Obstacle course racing with Endgame Adventures

Why run 12 miles and navigate obstacles where you have to pay money to endure physical hardships? There is a good chance your calf might cramp to the point where you have to sit on the ground in agony for 5 minutes. You might be so cold in the arctic enema that it will take you 2 or 3 attempts to get out and then you'll shiver for the next hour. The mental side is even more arduous.  When the Endgame Adventures team ran Tough Mudder in Central Florida on November 2nd, I personally was in unknown territory.
I never realized that one obstacle was navigating through a winding 50 foot dirt tunnel underground in complete darkness. I struggle with claustrophobia. This obstacle really tested my limits. The Endgame Adventures philosophy is to run into life not away from it. We want to safely test the unpredictable nature of life. Paradoxically for this event we had to sign a death waiver.
The unknown will either tear your team apart or create an unbreakable bond. At mile 3 one of our runners sat down and couldn’t move. He didn’t sleep well the night before and failed to eat breakfast. His energy system was shutting down. I was stunned by this. He was one of our more athletic participants and he had been training with me in prep for the race. However, the whole team immediately rallied.
One of our fellow team members ran and got him bananas. Random strangers offered energy bars. Its pretty cool to witness the human bond when you're in the middle of nowhere and exhausted. This is just one example of psych energy you get from your teammates. You are inspired in so many little ways. Someones face as they crawl through mud with strings hanging that can deliver a shock, but they keep on crawling anyway. Having a teammate help you over a wall.
Something I will never forget happened on the last obstacle called Everest. Everest is a quarter pipe that is coated in mud and grease. You sprint up it and when it becomes vertical you jump and try to catch the lip with your hands or the hand of a teammate so they can pull you up to the summit. Well, I'm the last one at the event and also the slowest, heaviest, and oldest on our team. It was raining and I could barely feel my legs. I felt slow and as I jumped for the lip one of my teammates grabbed my hand. Communication happened in our eyes. I could feel my eyes saying don’t let go as I saw his eyes screaming I have to let go.  I was too heavy for him, so he let me go.
Instead of sliding on my stomach or back smoothly. My body rolled sideways and I landed on my shoulder and then my head. My shoulder hurt and I wondered if I had a concussion. I was seeing stars. I got up off the ground and started asking myself really weird questions in my head. What is my wifes social security number? What is my mothers maiden name? I was attempting to self diagnose a concussion. I was dinged but fine. I fell more gracefully from the top 3 more times and each time a couple of things happened: More of my teammates assembled at the top to catch me and more of the other mudder participants stopped to watch the Endgame Adventures team. On my fifth attempt my teammates caught me and I felt at least six hands hoisting me over the top. The crowd of strangers went crazy. That’s the kind of moment I live for, and I want everyone that goes on an Endgame Adventures trip to experience. At Endgame Adventures you will never sign a death waiver, but you might be asked to sign an agreement to live a full life contract.
-Rob Biasotti- Chief Visionary Officer