Events I've done

I ran my first mud run event in October, 2011...it was the Mid-Atlantic Tough Mudder in Wintergreen, VA.  My wife tells me that I started off with the toughest event, based on the length of the event and terrain, and I should've started off with something smaller, like a 5K.  Ha!  My buddy, a college roommate, and I ran this and had a great time.  I really thought that he'd had enough, but as soon as we were done with this event, he was asking me when the next one was!

I then ran the Super Spartan Race in Leesburg, VA, in August, 2012.  This one was a lot of fun...I ran it with a team that I'd joined at the last minute, and one of the participants, the CFO of Mother Earth Brewing, brought t-shirts for the team.

My buddy and I then ran the Mid-Atlantic Tough Mudder in September, 2012, in Frederick, MD.  This one was a mess, not because of the course, but due to access to the venue itself.  Ingress and egress were inadequate for the number of folks trying to get in and out of the venue, and after we finished the event and got back to where we were staying, we found out that the Sunday running of the event was canceled.  We were glad to see that TMHQ took ownership of the issue.

My wife and I ran the Rebel Race in October, 2012, with my sister and brother-in-law.  The Rebel Race is a 5K event, and it was quite a surprise running a smaller event after being spoiled by how the larger events are run.  The base camp for the event was great, with food and a band, and a lot of energy.  The course wasn't bad at all, but some of the obstacles were "wimpy" (my wife's word, not mine) and not really much of a challenge.  We found that the first water station was completely overwhelmed by participants in each wave, and the second water station was a table with a couple of empty water jugs.

We then ran the Jungle Cup in March, 2013, and were again somewhat surprised by how some of the smaller events end up being run.  This one had some good obstacles, but was poorly marked, access to the venue itself wasn't obvious, and they ran out of t-shirts before the day was halfway over.  The proprietor promised via the Facebook page to send out t-shirts to participants and also give everyone a VIP pass to an upcoming event, but then went completely dark and no one has apparently heard from him since.  I'm glad I wasn't one of the ones who wanted to run a previous event that was canceled...those folks were apparently promised refunds that they never received.  The lesson learned here is to beware the hype (the Jungle Cup was billed as "the toughest 5K of your life") and pay attention to the feedback on the Facebook page for the event.

My buddy and I ran the Mid-Atlantic Spring Tough Mudder, and in this case, TMHQ redeemed themselves.  Not only was the course much better, with some of the newer obstacles, but the spectators now had a route map showing them how to get between obstacles.  They wouldn't get to see all of the obstacles, but the spectators routes cut through the center of the venue with the course zig-zagging back and forth over the routes.  This was a marked change to previous events, which seemed to be focused solely on course and not so much on letting spectators support their friends.

The weekend of 8 June 2013, my wife and I were going to run the Virginia Beach Tough Mudder in Charles City, VA, but the event was canceled...because of too much mud.  Seriously.  Ironic, I know.  We were told the course itself was fine, but that parking would be a mess (delaying people actually getting into and then out of the venue) and that the medical vehicles that they had could not get to and from the obstacles in a timely manner.  With the overall safety concerns, the event was canceled and we are attempting to transfer our registration to the Mid-Atlantic Fall TM.

Events I plan to do/have signed up for:
Savage Race - 20 July (registered)
Super Spartan - 24 Aug (registered)
Mid-Atlantic Fall Tough Mudder - 19 Oct (transferring registration)