Tough Mudder Ohio 2014

Tough Mudder Ohio 2014 - Who's In?

As many of you probably know, I love my obstacle course races (or mud runs, as many call them). I talk a lot about them, because I love the feeling of getting outdoors and really testing your entire body with a good obstacle course. I even liked the obstacle courses we were "forced" to go through at my two Army ROTC summer camps - because they were fun and they let you do stuff that you didn't get to do every day.

Thus far, in my short obstacle course race career, I've run a bunch of fun races: in 2011 I did the Warrior Dash and Ruckus races; in 2012 I ran the first Mud Ninja race and the Hell Run; and this past summer I did the Savage Race and the second Mud Ninja race. And it was at Mud Ninja 2013 that I had the best time I've had so far with a race as I went through it with a team of friends.

So now I want to take it a step further and take part in what many consider to be the granddaddy of all obstacle course races: the Tough Mudder. The Ohio iteration of this race for 2014 is on May 17-18th, in Mansfield, OH.

The Tough Mudder is a 10-12 mile course with around 20 obstacles, and the organizers don't like to call it a race as much as an event. Because Tough Mudder's not about winning, it's about getting everyone across the finish line. This is a team event, big time. Individuals can run it, but teams do much better. And I want to have a team around me like the one we had at Mud Ninja this year - everyone helping each other to excel and achieve a great goal.

And of course, we're going to run as team Train 4 Autism - Columbus Chapter - the charity that my wife and I co-chair in order to raise money for whatever autism-related non-profits our team members want to raise money for. It's all about competing in great events and challenging yourself to both a physical goal and an emotional one.

I've already got one volunteer for this team, but we're going to need more folks to really do this right.

So who's with me? This is the big one...

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