Image via Tough Mudder
You’ve definitely heard of Tough Mudder. It’s the thing your sister signed up for as a New Years Resolution, the event that the guy in your office who sits behind you in the office keeps asking you to do with him. That’s the normal Tough Mudder, they happen all over the world throughout the year and see huge numbers take part. Once a year, though, there’s World’s Toughest Mudder; a 24 hour endurance race just outside Las Vegas.
This year, we headed out to the Nevada desert to see what was going on, and why people were flying halfway around the world to put their body through so much pain.
Almost 1500 people took part:
You might think that the number of people willing to slog it out in the desert heat is pretty small, but this year World’s Toughest Mudder had almost 1500 participants. Although the majority of the competitors were American, there were people from nearly 20 countries and five different continents taking part in one of the most extreme endurance events around.
One team took home $100,000:
There are cash prizes for the top five men, the top five women and the top five teams, as well as a bonus $100,000 cheque for the first team to each run 100 miles. This year, Team Goat Tough managed to do it, with both of them running 105 miles (21 laps) in the 24 hours. This was enough to get them the bonus, as well as $20,000 for winning their category. Not a bad day for them.
New obstacles were unveiled:
One 5 mile lap of the World’s Toughest Mudder course includes 21 obstacles. Some of them were old favourites, while others were making their Tough Mudder debut. These new obstacles included Augustus Gloop (swimming under a wire cage and climbing a tube as water pours down) and Kong, which involves swinging from bars hanging in the air, and will be rolled out across all Tough Mudder events the world over pretty soon. That means that if you like the idea of water pouring onto your head while you climb a ladder, you’ll soon be able to do it without flying halfway around the world.
Someone ran 105 miles:
This year’s winner, 30 year old Trevor Cichosz from Woodland in Washington State, ran 105 miles. That’s 21 laps of the course and almost 450 obstacles completed in the 24 hours. Until this year, only one person had ever broken the 100 mile barrier. 2016, though, saw three individual participants reach 100, as well as two separate teams.
It’s coming to the UK next year… kind of
In 2017, Tough Mudder are launching the ‘Toughest Mudder’ series of events. These races start at midnight and go until 8am, acting as a sort of qualifier for World’s Toughest Mudder. There’s going to be eight of them all over the world, including one in England. So if you want to spend one of your nights running through the dark and crawling through dirt, you’ll be able to do it on home soil next year.
For more information about World's Toughest Mudder, and the rest of the Tough Mudder events, head to www.toughmudder.co.uk
