This lifted from the Telegraph
Three Telegraph reporters took on the South London event to find out just how tough Tough Mudder really is ...
Andrew Trotman – the adrenalin junkie
I can't do this, it's too much, I want to go home. All these thoughts rushed through my head when Tough Mudder asked me to pay £10 for parking my car ahead of the event.
Sorry, I tend to get a bit self-righteous when money is involved. And I should have spent less time saving and more time training.
In the lead up to the UK's final Tough Mudder of 2014, I didn't set foot in a gym, didn't touch one treadmill, didn't try to dodge a cloud of Lynx deodorant sprayed by a 16-year-old in a changing room.
In short, I didn't train for a 12-mile cross-country obstacle course. Just writing that makes me realise how stupid I was. But I'm a thrill-seeker, I like danger. I was concentrating on the fire, electricity and barbed wire that I would be ploughing through at Tough Mudder's South London event (which for some reason is near Winchester).
And they're off (PIC: Kirsten Holst / Tough Mudder)
I jogged most of the first mile, combined that with walking for the second mile, and slowly plodded along for the next 10. By mile eight I was exhausted, and convinced myself the best thing would be to drop out at the next obstacle.
By the time I got to that obstacle (a huge wall that someone tried to help me climb over before giving up), I was so tired that I forgot all about my plan. I kept walking, like a zombie with rickets, until my left knee gave out at mile nine.
From there, I hobbled until the end, bypassing "Everest" (a long run up an almost vertical incline) and "Fire in your Hole" (a slide into fire that ends in water). I was gutted about missing the latter, but I found out that if you can't swim (I do depths, not lengths) then you have to miss quite a few obstacles.
Still, I'd managed to jump into skips of iced water, get electrocuted (a lot) and crawled through barbed wire, so the day wasn't completely wasted.
Tough Mudder was by far the hardest thing I have ever attempted, because I had massively underestimated what I had to do to prepare for it. The average finishing time is around three hours. I finished in 3:45, despite skipping obstacles – but I was still feeling the effects three days after that.
Andrew Critchlow – the former Army soldier
According to British Army legend, a group of US Marines on a joint training exercise sometime in the 1980s were billeted at the old Guards Training Depot in Pirbright.
Hidden away in the backwoods of Surrey, the depot was an inhospitable collection of corrugated tin huts built around a drill square and arguably one of the toughest military assault courses in the world. The legend goes that these unsuspecting US Marines were asked to tackle the obstacle course but refused because they considered it to be too dangerous.
I had the pleasure of conquering this famous test of military endurance in the 1990s. Having survived that shuddering experience, I was naturally sceptical about how challenging I would find Tough Mudder. Surely this kind of event was just aimed at soft City types who want to get a bit dirty over the weekend?
How wrong I was.
In reality, Tough Mudder was three hours of pain from beginning to end and easily one of the hardest events I have ever attempted. To run the 12-mile course built around the hilly terrain of the Matterley Bowl near Winchester would be enough of a challenge on its own, but throw in treacherous obstacles designed by ex-Special Forces and this is the kind of test that would have the US Marines thinking twice before entering.
I was just glad to finish, but I will be back next year for more.
Andrew Critchlow struggles to find words to describe his experience
Matthew Sparkes – the marathon runner
I was cynical about Tough Mudder, as I am about most things: adults paying £150 to prove their machismo by running around carrying logs? It didn’t sit right with me.
The American-style warm-up didn’t do much to sway me: I’m too British to enjoy chanting “hoorah” and putting my arms around strangers.
But within a couple of miles I was having a whale of a time: a nice run in the countryside, instead of my usual route through grey suburbia, broken up with smoke bombs, a leap into freezing water and getting head-to-toe muddy. In short: a proper laugh.
A few miles later and I’d swum through ice-water, crawled under barbed wire, waded through thigh-deep mud that tried to steal my trainers for yet-unborn archaeologists to find, and been mildly electrocuted.
Tired? Certainly. But I was having a huge amount of fun.
It was the camaraderie that lifted my spirits most of all. Some of the obstacles are near impossible to clear on your own, but there’s always someone willing to form a human stepladder and boost you up, or grab a limb from above and haul you over.
In return, you try to help one or two people behind you. Tough Mudder is perhaps the only situation where someone will be truly grateful because you and a third stranger helped throw them over a six-foot wooden fence.
I’ve run several marathons, which are totally independent endeavours; in comparison, being able to help others get to the TM finish line (and rely on them to get you there) was positively heart-warming.
How tough was it? My lower half – which does a lot of cycling and running – found it quite easy. My upper half – which does a lot of typing and drinking tea – took a good week to recover. Putting on socks and applying deodorant was genuinely painful for a while. Muscles I have never noticed before were surprisingly vocal in their anger at what I'd put them through.
So there are a lot of pull-ups and push-ups to be done before I do another. Which I certainly will.
Brothers and sisters in arms (PIC: Kirsten Holst / Tough Mudder)
John Fidoe – Tough Mudder marketing director
Tough Mudder is a real test of your mental strength, determination and, most importantly, teamwork. It's a test of your fears and strength. You're there to test yourself and push yourself as hard as you can.
The worst obstacle for me is Boa Constrictor (two narrow pipes separated by a muddy pool that competitors have to crawl through), as I don't enjoy tight spaces. It's not a lot of fun. Mentally, that's tough.
But the electricity is most people's least favourite obstacle. That's our signature obstacle. No one does electricity.
We are currently testing 20 to 25 new or improved obstacles for next year's races, but that's top secret. [The events are] going to look a bit different next year.
