obstacle races?

I did the Rugged Maniac 5k on 5/14. That's a 3 mile race in the mud with obstacles, and for a person who has completed a half marathon before (although that was last November) it was still pretty hard. I would say that if you have never done something like that before, you might want to consider starting with something like the 3 mile race. If i'm not mistaken, the Tough Mudder is like a 10-12 mile race. I can see why you might be intimidated.

In response to the second part though, if it is in October, you do have the time to train. I actually think i'm going to do the Tough Mudder in October in Virginia. But don't take it lightly, you are really going to have to ramp up the mileage of your runs. You have got to be able to do the 10 mile regular runs "easy", and add in a bunch of unorthodox training. Its one thing to go 10 miles on a road. But truly another to go on trails, up hills, with wet and muddy shoes, over walls, jump into lakes or whatever.

I think you'll enjoy it, whatever you choose. I know i had a blast at the Rugged Maniac. Its quite a sense of accomplishment to finish. And I find that when i sign up for a race and pay the race fee, it is a real incentive to train (which is kind of the point anyways)

Hope this helps.
Brian

I am signed up to do a Warrior Dash in September. Tough Mudder is sort of the next level for me, maybe by next year but I know that I'm not in that good of shape yet! Having the Warrior Dash coming up gives me a lot of motivation to work out, plus I have a friend and her will-be husband doing it with me, so I have friends to train with too.