MUDCRO
Running a world renowned badass race with one of the most badass teams on the planet, Sons of Mudarchy, or MUDCRO, for my first Tough Mudder ever was truly a one of a kind experience. Damn it feels good to be a gangst..errrr I mean mud runna. They also happen to be one of Tough Mudder’s favorite teams and the feeling is mutual. “Bleed orange” is a motto that many members of the Sons of Mudarchy like to say, and of course that means, “Run a Tough Mudder! It’s not as scary as you may think, especially with a team!”
The Sons of Mudarchy (MUDCRO) was born out of the love of the TV series, “Sons of Anarchy.” Edward Buonocore who is better known as “Papa Smurf” due to his patient demeanor, positive attitude, and his wickedly awesome Poseidon beard. His right-hand man and 2nd in command Gene Johnson and Matt Blakely first wore, “The Reaper” at a Tough Mudder event in Western NY in July of 2014.
This is where the similarities to the show end. There is no gun running (say yes to fun running instead kids!), drug dealing, pimping, murdering, or any other sketchiness going on. I make it sound awful but it truly is a riveting show, but I digress. MUDCRO is just a great bunch of mud running hooligans that want to squeeze every drop of happiness that life has to offer with no regrets and no what ifs.
Their primary goal was to run OCR events and have as much fun as possible. Along with the fun never stopping, MUDCRO has continued to grow here in the United States with chapters in NJ, Texas, Arizona, and the Badlands of SD. They also have a global reach with chapters in the U.K., Australia, Denmark, Germany, and Spain. The Sons have raised money and awareness for Cystic Fibrosis, our military, and T1D. They say that when you join MUDCRO you’re not just joining a team, you’re becoming part of a family.
Their teamwork and love show not only on the courses they grace with their presence but off the course as well. MUDCRO hosts and takes part in many other charitable events all throughout the year as one big happy family. It’s not all about racing or being a badass, a wannabe badass, weekend warriors, fun runners, and whatever else you may think about MUDCRO.
MUDCRO truly is what they affectionately call a “framily.” A cute mix of friend + family. Can’t choose your family? Now you can with a ‘framily.’
“So what does MUDCRO have to do with Tough Mudder, besides running the races?”
HISTORY OF SONS OF MUDARCHY
S.O.M was started when a couple of guys were looking for an identity for a team. While the T.V. show, “Sons of Anarchy” gave them the look and the value of brother and sisterhood, Tough Mudder provided the format and the spark for MUDCRO. They like to keep the core values of teamwork, camaraderie and the “no one left behind” mentality. To always have fun, remember to thank your volunteers, and to remember at one time we were those people on the course needing help and encouragement!
I’m sure some of you reading this have been helped by a MUDCRO team member when they were volunteering or racing at an event. On the course MUDCRO will help anyone who needs it. I have seen, and been a part of, Papa Smurf and the rest of what I like to call his “dysfunctionally functional village” as we helped each other over obstacles, while shouting words of encouragement and gratitude to the volunteers who sat or stood in the hot baking sun for hours in order for this event to happen. A heartfelt thank you goes out to all of the obstacle course racing volunteers worldwide. These events would probably be triple the price or they wouldn’t happen at all without you bunch, and we love and appreciate you for it.
Since 2014 MUDCRO has grown across the US, Europe, and Australia with each chapter keeping to those strong core values that have many racers wanting to don “The Reaper” on the course as well. The founders just can’t help but smile when they think about doing their first Tough Mudder, to where the group known as the Sons of Mudarchy/MUDCRO is today.
While there are many teams, they just want to be the “Best Team on the Planet” by putting their money where their mouths are, the same motto as the Tough Mudder volunteers. Without Tough Mudder there might not have been a MUDCRO and that’s a sad thought to this racer and fellow MUDCRO member. I’m very proud to call myself a member of MUDCRO because of these wonderful people. Before experiencing running with MUDCRO firsthand, my husband and I just wanted to run our own race, be lone wolves together (I don’t know how that works either) and make a few friends along the way.
