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Tough Mudder

Toughest race on the planet brings the pain and the people
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They stand at the start line, their breaths clouding in the cool morning air, anxious to begin what may be the most gruelling few hours of their lives. With numbers scrawled on foreheads like prison tattoos, war paint under eyes and gloved hands held in tight fists, the mudders mentally prepare themselves like soldiers before battle. They raise their right hands as an emcee's voice bellows over the crowd reciting the Tough Mudder pledge:

  • I understand that Tough Mudder is not a race but a challenge
  • I put teamwork and camaraderie before my course time
  • I do not whine — kids whine
  • I help my fellow mudders complete the course
  • I overcome all fears
  • A loud "OOORAHH!" erupts from the crowd. The battle is about to begin.

Tough Mudder (TM) is a mass-participation event involving thousands of people running, crawling, climbing and swimming their way through 22 military designed obstacles over a 20-kilometre course. Unlike the generic marathons, triathlons and their variations, Tough Mudder is open to anyone, requires no special equipment and does not focus purely on aerobic fitness.

"At its core, Tough Mudder is different in that it's not a race, it's a challenge," said Jane Di Leo, manager of public relations for TM.

"Tough Mudder is all about completing the course as a team, there's no timing, it's just you and your friends trying to actually get through 12 miles (19 kilometres) of military style obstacles on different terrain. It challenges your entire body. Your upper body, your lower body, your core and also your mental strength."

Such an undertaking wouldn't be as tough if there weren't some risk involved, and as with any sanctioned race or even guided tour, all participants must sign a waiver stating they are well aware of the inherent danger of what they are about to attempt. The obstacles range from jumping off high platforms into freezing cold water, to crawling through semi-submerged pipes, to being zapped with 10,000 volts of electricity. Although the very idea of such obstacles may seem suicidal to some, the challenges result in relatively few injuries.

"Safety is our number one priority," said Di Leo.

"We always have medical staff on site throughout the course and our water obstacles have water safety staff at every one of those obstacles. Anything we can do to prevent injury we are there and doing, however, we also ask people to be conscious and to make the right decisions. If you do not swim, do not go in the water."

Since its inception in May of 2010 at the Bear Creek Ski Resort near Allentown, Pennsylvania, TM has expanded exponentially to over 50 events on every continent. The original idea was hatched by Harvard Business School student Will Dean, his concept of running people through gruelling mud and man made obstacles made the finals in the school's annual business plan contest. Dean hoped to attract 500 paying participants over the course of the three months leading up to the inaugural event, a number of his professors considered that too optimistic.

But Dean surpassed his objective completely and managed to sell 4,500 tickets in just one month, with a well-crafted Facebook advertising campaign and a marketing budget of just over $8,000. Forbes magazine reported in April 2010, days before the inaugural event, that TM had around 11,000 fans and was "attracting potential buyers." As of this month TM has over 2.2 million Facebook fans and is increasing with every new market that it enters.

Facebook advertising and word-of-mouth has proven to be the most effective marketing strategy for TM by targetting specific demographics.

Seventy-five per cent of the typical Mudder's competitors are male, while 25 per cent are female. The average age is 26-year-old, said Di Leo.

"What medium are these people using most?," she said. "That's Facebook. Our events are very social events. People want to share their photos and want to let people know that they are they badass and they did Tough Mudder, so we thought it was the right fit of medium to use."

Di Leo explains that while the Facebook marketing has been incredibly successful, the old fashioned medium of people telling people directly is still a big driver for attracting participants.

"A lot of people come to us through word of mouth. A buddy will challenge his friends at work to go to be a weekend warrior and companies will challenge their personnel to do it as team building event."

Recently, the head coach of Minnesota Wild, Mike Yeo, challenged his staff to run the TM at Sommerset, Wisconsin, after the team failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs in ice hockey. The staff of eight ran the entire course together, including one member recovering from a knee injury. When the injured member began to slow down, a teammate shepherded him over the final half of the course to the finish line.

Such is the nature of TM. While there are thousands of friends and colleagues that will run the entire course in groups, there are thousands more running it as individuals. But they are not alone, in the spirit of camaraderie helping hands will be extended to those in need, words of encouragement yelled at those doubting themselves. The Everest obstacle, where mudders must scale a greased-up quarter pipe, is the perfect example of spontaneous team work. Some may run up the wall with enough momentum to grasp the extended hands at the top, others will form a human chain and boost their comrades to the top on their shoulders.

These are the stories that are recounted at the finish line and for years to come. Traditional races finish with everyone measuring their performance by comparing times. TM finishes with tales about which obstacles were the craziest, where people fell and were helped up by strangers, and the triumphant feeling when stepping over the finish line in one piece.

"It's a story a lot of people will want to share," said mental performance consultant Carl Nienhuis, who runs a private practice for sport psychology in the Fraser Valley

"For a lot of people, it's probably pride, to say that they did it, the same reason why someone would climb Mount Everest. It's a lot about how you feel and trying to prove it to somebody, whether it's other people or yourself. Are you able to accomplish a challenge like that, or are you proving to somebody that didn't think you could? "

Nienhuis explains that the reservations people feel before such a gruelling event not only stem from the sheer undertaking, but also from the feeling of uncertainty about what's ahead.

