Tough Mudder 2023

And my thoughts on the changes happening to Tough Mudder.

Yes, that’s me going through ElectroShock Therapy for the third time in my life.

I’m late this year talking about my Tough Mudder experience. Normally, the week after the event, I’m ready to talk about it. But I did Tough Mudder at the end of April.

As always, minus my first year, I did the 15K run (aka the Classic). This year, I ran with one of the guys I do martial arts with, just the two of us because I talked him into it. I realized that I’ve never run with the same group twice. I’m hoping that changes in the future and I can have a dedicated group to do these with.

This was the first year at a new location and I have mixed feelings on it.

The Good

A fresh location that isn’t the same old, same old. Less stretches of super muddy grass that makes it hard to move forward.

The Bad

Longer drive for me. Not at a winery where I can grab a bottle of wine for later. Fewer shaded areas, this isn’t as bad when it’s cooler out, but would’ve sucked if it was hot. It was at a racetrack, so we ended up doing bleacher obstacles. They stretched out the length of obstacles.

I’m not saying I hate the new location, but I’m not a fan of it.

Let’s talk obstacles. I’m not going to go over all 30 because a lot of them are just standard fare and I don’t have any thoughts one way or another about them.

1. Mud mile= always a favorite of mine because you have to work with other Mudders to get through it.
2. Ladder to Hell= hate, hate, hate. It is slippery as all get out and the boards are too far apart for anyone but the tallest of people. I think I’ve only ever completed this once.
3. Dong Dangler- normally I like this one because it is a sloth crawl along a slack line, but the addition of things to go around took the fun out of it for me.
4. Agustus Gloop= this is a new favorite and I don’t know why. We climbed a cargo net while water poured down on us.
5. Cry Baby= I was super worried about this one because I had my contacts in and I didn’t want to cry them out. But it was menthol instead of pepper spray so it actually opened up my sinuses.
6. Shocks on the Rocks= replaced Electric Eel. They dumped ice into the water pit. It was shallow and I got hit in my booty a few times.
7. Everest= one of these years I am going to complete this obstacle, but both myself and my partner realized that it is just really slick even when it’s in a dry place.
8. Tight Squeeze= ran out of water so, in addition to being a tight squeeze, we were literally pushing the person in front of us through it. Hate.
9. Artic Enema= longer than normal. I made it under the first of four over/ under spots before I got a cramp in my calf so bad that I couldn’t climb over the next section and actually had to bail on the obstacle.
10. Kiss of Mud= So much longer than normal. And not nearly as wet as it has been in the past so we left the obstacle completely caked in mud and not in a good way.

Which lead to the last four obstacles that we had to do with thick, caked on, heavy mud. And while climbing bleachers with a sack of sand. I did skip Mudderhorn this year, both from a fear of heights and because I was exhausted. I ended the race having got a charlie horse in my booty and cramps in both of my calves. I didn’t trust myself to make the climb.

After my race, I ended up not even rinsing off. I just changed and drove home because the line for the showers was over an hour. I’ve never had that long of a wait in the time I’ve done Tough Mudder.

A few weeks after our race, we got an email telling us that Tough Mudder was going back to its roots and only doing 15K or longer races. While I would probably never go back to a 5K, I think it’s a terrible decision on their part. Had I been told my first year of trying Tough Mudder that I had to do 9+ miles and 30 obstacles, I would’ve never done it. That’s too intimidating.

Do I think they spread themselves too thin when they kept adding new race distances? Yes, I’m not sure why they thought they needed to add the 10K last year. Do I think fewer people will try out the race because it’s so long? Also yes. The 5K is basically your taste test of the race (and wasn’t much cheaper than the 15K) and usually got people to buy a longer race the next year.

What are your thoughts on Tough Mudder going back to only 15K and above races? Let me know in the comments!