NBC Nightly News suggests mud runs harder than a marathon

These mud races are hard, but the organizers are smart enough to make it so that a moderately fit person can still complete one with little to no training. The "death waiver" helps to enforce the illusion. Personally, I see a lot of similarities to marathoning. How had is it to "run" a 6+ hour marathon?

Coming from someone whos done marathons and one mud run i say never again. To be honest there are so many waves but it doesnt make a difference since id pass up hundreds of people anyway. So easy to lead the race... and now i sound like a douche

Could one of the mud run participants give a general overview of a mud run course? Twelve miles, how many obstacles? How far apart? I notice in the splash ads a lot of people seem to be wearing lifting gloves. Are any other aids/tools needed? Just wondering. Thanks

I've done 2 marathons and Run for Your Lives, a 5k Zombie Run.

The Zombie Run wasn't easy, but the obstacles weren't hard either. If it was really that hard the failure rate would be much higher.

The marathons were by far the toughest two things I have ever done in my life. I long ago put most of my running awards away, but my marathon finishers medals will never go in a box. Not saying they are framed and above the mantle, but they will never be put in a box.

I spent $70-75 for Run for Your Lives. Plus $10 for parking. Spectators paid like $20-30. The promised post-race party was kind of lame. It was a fun experience, but I am not going to make a habit of it.

I am from south central PA. If I want an experience like this I will do Smith's Challenge, the Conestoga Trail Run, or a Pretzel City Sports event.

efram wrote:

I guess you guys have never seen beyond the top 20 at a marathon. Slugfest. A lot of walking going on. Even 5Ks are a walk-fest now.

Yeah, I realize marathons have a lot of walkers. But a 5k mud run shouldn't have any walking--especially less than a mile into the race. Why do a freakin' 5k mud "run" if you're going to walk it all?

After the race, I did meet an older woman (60s?), who wasn't your typical fitness freak, who said she does these races with her teenage and adult kids on a regular basis. It's a way for them to bond and commit to being active. I wish more people who did these races took the same attitude.

Race organizers keep finding ways to attract the general population to "races" so they can rake in the entry fees. The Color Run--WTF!?

A friend of mine did a 12k yesterday and had a goal to run the whole thing. There were a couple stops for photos (GG Bridge), so they didnt officially attain their goal. But I think the stops for photos exemplifies that attitude (right or wrong) that many people have in these things. Sure, there's the accomplishment of finishing, which I really can't hate on. But there's also the desire for recognition that people seek by wearing their medal after the race, sporting their t-shirt, and posting their photos on Facebook or Instagram. These races have found a way for people to bring out their inner-attention-whore and pay a whole 'lotta money in order to do so.

This month's issue of Running Times has a pretty good article debating the topic. The article makes a good point, saying that you can make running as hard as you want to. Shaving significant time off your 5k or 10k can be brutal to train for and execute. Or you can take it easy. The same goes for tough mudders.

To be fair I've seen the most unfit people finish both. I've done both (regrettably) and agree that you can slack on either or you can make them brutally difficult. My caveat is that I saw a lot of people drinking before tough mudder events, and not a whole lot of people are willing to attempt a marathon drunk. If it comes down to it, I always say if you can do it drunk, it's probably not that hard.

NBC: Notorious Bull5hiting Corporation

Enough Said

Toughest Race:

An 800 meter foot race through a field of razor wire covered in 3 feet of diarrhea.

The source of this controversy, which I think this poster is approaching, is that our sport of marathon running has been reduced to nothing in the public consciousness. Over the weekend, I was on a subway in Washington, DC, where I live, and over heard a conversation between participants in our local Rock 'n Roll Marathon, held earlier in the day. One asked the other if a mutual friend had practiced for the event. "No," came the reply," he's sort of a natural runner." I repeated this anecdote to a former training partner, who recalled when we were in Eugene in 2008 to see the Oly Trials. We were at a Starbucks during the Butte to Butte 10 Km when two women stopped to have some coffee mid-race.

The point is that over the past few decades, the sport has been dumbed down to the point it's everything to everyone. It's as easy as cake if you walk and take six hours, which is what most purported marathoners do. And yet, I will never forget watching Hendrick Ramalla and Paul Tergat at the NYC Marathon a few years back. Ramaala pursued Tergat relentlessly, finally lunging at the finish line, losing by a fraction of a second, and eating the pavement. To me, that's our sport at its essence: it's as hard as any of us make it. Let me know next time you see that in some phonied up mud event. Then I might be interested.

Ummm...ever heard of mud? Ever tried to RUN in it? Nuff said.

Xfit_guy_the_real_one_1 wrote:

It depends. A Warrior Dash (5k), while being a badass sports, is less taxing on the body than a "full marathon".

TOUGH MUDDER however, with its grueling 12 miles, is probably the hardest sports event average joe can participate in, certainly harder than a Marathon.

Case in point: Oprah ran a Marathon, but she could never do a TOUGH MUDDER.

TOUGH MUDDER lets 3000m steeple look like a childrens birthday party.

She *completed* a marathon.

I believe the word you are looking for is "inhospitable."

Impending Choke wrote:

I always say if you can do it drunk, it's probably not that hard.

D@mn it, I know there's a dirty joke in there somewhere.

The hardest event in the series is 24 hours, and it is a race to see who can complete the most laps and obstacles within 24 hours. I think that that is harder than running for 2-3 hours on a road. It is actually a race, unlike the other events like warrior dash, and lasts for 24 hours. It is actually a competition where winners receive money, unlike the other tough mudder events, and you have to qualify for it by being in the top 5% of participants during another event

Anyone who believe this has never raced a marathon.

They even say they aren't races, they are events.

From the Tough Mudder website:

Complete a 2013 Tough Mudder course (or Florida 2012) in the top 5% of participants on that day. You can report your course time in the first week after the event you run to see if you qualify. Of course, this is self-timed since normal Tough Mudder events are not races, but Mudders don’t lie.

Tough mudders are a complete joke. It's just a bunch of people walking from station to station, waiting 45 minutes in line, and then doing simple obstacles at the pace of the group ahead of them. It's like being stuck playing golf at a really crowded public course. Even Crossfitters are starting to turn against them now as pure marketing hype with no substance.

I think genuine obstacle racing is cool. The Urbanathlon is what the Tough Mudder pretends to be.

Here's a comparison and contrast about marathons and mud runs right now as I see it:

Both are hard to most people. Both are considered an accomplishment to finish for most people.

However, the word marathon is synonymous with grueling event. People at least train for marathons. Maybe not like so many LRC posters, but they train. Virtually no one goes into a marathon on a whim. We see plenty of hospitalizations in running and a few heat and dehydration related deaths in running every now and then. Marathoning has gained in popularity among the regular Joe crowd, so these numbers are going up.

The mud runs have grown in popularity exponentially it seems. The marketing is different. The mentality is different. It's for "tough guys" and all that macho BS. We are currently seeing more hospitalizations from dehydration and overexertion causing rhabdomyolysis from mud run participants than marathoners. This is because a bunch of late 30s-early 40s long former "tough guys" are going out on a whim and pushing themselves like they were 21 again, and reaping the consequences. These guys aren't respecting the event even though none of them would even consider running a marathon without properly training for it.

Now, I'm not saying a tough mudder is harder than a marathon, because I don't think it is. I know plenty of fit people who do them and do fairly well in the fields but have struggled mightily with marathons even with proper training. But, from the perspective of hospitalizations and visible popularity, the appearance is that the mudders must be harder.

I don't think these events count as fads anymore.