"Tough" Mudder
I recently decided I'd follow the crowd and sign up for a Tough Mudder. Have had some good luck in other similar events over the years (marathon, triathlon, etc) and figured TM was the next logical step. Amazing how boredom can motivate! Fully expecting I'd be a one-and-done TM competitor, with several cold beers at the finish line and a check on my bucket list. I successfully recruited two homies with fairly impressive biceps and/or forearms to join the team. The day would be a perfect mix of buddytime, competition, mud and exercise - men being men!
There was also an element of danger. I knew overall TMs are safe (people all over the world have been participating and completing TM courses for years), but it definitely requires some training and the electric shock obstacle provides some decent street cred (or at least a conversation talking point).
Our team ended up not doing that much training (in the case of one of the guys, none at all!), but when the evening before the event arrived, it was clear - we were in.
Sadly, Tough Mudder didn't hold up its end of the bargain. LA got a fair amount of rain that Friday and given forest fires earlier in the year, I knew the rain was going to make it a ridiculously muddy TM. But when we received a cancellation text from TM on Friday @ 6pm, all of us were shocked. And not only did they cancel the Saturday events, they also sent a text on Sat cancelling the Sunday events! Wow, two full days cancelled, thousands of people inconvenienced, all because of a little rain?
Maybe we shouldn't have been surprised. We are living at a time when our society has become so soft that even an event that bills itself as a Tough Mudder which is meant to be "extreme" and muddy doesn't even take place if the conditions aren't right. It just feels like every part of the culture gets a little softer (and therefore less interesting, IMO) every year. And we're now at a point where even if you want to go out of your way to sign up for and pay hundreds of dollars for an event that should allow you to escape back to the world of the hardcore, it's taken away if there are showers.
When the TM team added photos to their site that were meant to be horrific, I just LOL'd! There is water in parking lots all over the country half the year - come on!
There was also an element of danger. I knew overall TMs are safe (people all over the world have been participating and completing TM courses for years), but it definitely requires some training and the electric shock obstacle provides some decent street cred (or at least a conversation talking point).
Our team ended up not doing that much training (in the case of one of the guys, none at all!), but when the evening before the event arrived, it was clear - we were in.
Sadly, Tough Mudder didn't hold up its end of the bargain. LA got a fair amount of rain that Friday and given forest fires earlier in the year, I knew the rain was going to make it a ridiculously muddy TM. But when we received a cancellation text from TM on Friday @ 6pm, all of us were shocked. And not only did they cancel the Saturday events, they also sent a text on Sat cancelling the Sunday events! Wow, two full days cancelled, thousands of people inconvenienced, all because of a little rain?
Maybe we shouldn't have been surprised. We are living at a time when our society has become so soft that even an event that bills itself as a Tough Mudder which is meant to be "extreme" and muddy doesn't even take place if the conditions aren't right. It just feels like every part of the culture gets a little softer (and therefore less interesting, IMO) every year. And we're now at a point where even if you want to go out of your way to sign up for and pay hundreds of dollars for an event that should allow you to escape back to the world of the hardcore, it's taken away if there are showers.
When the TM team added photos to their site that were meant to be horrific, I just LOL'd! There is water in parking lots all over the country half the year - come on!
posted by Toastmaster @ 5:18 PM
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