystack hurdles.  I hadn't really minded them until my last Mudder in New Zealand in the summer of 2014.  It was the Kiwi's first time hosting a Tough Mudder and they must have felt obligated to put on a show.  I recall crawling through the mud trying to avoid the wires when a shock literally blacked me out for about 2secs.  The final run through the field of electro wires resulted in me being nailed and hitting the floor face first.  While the shocks themselves weren't horrifically painful, it occurred to me that it was just plain dumb and really didn't test your physical meddle in any substantial way, shape, or form.  I mean anyone being electrocuted to a certain level will go down!  That's why we have tazers.  You can't train for it.  Tough Mudder puts them there in hopes of causing the athletes to absorb a face full of mud and to give the crowd something to chuckle at.

I don't plan to whine on about this as people can make up their own minds, but I find the whole thing a little too gimmicky.  And quite frankly, I train too hard for these things to not want to take it more seriously.  Anyways, I'll concentrate on the Spartan Races for now as I find them much more physically demanding and fun.  At least, until something better comes along :-)