its been about 6 weeks ago now that i completed the colorado Tough Mudder event with friends. my teammates were all from colorado, I came from kansas city. i stayed with my parents out there for almost a week before the event, thinking that might help me acclimate some. i'm not sure it helped.
the event started with a short downhill run, but right after that it turned to go straight back up a ski slope. right from the start, i was hurting. i definitely hadn't gotten in as good of shape as i wanted to in the preceding months. running was hurting my knees so all my training runs ended up being less than a couple miles. and there aren't any significant hills in kc to walk or run. so an event with steep climbs at elevations of 8000-11000 feet really exhausted me, not to mention all the obstacles. lots of tough obstacles, but everyone seemed to agree that wading and swimming in the 36 degree water was the toughest. i was shivering for about half an hour after that. so i was elated to finish. took us 4.5 hours.
one major downer was that one of our teammates severely gashed open his knee when he fell in the mud and hit it on a rock before the giant slip-and-slide. we had to take him to an urgent care facility to have it looked at. this led to having very mixed feelings about the event. when we got to the urgent care facility in beaver creek, we met several other injured Tough Mudders there. in fact, the facility waiting room was packed.
besides our friend, who ended up needing surgery to wash the debris out of his deep wound, we met participants with:
-- broken finger that got caught in overhead cargo net before a fall
-- injured ribs from falling from monkey bars onto edge of wooden platform
-- various injuries from falling during electroshock therapy obstacle, falling into rocks or wooden signs
the urgent care patients seemed to agree that the medical treatment at the event itself was next to nothing. although there were medics on the course, i guess they couldn't do much themselves. and it seemed there weren't enough either. at one point where one was needed while we were on the course, the nearest medic was several obstacles away and required a lengthy relay of participants calling out for a medic before one finally showed up on an atv.
the staff at the urgent care facility at beaver creek wasn't happy either. they hadn't been notified about the event and were totally understaffed. we were there from around 3pm until after they officially closed around 8pm and we weren't the last ones there.
it looks like these types of obstacle course events are taking off in popularity. and it really was "fun until someone got hurt". of course, injuries are inevitable in an event like that, and Tough Mudder took great pains to point out that the event was dangerous and that everyone signed a "death waiver". but still, hopefully in future years they will do a better job of making the obstacles a little safer (like padding on hard surfaces near obstacles) and of providing on-site medical care.
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