13 shocks in one race? ER doctors warn about 10,000 volt wires in mud runs

[warrior1]

Who thought this was a good idea?

http://www.today.com/health/13-shocks-one-race-er-doctors-warn-about-10-000-2D11641896





Here is some news that may (or may not) shock you, pun totally intended: Those muddy obstacle course races everyone seems to be doing lately can be dangerous, especially when they involve obstacles charged with 10,000 volts of electricity, emergency physicians say.

Doctors confirmed this in a series of case studies looking at the injuries that happened during a Tough Mudder event in Philadelphia earlier this year. Of the 38 racers treated in the emergency department over that weekend in June, about half suffered electrical injuries.

That's because this particular event features two obstacles that require runners to brave their way through electroshock: There’s the Electric Eel, in which participants “slide on stomach through frigid water or along layer of ice while shocks hang overhead,” and there’s Electroshock Therapy, in which they “run through a field of live wires (up to 10,000 V).”

“The types of injuries were ones that we had never seen before at a social gathering or sports-related event, the electrical injuries in particular,” says Dr. Marna Rayl Greenberg, director of emergency medicine research at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pa. “I have been practicing for over 20 years, and I have never seen an event that shocked people. It took me a while to understand what was happening to them.”

snip

[Scootaloo]

1. Sounds like Darwin Award material to me n/t

[NaturalHigh]

6. Dang it! You beat me to it.

[PeaceNikki]

11. Except they aren't dying, just injured.

Injuries can (and do) happen in any sporting event.

[Codeine]

20. Exactly.

The wire zaps are almost certainly the least dangerous part of a mud run.

[PeaceNikki]

22. Having done electricity-free mud runs, I believe you.

The 20 foot climbing rope wall when you're full of mud is rather precarious. And I did that in a full length ball gown.

[enlightenment]

27. Most sporting events,

with the exception of pugilism, do not involve deliberate bodily injury. An accident that happens in the course of engaging in a sporting event is one thing - this is a different thing altogether.

If they want to make it tough, have the contestants do it blind-folded - or naked - or with one hand tied behind their back. Deliberately shocking someone is perverse.

[Codeine]

31. The shocks don't involve deliberate bodily injury either.

I watched several hundred zombie run participants get zapped, got zapped myself plenty, and saw no injuries resulting from it. Most everyone who got hurt did so after slipping on gravel and eating shit.

[PeaceNikki]

32. Did you read the entire article linked in the OP?

But if running and training for obstacle course races have become your favorite way of staying fit, you don’t have to stop. Dr. Howard Mell, spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians, says the electrical shocks will make participants uncomfortable, but they're not strong enough to be dangerous.

"It almost has that haunted house effect to it -- it appears to be more dangerous than it really is," says Mell, who is training for a Tough Mudder next year. (He did suffer an injury during his training — a stress fracture while running, which, he says, beautifully illustrates the idea that accidents can and do happen during any athletic endeavor.) “There’s no question that the race is designed to create discomfort, and the idea of it is, ‘Hey, I can overcome this.’”

It's not 'deliberate bodily injury'. It's discomfort. Thousands participated in that Philly event. 38 were injured. They did a case study of 5 from the shocks.

[enlightenment]

37. Yes, I did.

And I disagree with you - and that's okay. You're welcome to this form of "sport", with or without electricity.

[hobbit709]

2. Self-induced stupidity never ceases to amaze me.

[Vashta Nerada]

3. People willingly do stupid stuff like this?

What the hell is wrong with them?

[PeaceNikki]

15. They're fun things to train for, do, and accomplish. But I'll do without fire and electricity,

please and thank you.

Several friends and I do a 5k mud obstacle course every year. We are team "Off Like a Prom Dress". And yes, we do it in formalwear. It's a blast. Tough Mudder is about 3 times that - so a lot more training and hard work.

I have several friends who do the Tough Mudder. To put it into perspective, very very few people are getting injured like that. The particular branded event in OP had about half a million participants in 2012 and likely many more this year.

[Vashta Nerada]

16. It looks like my version of "fun" is different from others.

I am capable of training without getting shocked by 10,000 volts.

