4 LIGHTS, CAMERA,

ACTION: SPORTS AND

ADVENTURE IN HIGH

SENSATION-SEEKING

Matt Davis was a self-described everyday guy. “I was your

average 40-year-old, married with a couple of kids kinda guy that

played neighborhood softball and an occasional flag football game.

No one would call me obese, but I certainly wasn’t in shape.

I couldn’t run more than a mile.” He did his first obstacle course

race, the Warrior Dash, because it sounded fun, it seemed manly,

and you got a goofy hat and a turkey leg. He wasn’t looking to

change his life; his sensation-seeking personality drew him into

activities with a high adventure factor.

An obstacle course race (OCR), also known as a mud run, is

an adventure endurance race. Swamp Dash and Bash, Tough

Mudder and Beast Race are some of the more popular ones. Those

who pay to participate can look forward to the muddy mayhem,

arctic enema, cry baby, and more. These are the affectionate names

mudders give to such activities as belly-crawling underneath

barbed wire with your face in the mud, sliding feet first into

a pond of icy water, and crawling through a tent filled with tear

gas. It all sounds like a scheme that might have been concocted by

Dr. Evil to thwart Austin Powers. I guess the sharks with lasers

attached to their heads were already booked.

OCRs attract a variety of sensation-seekers, including Matt.

Matt told me about his first experience with these races which was

back in February of 2012. “They had us do what’s called ‘walk the

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