The past two Novembers, Louie Souza has completed 25 and 35 miles in the World’s Toughest Mudder, a 24-hour obstacle course event to see who can cover the greatest distance.
So by comparison, next month’s inaugural Tough Mudder Indiana Classic — an 8-to-10-mile race at Ceraland — could be a walk in the park for the Columbus native.
“The distance (in the World’s Toughest Mudder events) was about where I wanted it to be,” Souza said. “I can improve on that, but the idea was to improve on speed. So I began going back to a couple shorter races.”
The Tough Mudder Indiana Classic will take place Aug. 3-4 at Ceraland. There will be a 10-mile race for professionals and amateurs on Aug. 3 and a 5K for amateurs on Aug. 4.
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The 27-year-old Souza, a former soccer and basketball player at Columbus North and soccer player at DePauw University, might be the most experienced local Tough Mudder athlete.
“In college my senior year when I was done with soccer, it’s one of those things where you just, ‘Now what?’” Souza said. “I got started in swimming as an exercise and enjoyed it a lot and did a couple triathlons, did a half-Ironman and then was just looking for the next thing I kind of wanted to set as a challenge for myself, and that was the World’s Toughest Mudder. It kind of piqued my interest at some point in college. I was like, ‘That’s something I want to do one day,’ and I just started doing it.”
Souza started with a couple of shorter races, including the 2016 Tough Mudder Classic in Sparta, Kentucky. He also did a couple of Spartan races, including one at Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg.
That set up Souza for the 2017 World’s Toughest Mudder event in Las Vegas.
“The first year was brutal,” Souza said. “I trained for it, but I wasn’t prepared for it. It kicked my butt. I came home with a plan to return the following year and put in motion kind of a 12-month plan to train for that. I had a much better result.”
In November, Souza completed 35 miles in the 2018 World’s Toughest Mudder in Atlanta. That was an improvement by 10 miles over the previous year.
Tough Mudder events typically consist of five-mile loops with 20 to 25 obstacles per loop.
“Each of these 24-hour races have their own life in some ways,” Souza said. “Some are tougher in terms of the terrain, or they’re tougher because the obstacles are just brutal. If you fail an obstacle, you do a penalty loop, and you end up running more than you expect. So when you fail an obstacle and know you’re coming back to that same obstacle again the next time around, it’s pretty much a mind game, which makes it a lot more interesting.”
Another challenge with last year’s World’s Toughest Mudder came when temperatures dropped below freezing overnight.
“The real challenge was once it got deep into the night, it got frigidly cold,” Souza said. “At about 32 degrees, things were starting to frost over.”
Souza’s father Matt and trainer Dr. Nathan Frazier served as Louie’s pit crew. The pit crew helps with food, nutrition, hydration and change of clothes.
Most competitors in the World’s Toughest Mudder have tents and have the option to rest or take naps, but Souza said that usually is counterproductive.
“The idea is to go at it the whole time,” Souza said. “It’s tough because you’re working out for 24 hours, and that’s just brutal in and of itself. But then there’s the fact that you have to be awake for 24 hours, so you kind of have to train yourself to be prepared to not only be awake for 24 hours, but work out for 24 hours. If you fall asleep or take an extended break, then you risk your muscles seizing up or cramping or getting tight. It’s tough to get back going. The idea is, if you can keep moving, you can stay warm.”
Among the obstacles in Tough Mudder events are walls, ice pits, mud pits with live wires hanging down and tubes to crawl through. The final obstacle, called “Happy Ending,” is a 25-foot tall, 40-degree wall in which participants form a human pyramid to scale.
Since most people don’t have access to practice on such obstacles, they find other methods of training. Souza said running is a huge component of his training, but he also tries to climb trees and rocks and do pull-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks and squats.
“One of the coolest things about obstacle course racing is that you can train anywhere that you can get outside,” Souza said. “For me, the switch to training is a lot more focused on kind of high-intensity interval training and building in weights. That’s just kind of my strength, and that comes from soccer and basketball, and then building in running along with that. This is one of those periods where it’s ramped up with running, developing a base, getting my strength under me and then developing some speed before the race.”
When Souza, who now lives in Indianapolis, is in town, he trains at MVP, which is owned by Frazier. But since Souza’s job with Elwood Staffing has him traveling at least three days a week, he tries to run or find other places to train.
“It’s a challenge, and setting goals and things that are an important part of my life professionally and athletically,” Souza said. “If I don’t really push the next level, then I’m not going to be able to do the same in other aspects of my life. So I really equate what I’m doing athletically to what I’m doing professionally.”
Souza isn’t planning to compete in the World’s Toughest Mudder this November. Instead, the finisher of three half-marathons, plans to run the 26.2-mile Mill Race Marathon in September and a couple other obstacle course races in the region.
At the Tough Mudder Indiana Classic, Souza plans to compete on Aug. 3. He mentioned that also is leaning toward coming back and doing it again Aug. 4 as a training run.
“I was pretty excited to hear that the race was coming here to Columbus,” Souza said. “I think it’s going to be a great opportunity to showcase the city a little bit more. Tough Mudder has a big following. Tons of people do the races. You always hear it all over the place.”
Souza said it’s always been a goal to finish in the top 15 of a Tough Mudder race.
“I think that would be a good spot for me,” Souza said. “I haven’t been the top athlete or elite athlete at these races the last couple years that I’ve been doing them. It’s kind of building up to that point. This is the first year to kind of push the chips in.”
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Name: Louie Souza
Age: 27
High school: Columbus North
College: DePauw
Residence: Indianapolis
Occupation: National business development manager for Elwood Staffing
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Registration for is open at toughmudder.com for the Aug. 3-4 Tough Mudder Indiana Classic at Ceraland Park.
Cost for the 8-to-10-mile Classic is $199 for Aug. 3 and $189 for Aug. 4. Cost for the 5K is $89 for both days.
Tickets for spectators are $119 per person for Aug. 3 and $109 per person for Aug. 4, plus taxes and fees. Tickets may be purchased at https://toughmudder.com/events/2019-indiana-classic
There also will be a Ruff Mudder event for dogs on Aug. 3. Entry is free to Tough Mudder participants or spectators.
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