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Toughest Mudder runners prove true grit
hubbard
Two city men who went to the Nevada desert earlier this month to challenge themselves against The World’s Toughest Mudder are pleased with how they did.
Despite some temperature swings, a lot of swimming and some formidable obstacles man-made and natural, Chad Macek and John Madeline, both 24, said they will do it again.
Madeline has to rest his knee from a case of tendinitis until the Tough Mudders start their races again in March. They are 10- to 12-mile obstacle courses designed to test strength, stamina, teamwork and mental grit, according to the Tough Mudder organization’s website.
Macek knows now what he has to work on, he said, especially his swimming — there was a lot of it at the world competition Nov. 15 and 16 at Lake Las Vegas.
The world course will be there again next year, he said. He and Madeline both want to try again to complete 75 miles in the 5-mile course that loops in a 24-hour marathon.
Macek placed 18th in the 20- to 24-year-old age group and 289th overall, completing 45 miles after dropping back to help a struggling friend. She completed 40 miles, he said.
Madeline did 60 miles, coming in fifth in his age group of 20- to 24-year-old men and placing 54th overall. There were 1,300 overall competitors.
You have to be in shape to do the Tough Mudder courses, but the competitions are not cutthroat. The runs are not timed, and runners are encouraged to help one another over the obstacles.
The world competition was no different, said Madeline, but what was different were a lot of the obstacles.
Another difference, said Macek, were added penalties. If a runner failed at an obstacle, he or she had to complete a quarter-mile penalty course.
Competitors checked in Friday night before the competition, which began at 10 a.m. Saturday and would continue with last laps begun by 10 a.m. Sunday, to set up tents and food at a pit area.
“Our goals were 75 miles, but once we saw the course, we thought, ‘Wow, it would be a definite challenge,’” Madeline said.
The course included a 35-foot cliff jump into the lake, then a 90-foot swim to a cargo net on the other side.
Madeline had trouble with a ball on the end of a rope, which they had to swing and throw on top of a hill into a holder made to catch it.
“A runner I was running with showed me how to do it,” he said, so he avoided a penalty route.
Swimming 30 feet using only one arm while holding a lighted torch in an obstacle called Statue of Liberty was tough for Macek, who’s not a strong swimmer.
But Mother Nature had one big obstacle of her own to fling relentlessly at the competitors, and it couldn’t have been any less grueling than the man-made ones.
It started getting dark at 5:30 p.m. and did not start getting light until 6:30 a.m., which made for a very long night, said Madeline.
About 10:30 p.m., a nasty dust storm rolled in, he said, with 50 to 70 mph winds and wind chills to 32 degrees.
Eight hundred people who didn’t have proper gear dropped out of the run.
He and Macek, who had on wet suits, windbreakers, clear goggles and bandannas over their faces, made out OK.
The storm lasted all night into the next morning.
“Around 7:30, the sun started coming up and for 20 minutes, it was beautiful,” Macek said. “Then poof, it came back.”
They packed up their tents to go home in the dust, he said.