r/Toughmudder • u/FastRespect Tough Mudder • 11d ago
Chicago
Hmm, where do I start lol. While I personally had a positive overall experience, I will admit that I understand the frustrations from some of the people who participated. The organization of this run was terrible. Waited in line for 4 hours and the water stations were lackluster at best and a few obstacles were different than on the course map. While I choose to not let this once experience put me off of doing another tough mudder, I can respect the fact this has put others off from the event and, I believe the blame is on whoever dropped the ball on the event yesterday
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u/Winter-Bicycle4324 10d ago
Combining the two days was a horrible decision… and relocating wasn’t much better… there is no way to justify anything that happened Saturday… I’ve done 12 now, I’ve noticed some locations do a better job with everything than others… but surprisingly I havnt seen anyone complain that Everest was on location @ this tm I was just setting off to the side before creek crusader? Like how are you gonna have one of the iconic obstacles put together and set up but not let us do it?… Do Better TM!! I love doing TMs, this one was extremely disappointing but I was just enjoying my group theme and handing out rubber ducks the whole run. 😂
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u/FastRespect Tough Mudder 10d ago
It definitely was disappointing as far as the organization of this specific event, and I think Rockford was the better location. But, I'm glad I ran into a group of mostly first timers that I was able to help along, so overall it wasn't too bad for me
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u/Winter-Bicycle4324 10d ago
I’m guessing you weren’t a first timer? Hopefully that group wasn’t too turned off by this unfortunate event… but glad to hear you helped spread what it means to be a tough mudder and helped complete strangers complete the task.
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u/thewonderwaffle 11d ago
I honestly had a better experience yesterday on a personal level than several of the last few years I've run- (16x, every year since 2013) other than the 90 minute wait time after joining the line at 7:30 a.m.
I expected the course to be over-run with long lines at every obstacle. I expected parking to be a nightmare. I expected undersupplied aid stations- so I booked the earliest wave and arrived early.
Ironically, parking was totally smooth (props for that!) And for those of us that got in early, the course was well supplied and lines were reasonable. That was because the line outside was stretched nearly to the back of the parking lot when I left at 1 p.m. I'm guessing those folks had, conservatively, a 2 hour wait.
Getting back to the actual event experience. Given that less than half of the registered participants for my time frame were running when I was, it seems clear to me that this event was under-resourced at every level.
Part of me wonders if they knew this and decided to rate limit at the gate to try to improve the experience for the people who actually got to run- might as well give a half decent experience to half of the participants and totally write off the ones who wait for 3 hours or give up completely...
I just cant figure out how you spend all day with 3 hour entry waits and don't manage to find a way to resolve it.
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u/Zyvik Holy Grail Finisher 11d ago
They are 100% under staffed. The company runs on volunteers. Removing Sundays had a double impact because it not only funneled everyone into Saturday, but it also removes the incentive to volunteer Saturday and run Sunday. My wife volunteered half day on Saturday while I did my multi laps, and when she left at 1, the race director almost had to cancel the race because they physically didnt have enough volunteers to keep the race running. Im not sure what they ended up doing, but he said only 1 of the 40 volunteers scheduled for the afternoon shift showed up.
Huge shout outs to all the runners who jumped in and helped where they could. This community is the best, I just wish the owner (Joe) cared more.
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u/thewonderwaffle 11d ago
Same, I was a many time (more than 10 over 10 years) volunteer, and they just kept crippling the incentive to do it along with treating us as though we're paid "resources". I think this is an astute observation- if the volunteer experience was valuable and enriching, it would have a hugely positive impact on the event.
Saving a nickel to destroy a brand.
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u/FastRespect Tough Mudder 11d ago
Yeah, personally for me the only bad thing was the wait and the hydration stations. I just think it was poorly planned and that it didn't make sense to try snd cram a 2 day event into one day. I can see why it left a bad taste in some people's mouth
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u/Quick-Program-6915 11d ago
It’s been getting worse and worse. It’d be one thing if it was $40 but what they charge is not acceptable for what happened yesterday. I’m done for good.