"Enough with the mud runs. There, I said it."

Image via Getty.

Sloppy mud. Electrical shocks. Physical exertion. Jumping over fire. Crawling under barbed wire. And animal poo. Lots of it.

It sounds like an advertisement for some sick form of torture. It’s not.

Rather, it’s exactly what you can expect if you sign up and pay to participate in a “mud run” — something you, or someone you know, has probably done. And they’ve most likely posted the photographic evidence of their physical capabilities on Facebook for the world to see.

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I’m here to say your muddy dreams are over. Done. Finished. Mud runs need to become that fitness trend we all laugh awkwardly about and wish never happened (much like my highly-plucked eyebrows when I was 15). They’ve had their 15 minutes of fame, and now it’s time you and I boycotted them.

Think I’m being a bit harsh? Well, how about you try this on for size – 1000 participants in a French mud run held on June 20 have become ill.

Many complained of diarrhoea and vomiting in the days after they’d climbed over obstacles and run around in dirt. Why? It’s believed they ingested mud that contained faeces. Yes, animal turd. In their mouths. (Post continues after gallery.)

A couple of weeks ago, Brittany Williams went blind a day after competing in a mud run in Dallas, US, reportedly due to “flesh-eating bacteria” in the mud.

“My eye started hurting, like maybe I’ve got mud or some debris in there. When I opened my eye, it was just like white. The whole room was white,” Brittany explained.

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“[My cornea] just completely melted off of my eye.”

In 2013, Avishek Sengupta, who was participating in a West Virginia event, drowned during one stage of the race. A year prior to this, Tony Weathers drowned during a different mud run.

Sadly, these aren't isolated incidents. There have been many more reports of injuries and illness, a fact that prompted the The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a report last May, detailing that mud runs need to come with sufficient warning:

“A case-control study using data provided by patients and healthy persons who also had participated in the race showed a statistically significant association between inadvertent swallowing of muddy surface water during the race and Campylobacter infection... Public health agencies and adventure race organizers should consider informing race attendees of the hazards of inadvertent ingestion of surface water.”

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Yes, yes they should.

It’s an industry that rakes in millions of dollars worldwide (in the last four years, it’s said Tough Mudder has brought in $100 million alone).

While many organisations have come out in defence of their upgraded safety measures, these recent incidents make it clear that not enough is being done.

Which is why I’m urging you to ditch mud runs. Yes, our days of crawling through dirt obstacle courses potentially (and literally) eating sh*t need to come to an end.

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Let’s rewind back to the good old days, where simply heading out on a run, without having to leap over fire or crawl through mud baths under barbed wire, was enough to satisfy our fitness appetites.

Would you compete in a mud run?

Looking for some fun but more simple ways to get fit? Try some of these exercises.