We used to run to survive. To catch dinner. Perhaps to escape someone chasing us with a club. Fast forward a few centuries and now we run to stay in shape or to organize our thoughts. Talk about being born at the right time. But even for enthusiasts that live to put one foot after the other, mile after mile, running gets tedious sometimes. That’s why there are different distances, trails and races. It’s great motivation to set new goals for a new challenge.
Running themes have been around for decades: The “Turkey Trot” on Thanksgiving (Run 5 miles & eat a pound of stuffing guilt-free later that day!), “The Naked Buns Fun Run” (Personally I think I look pathetic enough when I run fully clothed.), The “Halloween Half-Marathon” (I love the guy that dresses up as Wonder Woman including the silver lasso.). Really fun ideas that keep you in shape and interested.
In 1899, then patent commissioner, Charles H. Duell announced that “everything that can invented has been invented.” You would think that about running themes. Then along came the “Run-A-Muck” concept where you literally pay a registration fee to run through huge troughs of mud. I never heard of the event before until my brother starting doing them. He finally convinced me to try one:
DL: C’mon you run through some mud for a few miles….
SL: Is it 3 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles and how much mud?
DL: “Yes.” There’s also a beer truck…
SL: Ok, sounds good.
DL: Great, I’ll sign us up, there’s also rock walls, steep cliffs, tires, tubes, barbed wire we have to crawl under and ravines with beams you have to shimmy across…CLICK….
Running is hard enough for me, who the Hell wants to do that? Apparently thousands of people. All of them lined up to become one with the mud for each of the 10 races the day we went. Most of them were like me – not the runner elite – just people looking for something different. To bond with friends and strangers. To get creative. Mud was the foundation that spawned new ideas. Long colorful team socks were a big hit.
So were ridiculous costumes to heighten the pure joy of plunging face first into wet dirt. I loved all of it. The bumblebees, island girls with the coconut boobs, ballerinas, preppies dressed in suits and even a Fireman. That gear weighed so much, he was my hero in more ways than one.
I still don’t understand why one team wore “The Buttclenchers” uniforms with “Keeping it Tight” as their slogan...
Unique ideas always create a network of new thoughts. What if the event turned into a biathlon where you had to shoot targets with paint guns? What if people shot at you? What if you had to carry something heavy in a mud relay race? Or maybe something small (an egg?) you had to keep clean and unbroken? A good foundation allows you to build in a lot of directions. The best companies and ad agencies get that.
I always cherish a fresh kernel of an insight. I love the waterfall that happens after that. It’s a drug and my favorite part of the business. If you haven’t experienced it yet, you just have to keep digging. Or work with people that know how to use their creative pick axe and shovel. Getting dirty can indeed be a beautiful thing.