What a difference a great team can make to the mud running experience however, and I can see why Tough Mudder is a good training ground for those wanting to branch out a bit from other races that they like the most, such as another well-known race with never ending death marches, heavy carries like orange buckets full of rocks instead of Orange Kool-Aid, and insane terrain.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case, Tough Mudder’s obstacle named “Pyramid Scheme” which is the infamous slip wall where you need a team or to have another team temporarily adopt you (it is totally possible to run Tough Mudder alone or with a smaller group) is where MUDCRO’s teamwork really shined. Let’s just say that if we were on the NBC Spartan show, we would have won the slip wall. The camaraderie everyone from those that were anchors to those that were grabbers went off without a hitch. Beautiful job team MUDCRO, and this is truly an amazing team building obstacle.
There were a few obstacles that were, “lone wolf friendly” but to truly experience a Tough Mudder, bring your friends. As a matter of fact bring your friends to all of your races… because if you’re fun-running, it’s much more fun with a team. A true team, not just drive there together and ditch them on the course. That’s no fun.
One of the scariest obstacles that day was Kong, coming at you with a 15 feet high drop if you failed, no teammate can help you here and with rings not being my strong point at all. Let’s just say that you do get the wind knocked out of you when you hit the giant air mattress below. Tough Mudder still has not replied to me regarding why it wasn’t placed over the traditional water pit, but I do believe it’s due to New York state or venue restrictions about digging too deep. It’s probably the same reason that one of their signature obstacles called, “King of the Swingers” wasn’t at the Long Island venue. Falling into a giant air mattress is no fun so I need to work more on rings.
A few people did say to me that running the Long Island course is like a Tough Mudder lite. For those that are going, “How can a TM be lite? Looks pretty scary to me.”
Yes, there were definitely some scary obstacles such as Kong, or torture obstacles like Electro shock, but other than that you had your slip walls, 2 of them including Everest 2.0 which now has the fitness option of a rope, much like Savage race’s Colossus. I truly appreciated this because I am not good at running up slip walls unless it involves a rope. The thought of bashing my head into the lip of the wall isn’t really appealing, and having teammates push you up is not the same. That kind of defeats the purpose of the slip wall in my opinion, so the addition of the rope is a great touch.
Speaking of fitness options, this is where Tough Mudder is great regarding obstacles. There are signs and lines for Tough Mudder Legionnaires at various obstacles, and a line for first timers where the obstacles were very challenging but nowhere as hard as the one on the Legionnaire line. No, you don’t have to be a Legionnaire to be in that line. They are just the same obstacle as the first timer side just modified to be harder. For example monkey bars instead of an inverted wall and then a climb up to a high platform on an obstacle called, “Reach around”.
What is a Tough Mudder Legionnaire? It’s when you run 2 Tough Mudders within 1 calendar year. Click here for information on Tough Mudder’s Legionnaire program.
The Funky monkey may be one of the most fun and rewarding obstacles that I have seen outside of American Ninja warrior. Watching people beast this obstacle is so satisfying!
As for Arctic Enema, we went out at with a later wave so it was mercifully not ice cold because they do stop pouring ice in at a certain time or if they run out. So it was not bad at all. I’ll probably hate it when it’s full of ice because not only do you slide down a tube into some chilly ass water, you have a second to catch your breath before having to go under fencing where you are boxed in with no room to stand, and then finishing by going under a tire wall. I can definitely see why this would suck if it were colder.
Electro Shock therapy. FUCK THAT SHIT, I skipped it big time and I regret nothing. Another popular race series that is known for being, “Navy SEAL tough” issued a statement on their page last year on why they do not use electrocution obstacles on a course. They stated, and I don’t quote verbatim that, “Electrocution obstacles serves no purpose aside from humiliation” and I agree with that sentiment.
As for Tough Mudder racers not caring if you skip an obstacle. Yes, they do care. Other Mudders will side-eye you (aka give you dirty looks) for skipping electro-shock therapy. Ask me if I give a shit though. Actually, don’t because you already know that answer. I walked by that obstacle like, “Yeah, go ahead and try and make me fuckers.” Bad attitude I know, but seriously fuck Electro Shock therapy.
You see this? Yeah! FUCK THAT!
Let’s get to my personal favorite Tough Mudder Long Island obstacles.
The Blockness Monster. You’ve seen it in ads, pictures, and you’ve seen it on TV, yes it is as fun as it looks. No, you do not have to be a good swimmer to do this, the water is not that deep, 5 feet at the deepest point I believe the lifeguard said. Yes, I could stay in there all day.
