I ran the Tough Mudder again today. Somehow, it was even worse than last year.
Horrible experience. The only reason I ran Tough Mudder a second time is because I emailed the company after last year’s Chicago event to explain how disappointed I was with the experience. They actually acknowledged that they fell short and escalated my complaint to their team.
After today, I genuinely don’t understand how things got worse.
This year’s event was in Spring Grove, Chicago area, not Rockford. There was apparently so much confusion about the location that several people line initially thought about going to Rockford. I also heard multiple other participants say they had the same confusion and went to Rockford in this morning and ultimately ended up driving to Spring Grove. That alone tells you something about the organization.
But the biggest issue was the lines.
I have never experienced anything like this at a race. We spent approximately 3 and a half hours at the venue for a race that took about 40 minutes to complete (skipped obstacles because I wanted to leave). We even received a text message saying they were "running behind." That might be the biggest understatement I've ever seen.
The lines were absolutely massive, and there seemed to be very little urgency or organization in moving people through them. They had roughly 9–10 people taking tickets/scanning QR codes, yet the process was still painfully slow.
And here's what I don't understand: Why are we scanning a QR code for a 5K at the venue in the first place?
Why couldn't the waiver be completed online beforehand? Why couldn't the registration/qr verification be handled before arriving? This isn't entering a military base. It's a 5K mud race. Send the wristbands to our address.
If you have thousands of people arriving at once, you should be doing everything possible to minimize the amount of time they spend standing in lines. Instead, Tough Mudder seemed to have designed the process around making everyone stand in line for hours.
And this year, the event was only held on Saturday instead of Saturday and Sunday. If you're going to consolidate everyone into one day, you would think the event would be prepared for the increased number of participants. Instead, it felt like they took a massive crowd and funneled everyone through a system that couldn't handle it.
What's especially frustrating is that the ticket prices are outrageous for what you're actually getting. The majority of the staff appear to be volunteers, yet participants are paying premium prices.
And this goes back to my experience last year.
Last year, I paid around $180 and found the actual race incredibly underwhelming. There were maybe 10 obstacles, some of which were essentially natural obstacles rather than constructed challenges. The course looked nothing like the obstacles Tm was showcasing in its promotional material on instagram and facebook. The marketing made the event look like a massive obstacle course, while the actual course we received was extremely basic.
I complained about that last year, and TM actually admitted that they had fallen short at the chicago event.
So I gave them another chance.
I regret it.
At this point, it feels like TM has prioritized promotion and selling tickets over actually delivering a quality event. The money doesn't seem to be going toward the course, obstacles, staffing, or efficient event management. It feels like they're spending money convincing people to come rather than making sure the people who already paid have a good experience.
And that's what makes the whole thing feel like such a money grab.
You have expensive registration, administrative fees, parking fees, and other charges, and then you're expected to spend half the day standing in lines for an untimed race that takes 40 minutes.
I honestly believe everyone who experienced the excessive delays today deserves at least a partial refund. Three and a half hours at the venue for a 40 minute race is completely unreasonable.
At this point, I have absolutely no interest in running TM again.
Honestly, I think the best thing participants can do is stop giving them our money until they demonstrate that they can actually run an event properly. If enough people stopped buying tickets, maybe they'd finally have a reason to change.
To me, this is starting to feel like the fire festival of mud races, great marketing, huge promises, and a very different reality once you've already paid.
I'm going to email them again and see what they say. If their response is another free race code, I'll just post it here because I don't want to use it.
I'm not looking for a free future race. I want the company to acknowledge that making people stand in line for 3 and half hours for an untimed 5K is unacceptable.
TLDR: Tough mudder in Chicago sucked.
