Concern growing over health hazards of 'mud runs'

LIVINGSTON, N.J. (WABC) -- They are a test for toughness and endurance, and they're growing in popularity: Mud runs.

But now there is increasing concern about the danger posed by the mud, from a woman losing her eyesight to another woman getting a serious infection.

"It was throbbing, burning hot," said Jill Greenspan, who has only begun to recover from what she calls a frightening ordeal.

It was after a mud run, an obstacle course through wet mud, in many cases for charity.

The one Jill did was called Muckfest, and it took place at the South Mountain Reservation in West Orange on June 14th.

"It had a smell but we just laughed," said Jill. ("Didn't think anything of it?") "No," she said.

That is, until 5 days later when Jill says she noticed what looked like a pimple on her cheek. "And I never touched it, so it was strange that it started to scab," she said.

That prompted a visit to Urgent Care, then the ER, and Jill spent days on the wrong antibiotic until the culture results came in from her dermatologist, revealing which bacteria was in the mud.

"After I started taking the correct medication it almost pushed the infection out, like that's what was left, it ate my skin," she said.

A spokesperson from Muckfest tells us, they don't bring in mud from an outside source. So they can't control bacteria that's present in nature. However they do encourage participants to shower repeatedly after the event.

They also insist "There were no rashes reported by any of the 5,000 participants during the event or in the days following."

Jill says of course she and her friends showered and she says others even got rashes.

We do know she's not the only one in in recent days who became ill after a mud-run infection. One woman in Texas is now blind in one eye after a different mud run.

"It just completely melted off of my eye," she said.

Still, ABC's Dr. Richard Besser points out: "We're trying to do the best we can to get more exercise. More than a million people do mud runs each year. Very few develop infections."

But for the few.."Do you think they just shouldn't be doing mud runs?", we asked Jill.

"I don't think so," she said. "They can raise money in other ways." ("Than sticking yourself under mud") "Right, dirty mud that's not tested," she said.