Location: 500 Diamond Drive, Lake Elsinore, CA 92530
Length: 8-10 Miles, Timed/ Competitive
I had done this course a few times in the past and signed up for my first competitive Tougher Mudder in November. I wanted this new challenge and had signed up for it months in advance – before I had signed up for my Spartan Ultra. As the morning of the race arrived, I already knew that this one was going to hurt. The SoCal Tough Mudder took place the weekend after my Ultra, and I was still hurting; however, I decided to compete anyways and not listen to my body.
(Spoiler: This doesn’t work in my favor)
The Course
The SoCal Lake Elsinore course is extremely flat. No hills to speak of and very desert like landscape. Usually the mornings are on the cold side and the days can get hot. I always suggest extra water and fuel when racing in this area, because of the weather and the course has little to no shade.
Tough Mudder Setup
Let me start off by saying, I love Tough Mudder. I love the teamwork and obstacles. I think that doing these races with a group of friends or as a team building exercise is perfect. Many of the obstacles you can’t physically get through on your own; like Mt. Everest, Pyramid Scheme, or Mud Mile. Many of these you need a helping hand to grab onto or another person to help climb up. There is always so much comradery and positive attitudes at these races, and you most definitely would leave with new friends from the course. It is a moderate length as well. Usually between 8-10 miles with plenty of water stations and help along the way.
Race Day
Walking up to the start line, I was very optimistic. I was excited to run my first competitive Tough Mudder. The weather that day was perfect, I had water and fuel prepped with me, and a positive mental mindset. The comradery of this race and the support of everyone at the start line was very tangible.
The people were amazing and most everyone still helped one another with some of the obstacles. However, they weren’t mandatory and there wasn’t much in terms of penalties if you failed them. A few of the obstacles had the penalty of running to a flag that couldn’t have been more than a couple 100 feet away and was much quicker than just doing the obstacle in the first place. A lot of people could just skip if they wanted as well; including the electroshock and water obstacles. Some people like myself wanted to run a fair race, do every obstacle and penalty, and at least attempt them. Whereas some just ran through and didn’t even try to do them.
In my opinion, if you are going to run a competitive race then there needs to be consistency in obstacles and difficulty attempted with each competitor. I could have run straight past all the obstacles and made a much better race time, but I think this makes it unfair for those who want to do the obstacles. Completing the obstacles versus not doing them makes it completely different races and not reasonable on a competitive level. Now, this year there weren’t any prizes for competitive, so the only thing on the line for competing in this race was bragging rights or your own pride; but I still think that it needs to be better regulated. For that reason, competing at this race was extremely disappointing.
About midway through the race, I was regretting not listening to my body. I came off their Mudderhorn obstacle a bit hard and started feeling my knee give way. I had about two or three miles left in the race and had to finish it. Which was mistake number two on my part that day by not listening to my body. As I kept going, my knee felt worse and by the last quarter mile it felt like a hammer was hitting it at every step. After crossing the finish line, I sank to the floor and didn’t get up for a long time. Not only was this race not what I had expected or hoped it would be, but I left it hurting and questioning why I had even run it.
Takeaway
In my opinion, open wave Tough Mudder is amazing and lots of fun, but competitive Tougher Mudder waves are not worth it.
And last but not least, always – and I mean always – listen to your body.