It's Tough to be a Mudder

"If you've got what we call that mental grit then give me a loud hoorah!" said a man pumping up the crowd of racers for the start of the recent Tough Mudder competition in Tampa. The crowd echoed the mantra as a wave of excitement washed over the group.

"You feel that?" he said. "You feel how you all come together? That's the only way you will make it through this course."

The Tough Mudder is an extreme adventure race, the brainchild of an ex-British Special Forces commando. Designed to challenge the serious nature of professional races today, there are no trophies for first place. Through an unrelenting 11.5 miles of torturous fun, this event is meant to be a true test of strength both mentally and physically.

While I am not the only one at Eckerd College to participate in the recent Tampa event, I was one of few (possibly only) to run both days back to back. The race was an experience unlike any other I've ever been a part of.

As the miles of hills, mud, water, ropes, walls, electric shocks and, of course, fire pile up, the only solace to be found in the chaos is the men and women on either side of you shouting encouragements and lending their hands.

With such an emphasis on time in nearly all other races, the Tough Mudder provides a unique atmosphere largely overlooked in the world today: camaraderie. First, second and third place matter far less then the smile and mud plastered onto your face.

On Saturday, I ran the race as fast as I could with my hometown friend Dalton Spanbauer in roughly 2 hours and 20 minutes. Having never run more then 3.5 consecutive miles, it's safe to say I massacred my body from about waist down.

I guess that's why we all had to sign a death waiver.

Sunday, I picked up my achy knees, calves and possibly sprained left foot and ran the damn thing again. This time with my girlfriend, roommate and buddy from home while sporting the greatest costumes college budgets allowed.

"It was quite possibly the hardest, most satisfying gut check I've ever faced," Junior Samantha Rolfe said in a somewhat dazed and happy way. "Running through the final electrical shock obstacle after what felt like an eternity of mud, running, walls and more mud, I was genuinely happy with myself. I just wished my tutu and fairy wings survived in better shape."

Dressed as prisoners, my friend and I took nearly twice as long to complete the second day because we decided that as prisoners, we needed to be handcuffed together the entire way through.

By far the scariest moment was walking a narrow balance beam roughly 10 feet up above the water pit. Dalton was walking backwards as I shuffled forward, all while trying to block out the noise and sight of others falling in around us. Luckily, we made it through each obstacle without ever failing, breaking bones or taking the handcuffs off.

Needless to say, the Tough Mudder draws an interesting array of life. It was a normal occasion to see superheroes, Marines and even a fully costumed Gumby run by in a span of ten minutes. So it should come as no surprise that students of Eckerd College wanted a slice of the pie.

While not a part of the newly ECOS sponsored Tough Mudder club on campus, I did witness a group of our students pass me as I struggled around mile 5 on Sunday. Under the name "The Fighting Tritons," approximately 10-15 students ran the race as a team the second day. As a start-up club, their budget is small, but members say they expect to see it grow in the future as word of mouth spreads. With such a diverse and driven student population, it'll be interesting to see the development over the next few semesters here.

"I was looking forward to something different where I didn't have to worry about times and could just have fun," said Junior Norris Comer on why he had been looking forward to being part of the team before sickness forced him to drop out.

Now that three more Tough Mudder dates in Florida have been set, mud fever may soon spread to others across our campus.