Looking for a Challenge?
Would you ever consider paying to get electro shocked? Or dive into waters full of ice cubes? How about sliding into narrow long tunnel full of muddy water where at some point you will have to dive with your head fully inside it?
You would? Well it is not cheap! The price for it could be anything between £50 to £125 ($85-$210) plus insurance depending on when you book. If you volunteer on the day, you may get away with paying only £15-£30 ($25-$50) plus insurance (if you volunteer all day, it will be around £15, if half day – £30).
So you think who the hell would do it? Actually in theTough Mudder 2014 London West event over the last weekend of April, there were around 12,0000 mudders on Saturday, and around 6,000 mudders on Sunday!
Welcome to Tough Mudder event review from a girl not in particular tough, or used to diving deep inside mud.
How Everything Started…
Once my friend send me a link to an event asking whether I would like to attend it. I know that he likes crazy stuff and would like others to love it as well. So the event was called Tough Mudder:
Have you checked the link? In summary, Tough Mudder happens all over the world, and it is around12 miles course full of obstacles created based on British military forces training to make, as they say, the toughest challenge in the world 🙂 Reading the last line reminded me of a word called ‘Shadenfreude’ and I started laughing. It was the best example of Shadenfreude if not for attendees then at least for its audience for sure.
Shadenfreude is a German word also included in English dictionaries. It means feeling pleasure from suffering or seeing others suffer. In other words, it is a strange branch of hedonistic pleasure for the ones who try to push their limits or see others pushing theirs or… see their pain. Let’s not overthink the latter..
So What Do Tough Mudders Do?
Here are some (actually 3 out of around 20) examples what is included in the price. You can read about the rest in the Tough Mudder website.
Cage Crawl Obstacle
In this obstacle, you have a fantastic opportunity to swim under 20 meters of cage only with few inches of space to breathe above your head. In some locations the water will be of mud colour, in others this is actually died (e.g. could be light green, or blue, and etc.). I wonder if you wear eye contacts, how would you ensure that you won’t lose them? Maybe water googles could be an option. Anyway, are you crazy enough for this obstacle? Just imagine yourself instead of the Tough Mudders below:
Note: Once you actually see the obstacle from a very close distance, it is not as scary or uncomfortable as you may think it could be. And the length of it is rather short. Believe me, no one wants you to die. And in case, just in case, something may happen, there are always Tough Mudder staff who are ready to do anything from motivating you/ to help you finish the task or to simply save you.
Electro Shock Therapy Obstacle
Ever wondered how it would feel to get yourself electro shocked? Well bring it on with this obstacle, where you have to run through the field of live wires. If you touch the end of them, it hurts.. The ones who did it, say that first hand experience of touching the live wire is actually, how to say this… Well it is very very unpleasant. Apparently ladies start very delicately and slowly moving along the field and the wires, but once they get a shock for the first time, they run like crazy just to finish the task as soon as possible. Other option is to lie down deep inside mud and crawl beneath the wires. In such way you might avoid any shock, but believe me you will be one big Mud Monster once you finish the crawl. Finally, most people just quickly run through the field, the faster the quicker you will get through the ordeal. Ok ok, if you truly enjoy the pain, feel free to touch every single live wire there. Me and the audience would love to see that.
Arctic Enema Obstacle
Have you ever wanted to feel like Leonardo Di Caprio in Titanic movie, where he floats in ice water once the ship has sunk and finally drowns inside? I wonder how many people would actually say yes? Are there any at all who would? In this obstacle you embrace the cold by swimming though the ice, diving under a plank and getting yourself out in the other end. If you may struggle, Tough Mudder volunteers or other participants will help you to get through this or get out once you reach the other end. So are you brave enough?
Other Obstacles and Some Insights
You can read about other obstacles in the Tough Mudder website:
https://toughmudder.co.uk/obstacles
A few things to add, some obstacles like Everest (a quarter pipe obstacle which you have to climb) are not as huge. If you are one of the first people to reach it, the obstacle is not as muddy as well. Also, in case you fail to do any tasks, don’t worry. If you fail an obstacle, you may end up falling in water or mud, like in Hangin’ Tough (while swinging though hanging rings like a monkey you may fall right into a cold water.). Still you are allowed then to proceed to the end of the obstacle and continue forward. Also, in this event expect help from others. Unless you are a superman or superwoman who wants to do everything entirely by yourself, there will always be Tough Mudders helping you to accomplish obstacles. Yes, from pictures it may seem like a very scary event, but actually once you are there, believe me, it is manageable. And actually – quite fun. And there is a good balance between female and male attendees, some of which attend same event every year many times. You see,there are people not only doing the Tough Mudder event, but also participating in several of them!
So What I Did with Tough Mudder Invitation?
I knew that my colleagues at work are rather competitive spirits. Yes, this is true, in aviation where I work people are little competitive sharks as well, e.g. We like a fun challenge, or compete against each other in sports.
So I sent an email to my whole department stating whether anyone would like to form a team and compete in the world’s toughest challenge – the Tough Mudder. Guess what? 5 colleagues formed a team, calling themselves Organised Chaos, every two weeks did trainings over lunch at work and actually participated and successfully accomplished the event. When I say successfully accomplished, this means they still failed one or two obstacles each, but did not give up and continued despite their struggles, mud, cold water and any other challenges they faced.
Just so you know, if you decide to participate but are not sure about your stamina, download training instructions which you can find in Tough Mudder website.
Did I participate? Well, until I heal my left hand fracture, this has to wait. Safe escape right? But.. I volunteered in the West London event same day as my colleagues participated. Got my discount which I can use within the next year to participate in any of Tough Mudder events for £30 and volunteering itself was a great experience. It involved being part of a fantastic team, making new friends, meeting the main organiser of the event, giving lots of high fives and hugs to Tough Mudders, which made me into a little Mud Monster (but who cares and it’s fun) 🙂 and also screaming various motivational phrases to get each Tough Mudder going, e.g. “If you see an obstacle you don’t just simply stop in front to it, you DESTROY it.” or “The game is not over, until YOU win”… Small thing to confess, I had my little Shadenfreude moments when watching others doing the obstacles, and most likely one day someone will have their Shadenfreude moment watching me.
And would I do it? After seeing how much fun Tough Mudders have during the event, YES I CAN DO THIS AND I WILL x
How today shoots me up & down? 