driske,
If you googled at the site there was a bit of visual hype (setting hay on fire at the start!?!) but agreed it was no sunday dejeuner-sur-l'herbe. A lot of rope-climbing for steep slopes, crawling tunnels, ect... I was really shagged at the end but mostly from not fuelling right during the race. The approach was military but not fanatically-so. Still when people do promo-videos, i think in they get carried away...
re shoes: i was very tempted but actually i wore the Vibram Sprints.
And that was about a personal score to settle. I don't remember if i've said this before, but when i got hurt (before summer) from lacing them too tightly on the achilles ** the very first run i tried them ** i felt beyond retarded. For the specific incident and about Minimalism/Barefooting in general.
Mostly because it was the situation where it would have been sooo easy to lay blame on "them". I hate even just contemplating the thought because striving for some sort of objectivity is quite a priority for me. Still, i really try to avoid to be superficial even when it would be so damn convenient...
So for the record, my conclusion thus far is they remain "critical" footwear to be used "Very Correctly and Awaringly." In this fashion they add an important dimension to the Minimalist - Barefoot approach, which far outweighs their design and innovative appeal. Which (excuse repetition) by the way could make them extremely popular as fashiony, look-at-me shoes.
The best parts were: 1) after running in the water they took a second to dry; 2) Mud, and I mean MUD, as in knee-deep MUD, did not stick to them. Some runners i just cruised away from because all of a sudden they had and extra couple of pounds on their feet...