Tough Mudder is an endurance event series, which consists of a mud and obstacle course. It is designed to drag you out of your comfort zone by testing your physical strength, stamina, and mental grit. It therefore made perfect sense that the people who make the toughest hand cleaning wipes on the planet, entered the toughest event on the planet!
Team Work is vital
With no podiums, winners, or clocks to race against, it’s not about how fast you can cross the finish line. Rather, it’s a challenge that emphasizes teamwork, camaraderie, and accomplishing something almost as tough as you are. An average 78% of entrants successfully complete the course.
The obstacles often play on common human fears, such as fire, water, electricity and heights. The Tough Mudder organisation values camaraderie throughout the course. That is why they have designed obstacles that encourage group participation. Participants must commit to helping others complete the course, putting teammates before themselves, and overcoming fears. Your team’s support is vital. You won’t complete a Tough Mudder event without accepting a bunk-up here or outstretched arm there. The event has helped foster a collaborative spirit that is the very opposite of the solitary nature of marathon running.
What can you expect from a Tough Mudder course?
The typical Tough Mudder course is 10–12 miles (16–19 km) long and features 20–25 obstacles. Terrain type varies from course to course. Natural features of the land at each venue are incorporated into the course design. Past venues have included ranches, motocross tracks, and ski resorts.
The list of obstacles also varies from course to course, though there are several “signature” obstacles at almost every event, including:
Arctic Enema – Participants plunge into a dumpster filled with ice water, dunk underneath a plank that crosses the dumpster, and pull themselves out on other side.
Electroshock Therapy – Live wires hang over a field of mud which participants must traverse. This is perhaps the most infamous of the 20 or so obstacles you will face. Here, wet and muddy competitors have to plough across yet more mud to find their way through a curtain of live wires that emit 10,000 volts of electricity. There are lots of wires and lots of shocks. The Arctic Enema sees participants plunge into a dumpster filled with ice water, where they then have to dive down to pass under a plank that crosses the tank to (hopefully) emerge on the other side.
Funky Monkey – A set of incline and decline monkey bars over a pit of cold water. The bars are slicked with a mixture of butter and mud. Lose your grip (and you will) and you are destined for a pool of icy brown water.
Everest – Participants run up a quarter pipe slicked with mud and grease.