[L0oniX]

4. A shocking tea party event.

[PeaceNikki]

5. This is why I only do the ones with mud. The ones with fire and electricity are nuts.

[HooptieWagon]

10. I did not know there were ones with fire and electricity.

That seems excedingly stupid. What's next?...a lion pit? Live fire?

[PeaceNikki]

13. Yup, there are several now. "Tough" runs, color runs, slime runs..

They're fun things to train for, do, and accomplish. But I'll do without fire and electricity, please and thanks! I most certainly would end up one of the injured.

[Codeine]

24. I want to do a color run someday.

They look like loads of fun.

[PeaceNikki]

26. I just did my first color run last month.

It actually got annoying really quickly. It's a powder that gets in your eyes and mouth and stuff.

Oh, and ELECTRIC RUNS! I did that one a couple months ago. Also dangerous cuz it was on trails where a lot was in the dark.

I'd like to do the zombie run next year. I've never done that one.

[Codeine]

38. Electric run?

That's a new on on me.

[PeaceNikki]

39. It's a blast. Like a 5k rave.

http://electricrun.com/

It was HUUUGE here. Thousands.

[Codeine]

40. That looks TOO fun!

I'd want to come up with some LED craziness to wear before I did it, though.

[PeaceNikki]

41. It is! The DJ has a breakdancing 'stickman'.

I have about 30 feet of battery powered el wire and several strings of battery powered LED lights. And I've never seen so many glowsticks in my life.

[MADem]

7. Stooooooooooopid. And all you get at the end, if you don't get a shock, is an orange headband.

It's a badge of stupidity, er.... honor.

[NaturalHigh]

8. In an evolutionary sense...

I'd say the deck is stacked against these people.

[loli phabay]

9. nuts, but if people want to do the tough mudders i am not going to stop them.

[elehhhhna]

12. omg the liability! Holy cripes.

[PeaceNikki]

14. they have pretty iron clad waivers

But insurance is probably high which adds to registration fees for these events.

[broiles]

17. It's an intelligence test. If you enter the race you've failed.

[Codeine]

18. Meh. I did one last year and I'm a fairly bright fellow.

It was a Zombie-themed run with lots of mud, some truly challenging obstacles, a few electric shocks, and gauntlets of "zombie" volunteers trying to snatch ribbons from our waists to "kill" us. I had fun and the zaps were no more serious that the ones I used to get all the time as a child around electric cattle fencing.

I imagine falling from a wet and slippery obstacle, the chance of wiping out in the mud and busting a leg or wrenching an ankle, eating shit on the gravel, and the grueling nature of the run itself (lots of hills, 95F weather) all represent much greater risks than the light electric shocks being dealt by the wires.

[PeaceNikki]

19. The fact that YOU wouldn't do it doesn't make those who would unintelligent.

Hundreds of thousands of people participate in those events every year. In addition, that event has raised over $6 million for the Wounded Warrior Project.

[backscatter712]

21. What's the amperage?

All across the country, ranchers use electric fences that use thousands of volts, but only a few milliamps of current.

Touching one of these fences hurts like hell, but normally doesn't injure or kill.

I don't know what these guys were using.

[Codeine]

23. It feels like a cattle fence, pretty much.

The wires at the mud run felt about the same, or maybe even a bit less, but that could just be the fatigue and adrenaline talking.

I remember being a kid around those thing -- trying to see who could hold on to the wire the longest with my idiot friends.

The resulting brain damage may explain my posting history, actually.

[Orrex]

25. What do they charge for that?

No way to conduct a business, that's for sure.

[ScreamingMeemie]

28. .

[Orrex]

29. Thanks. I try to stay current.

[WinkyDink]

33. Watt was that?

[Orrex]

34. Sorry. Couldn't resist.

[jberryhill]

43. Ohmigod

[Codeine]

36. Depends on the capacity.

Turnout can be shocking.

[JimDandy]

45. They're amped for a large turnout.

[WinkyDink]

30. "muddy obstacle course races everyone seems to be doing lately"---Never heard of them.

[Codeine]

35. Really?

Mud runs are all the rage. We recently did a zombie-themed mud run where the turnout was just massive.

[BlueJazz]

42. I prefer the "Chocolate Malt Obstacle" course. Brave men and women eat their way to Victory.

Chocolate=Good
Mud and Dirt=Bad