The block itself is just that, a huge rectangular clock that forms an upside down V hump mimicking pics (real or fake) of good old Nessie the Lochness Monster. It’s like jumping onto a 4-foot platform, turning around and then grabbing the platform as you come down keeping a constant rotation of the block going. Some of the most fun was pulling the block down for people on the other side, and then try and get out of the way before they slid into you. Lots of fun, this one definitely lives up to the hype.
Augustus Gloop aka the Snot rocket. This one is a lot of fun. Have you ever wanted to climb out of a sewer like a Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle while water poured down on your head? Me neither, but this obstacle was surprisingly a really good time. There were two fitness options there so I took the first-timer one since it was my first Tough Mudder ever.
It’s a tall straight tube (about 15-20 feet up?) with a clear plastic window that is just there for lighting, you can’t see much with the water pouring down on your head anyway. You basically wedge yourself into the side of the tube and there were little side grips in which to pull yourself up and out with. I have no idea what the Legionnaire side was like. It probably was missing the side grip holes, please post in comments if you feel like schooling me on the Legionnaire side of Augustus Gloop.
The heroes carry, I only liked this one because I hate heavy carries and I make no secret of this. As a matter of fact I, do believe I complain about heavy carries in every article, but with the encouragement of my MUDCRO teammate, I carried my 160-pound husband piggy back style with great success and ease. This is the only reason I am putting it at number 3 because I was afraid of not being able to find a partner that I could carry. The thought of dropping someone and potentially hurting them was definitely on the forefront of my mind, and not only overcoming this fear but finding out that I’m way stronger physically than I give myself credit for felt really good. People over buckets? Not up and down a ski slope though.
THE CONS
Hey you, an article with no bitching? Did Tough Mudder do that great of a job with everything? The answer is, “NO!”
Let’s start the bitching off lightly. They had plenty of port-o-potties on and off the course and yes, they were clean. There were water stations galore. The water stations were awesome, some even had sports drinks and water, others were just water, some were food and water like bananas and protein bars. People, including myself, were joking about how this race has more aid stations than they do obstacles.
I’m kinda annoyed with that. The long boring stretches of road and trail are boring, very boring. This is why you need a team as well, you want people to talk to in between what seemed like miles of no obstacles. Good thing there were actual trail snacks on the course.
Yes, Tough Mudder Long Island had legitimate trail snacks. Not the kind that comes in a bag with granolas and carob chips. There were wild berry bushes and peach trees dotted all along the course. Between the aid stations, the wild berries and the peaches… I think this might be the only race where I ingested more calories than I burned.
I think it was boredom eating though, because yes Tough Mudder your obstacles are awesome, but why are you so cheap with the amount of them on the course? What was it, 9 miles and 18 obstacles? That’s 1 obstacle every 1/2 mile. Seriously fellow runners, bring your friends or join a team if you are running Tough Mudder. I can’t recommend that enough. It helps with the no obstacle for miles blues. I almost wished for an orange bucket of rocks even with a team. Almost, I didn’t say I actually wanted one.
Nothing for miles! This looks like a half assed death march to me.
Parking
Their parking situation was ridiculous according to my friend who took their shuttle. The parking lot for this event was a 20 minute ride down the highway, quite a few towns away from the event. So for this venue the lot is extremely far, it’s still $10+ to park, but the shuttles are plenty and they run regularly. Just get there earlier than planned for a long ride, and hope that your shuttle doesn’t hit NY leisure traffic.
Bag check is not secure. It’s walk in and walk out with your own bag situation. No kind volunteers and security staff members babysitting your bags and only allowing entry to authorized persons. Tough Mudder just lets you walk right in, and walk right out. Sure they check your bib number to the number on the bag, but nothing is stopping anybody from rifling through your bags while in a crowded tent with other racers and 2 people at the entrance and exit. They charge $10 for this! Weaksauce Tough Mudder, really weak. That’s easily fixable though with a more secure bag check program like the other brands.
On the brighter side, Tough Mudder does not serve race piss, aka Coors Light, anymore. It is now a Guinness Blonde, much to the delight of many racers.
Other than the miles of no obstacles, bag check being lax and expensive to boot, along with parking and shuttles being too far from the venue, the obstacles are definitely worth a try. Did I mention to bring a posse? Like these guys. They look like a lot of fun to run with too.
Photo credits: Louis Liquori, Poly Poli, Tough Mudder
Poly Poli
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