Runner dies in Tough Mudder event

So much for the marathoners weak argument that their event is tougher because people die at marathons.

Bumping once in case people want to comment.

So the people around noticed he didn't come back up but stood around waiting for a diver?

So what, he got stuck in the mud at the bottom of the pit? What exactly made him drown?

There is a difference between dying due to lack of swimming skills and dying because of the strenousness of the event.

tough mudder died a hero wrote:

So much for the marathoners weak argument that their event is tougher because people die at marathons.

Will be interesting to see how that "waiver of liability and indemnity" holds up.

Doclove wrote:

So the people around noticed he didn't come back up but stood around waiting for a diver?

There was a diver already positioned in the water. At most he was 10 feet away. I'm not sure why it took so long to get him out.

ladedah wrote:

So what, he got stuck in the mud at the bottom of the pit? What exactly made him drown?

The water was very deep and he probably never touched the bottom. I'm 6'0" and tried to push off the bottom to shoot back up and couldn't. Also, the water was brown, but it wasn't "mud". No thickness.

I didn't witness the incident but here are my two best guesses:

1. Landed awkwardly. Some people like to do cannonballs, twist around, etc when they jump. Maybe he tried to do some kind of jump and hit his head, knocking him out.

2. Maybe the next person in line didn't give him enough time to get out of the way and jumped and landed on him.

All of the articles I've read state that the police believe it to be an "accident", meaning some kind of inadvertent contact probably happened.

Your's is the weak argument wrote:

There is a difference between dying due to lack of swimming skills and dying because of the strenousness of the event.

tough mudder died a hero wrote:

So much for the marathoners weak argument that their event is tougher because people die at marathons.

Lack of swimming skills caused by pure exhaustion. There is a reason the swim is the first event in a tri. Idiot.

Look at the name, he probably wasn't a strong swimmer to begin with.

Also, the word "runner" seems to have been used incorrectly in this case.

brogan1 wrote:

2. Maybe the next person in line didn't give him enough time to get out of the way and jumped and landed on him.

All of the articles I've read state that the police believe it to be an "accident", meaning some kind of inadvertent contact probably happened.

If it was due to inadvertent contact, I hope the other person isn't traumatized by this.

ladedah wrote:

brogan1 wrote:

2. Maybe the next person in line didn't give him enough time to get out of the way and jumped and landed on him.

All of the articles I've read state that the police believe it to be an "accident", meaning some kind of inadvertent contact probably happened.

If it was due to inadvertent contact, I hope the other person isn't traumatized by this.

Unfortunately this will probably be the case. If contact was made with another person before drowning/expiring, that person is going to have life changing guilt. Even accidently, you can't help but feel you caused it.

It was cold in WV this past weekend. Temps in the 40-50s. If you jump into very cold water, you can black out as your heart races to pump blood. The guy may have had his body temp up from all the running and obstacles and then jumped into the cold water and went into shock. I used to live near Lake Erie. People would drown every year when they go out and sit in the sun on a boat and then jump into 50+ deg water. They sink like a stone due to the shock of the cold water.

Someone died trying to cross a river at the "Original Mud Run" in Texas last year.

These events need to get rid of the water obstacles. It is just too dangerous for a stupid participatory event like Tough Mudder. There are a zillion other ways you can get people covered in mud and make them think they have done something difficult for their $150.

Very sad. As Precious Roy said, there are risks in diving into cold water if you are not in shape or prepared-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_shock_response

In general it's also not safe to dive into murky water where even if you have spotters they can't see where you are in time to get you out. If there were people diving while someone else was below them or submerged that's also stupid.

Part of the appeal of these kinds of events is the risk or perceived risk, so I expect the Tough Mudder people are covered by the waiver, but it still sounds like a badly structured event. Risk from exertion (heart attack, etc.), tripping, colliding, etc. is inevitable in a race. This kind of risk sounds like it was from a badly designed event.

There was a video on youtube (it must have been pulled as I couldn't find it again) of a giant tractor tire rolling at what looked like at least 30-40 mph right across a line of racers. Luckily it went through a gap in the line but if it had fit someone, that person would have been at least seriously hurt.

Precious Roy wrote:

It was cold in WV this past weekend. Temps in the 40-50s. If you jump into very cold water, you can black out as your heart races to pump blood. The guy may have had his body temp up from all the running and obstacles and then jumped into the cold water and went into shock. I used to live near Lake Erie. People would drown every year when they go out and sit in the sun on a boat and then jump into 50+ deg water. They sink like a stone due to the shock of the cold water.

Interesting, I was not aware you could go into shock. The water temperature varied at different obstacles but I don't think this water was very cold. It felt about medium to me.

I think that a wave starts once per hour. I was scheduled to go off in the 11:40 am wave but they have a long pep rally to get pumped up so we really went off around 12:05 pm. This obstacle was in the first 1/4 of the run and he reportedly was injured around 1 pm so he likely was in my wave. The fitness level of my group varied a lot so we just ran at a very slow pace of 10 minute miles. Given that he went through the obstacle about 15 minutes after my group, he either ran at a much slower pace or had to wait a lot longer in the lines. I'm not sure how heated his body could have gotten. He was supposedly in his best shape but that is subjective.

Here's a story with more details:http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-04-22/news/bs-md-tough-mudder-death-20130422_1_tough-mudder-ellicott-city-man-will-dean

Snyder said Sengupta was taken out of the water by Tough Mudder staff and emergency medical technicians resuscitated him so that his heart was beating and he was breathing, but his brain was "compromised" because of how long he was submerged.

...

Dan Gemp, Sengupta's best friend, was not at the race but said friends who ran with Sengupta told him it took "four to seven" minutes for a nearby Tough Mudder diver to reach Sengupta.

Ashley Pinakiewicz, a Tough Mudder spokeswoman, declined to comment on how long it took for Sengupta to be rescued.

4-7 minutes submerged sounds like inadequate lifeguarding, but perhaps if there was no visibility in the water, it might have taken that long to find him.

It's all very sad, in any case.

Just speculating. They guy could have had a pre-existing heart issue, landed funny in the water and hit his head or twisted his neck. Lots of things could have happened. But if I was setting up one of these obstacle races, I would not have people jump into cold, muddy water.

Great now the the other 1000 people in the race can claim to be 'Tough Mudder Survivors'

Yes, you also have to remember cold shock and the mammalian dive reflex kick in, although he should not have been dead after a few minutes.

I'm thinking he may have been in there longer than that.