Things I'll Miss About World's Toughest Mudder

After two years of participating in the World’s Toughest Mudder, I’m skipping it this year. My brain says it’s the right decision to make. It was never supposed to be an every-year thing. And it’s expensive. My brain tells me I have a mortgage, a wife and kids, responsibilities that come first. My brain also tells me I have a busted leg. I limp painfully walking through the grocery store. After trying to fix it myself for a month, today I made a doctor’s appointment. My brain says there’s NO WAY I could or should do World’s Toughest Mudder this year. And my brain is right.

But my heart . . . My heart is stubborn and illogical. My heart would give anything to be there this year, to see how far I could push it. My heart is a pain in the ass. And it tortures my brain.

I know there’s so many things I’m going to miss about World’s Toughest Mudder this year. For therapy’s sake, here’s a few of them:

Stop the Music (Warning: This is a Rant)

 

I've noticed an increasing and disturbing trend at some obstacle races this year, and it really stuck out at September's Vermont Beast. And it needs to stop. Now.

End Spectator Fees at OCR Events

It costs a lot to be an obstacle racer. From your 5K mud runs up to your Tough Mudders and Spartan Beasts, registration costs are no small potatoes. On top of that, you get hit with plenty of other fees: mandatory insurance fees, parking fees, bag check fees, etc.

But probably the most distasteful fee charged by OCR companies is the spectator fee.

Spectator fees for adults at many of these events are usually $20 or more. (Kids often pay $10; such a bargain). It is a pure cash grab where companies that are already making a huge profit off each event are picking the pocket of their loyal customers.

Interview with Spartan Champ Jon Albon

One of the coolest things about being a journalist covering obstacle racing is I get to interview some of the best athletes in the world. Here is the interview I did with newly-crowned Reebok Spartan World Champ Jon Albon for Mud & Obstacle:

http://www.mudandobstacle.com/article/meet-man-beat-beast-spartan-world-championship-128

Interview with Spartan Women's Champ Claude Godbout

This blog has taken somewhat of a hiatus since early summer as I've struggled to shape it's identity. My obstacle racing writing efforts this year have largely been geared toward Mud & Obstacle Magazine, who I'm a contributing editor for and have been writing both magazine articles and blog posts for them.

TOUGH MUDDER NEW ENGLAND: A DAY OF EPIPHANIES

I love mountains because mountains tell the truth.

You can slay mileage on the treadmill, set new PRs on each Crossfit routine, conquer 50 miles on a flat Tough Mudder course that calls itself the "World's Toughest." And along the way you might convince yourself that you're in really good shape. That you're a beast. That you can just waltz onto any obstacle course on two day's notice and crush it. Even crush it multiple times.

And then a course like Mount Snow, Vermont brings you back to reality like a punch in the face.

PAK'S OCR ADVICE

Two-time World's Toughest Mudder champ Junyong Pak recently made a few videos with Coach Up giving viewers tips on how to tackle common obstacles such as the rope cross, barbed wire crawl and rope climb. Check them out here:

RANT AGAINST OCR HATERS

I was listening to a running podcast the other day when the conversation among the hosts and guest - a marathoner - briefly turned to mud and obstacle racing.

"Oh, don't get me started on that," said the guest, followed by laughter all around, a few quick comments about how he couldn't stand it and then they moved on.

I know I should be all zen about haters. I know "haters gonna hate" and "sticks and stones" and "I'm gonna let it roll off," etc. Well, bullsh#t.

VIDEO: GUY DROPS 130 LBS, RUNS TOUGH MUDDER

I signed up yesterday to run Tough Mudder - The Great Northeast in August up in Maine. It got me thinking about last year running Tough Mudder Boston at Gunstock, New Hampshire (the Boston of the North?). What made that run really special was that I did it with a friend who had lost 130 pounds within the last year and just, out of the blue, signed up to run Tough Mudder. I thought he was crazy to just jump into it without having run a smaller race first. But he crushed it, and it was pretty inspirational. Check out the video below.

      

CHANGING UP IS HARD TO DO

Originally posted on another blog of mine a few years ago.

Leave it to women's aerobics to leave me humbled.

Recently, my TRX instructor Rebekah suggested I try a circuit crosstraining class at the gym. Always up for something new, I decided to give it a shot this morning.

The circuit crosstraining class is apparently different each time, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Of course, what I did expect was to breeze through it. After all, over the past year my workouts have included regular intense CrossFit routines, tons of running followed by weights often followed by more cardio on the Jacobs Ladder, and just recently I started repeatedly running up and down the ski area near my house with a backpack filled with bricks. I've been expecting my Certificate of Bad-Assery to arrive in the mail any day now.

Your Friend Fear

Ask people what their motivation is for exercising and eating right, and you'll get a lot of different answers: wanting to be healthy, live longer, be stronger, fit into a bathing suit, make an ex jealous, etc.

Motivation is a personal ingredient to fitness. And whatever works for you is great. But when it comes to motivation, one motivator rises far above the rest: Fear.

I'm not talking about fear of abstract possibilities, as in if you are unhealthy and overweight you may eventually suffer from high blood pressure, diabetes, and an early death. These are certainly motivating factors to consider. But that's a fear of something that sometime, someday, mayhappen if I continue to live a certain way. That's the kind of abstract fear that looms in an uncertain future, one that is easy to ignore and put off.

The kind of fear that is the best motivator is a very real fear, a looming clear and present danger. Something with a hard date, that is approaching, is unavoidable, and will make you suffer unless you prepare.