"It's the things that we don't know that make us afraid. You never want to look back at the event and wish that (you) had participated. Embrace the fear, embrace the ambiguity. There's a lot of things that we don't know in life, things that we can't prepare for, things that are unpredictable. Those uncertainties are terrifying. We can be terrified about things or we can just say that 'I embrace the fact that I'm afraid, I embrace the fact that I'm going to feel this rush of emotions.' The heightened awareness and heightened sense of excitement and energy you experience in those situations makes it so worth it. There's still going to be things that you don't know and things that you can't prepare for. I think that's why people do it."

Out of the pool of Whistler locals entering TM, few will be as prepared as Crossfit trainer Jordan Glasser. He has never run an obstacle course like TM before, but nonetheless believes his team will have no trouble completing the event.

"It's exactly what we do all the time," said Glasser, comparing TM to the Crossfit training regime.

"It's just something we kind of want to do for fun. I honestly am not at all either intimidated or concerned by the physical or mental tasks ahead. On a day-in, day-out basis the intensity of the (Crossfit) program and the challenges that we face, because there's so many people and we have to be a team to get through the obstacles, none of it feels like it's going to be extremely demanding. But I guess I could be in for surprise."

One of those surprises may be those charged, dangling electrical wires — an obstacle where strength and fitness play little part. And if Glasser feels any fear before charging through them, he certainly won't be the only one.

"Ten thousand volts sounds scary," said Chantal Limoges, who is competing with a group of friends from her workplace.

"The other one I'm dreading is the (boa constrictor), when things get dark I get a little claustrophobic. But it's two minutes of my life, so I think I can power through it."

For Limoges, pride is a big part of her motivation for running TM.

"To say that I did it. Really it comes down to that. It looks intense, I want to say that I've completed it with a good group of people and have a lot of fun."

As the mudders cross the finish line this weekend, they will be handed their official fluoro-orange TM headbands, their badge of honour for completing one of the toughest mass-participation events on the planet. Beer will be served, music will play and stories will be told as fellow mudders celebrate their triumph.

Tough Mudder supports the Wounded Warrior Project and offers a discounted entry for participants who raise over $150 in donations. At every event, TM will host a group of soldiers wounded in battle to run the obstacle course.

Building business

There are 14,000 people registered for Saturday's TM, and at press time there were over 1,300 registered for Sunday.

This is more than three times the number of participants that came to Whistler for the Warrior Dash last year.

Tourism Whistler (TW) reports that for an event such as this it typically sees 0.5 spectators for every participant (accounting for the friends and family members cheering from the sidelines) — that will add another 8,000 or so to the total number of people coming to Whistler for the event.

Not surprisingly, this has meant a strong pace of bookings for room nights, the measure Tourism Whistler uses as a benchmark for looking at impact, with the definitive figures arriving sometime in the month following the event.

The latest figures for Saturday night are currently at 91 per cent occupancy for the resort. Friday night is at 88 per cent, suggesting that participants (and their entourages) are staying an extra night in Whistler. For a quiet, shoulder season weekend in June, this level of visits represents an excellent opportunity for the resort says Breton Murphy, director of partnerships at Tourism Whistler.

"The registration level alone would indicate very significant opportunity for room nights," he said.

"It's about looking at how we can translate the registration into a multi-day stay. We work with the event organizers by providing opportunities and communicating to the registrants about the experiences they can have in Whistler by coming up a day earlier and staying a day later."

So far the strategy seems to have worked, around half off the visitors are staying Friday and Saturday night, and also opting to stay for Sunday night as well. Events requiring registration (such as TM or September's GranFondo) will almost always guarantee a boost to occupancy, visitors that have already spent good money to secure their spot in the event are far more likely to spend extra to have a weekend away.

It might seem like having every possible participation event on every spare shoulder season weekend would be a good idea, but to secure long-term growth Whistler needs what Murphy refers to as a "balanced portfolio" of events.

"We're trying to identify a number of different types of events that will draw visitors here time and again," he said.

"When you're working with organizers like those of Tough Mudder, because they're so experienced in delivering what they need to deliver it, (they can allocate) more time... to innovating and engaging with the destination itself."

To put it simply, Whistler doesn't want an overloaded event schedule, but rather a tight selection of the right events that bring the right people.

"One of our priorities when we're bringing in events is that they are in a position to grow into a staple and provide continuity year-over-year and have a presence in Whistler," said Murphy.

That presence will mean upwards of 20,000 people in the 19-34 demographic descending on Whistler's hotels, restaurants, bars and activities this weekend. The majority of these folk are not athletes and will be more concerned with having fun for the weekend, rather than eating pasta, drinking water and getting an early night like those entering extreme endurance competitions.

In terms of the time, effort and logistics required to execute an event on such a scale, TM looks to be an excellent bang for the buck in helping grow shoulder season tourism in Whistler. Businesses are jumping on board as well by providing sponsorship prizing and putting up posters in shop fronts welcoming the TM participants.

Events like TM have seen an explosion in popularity in recent years and ski resorts all over North America have seen successful drives in business by hosting such events. By coupling its business model with the Wounded Warrior Project, TM has seen even more rise in popularity and marketing potential.

Said Forbes magazine: "With great demographics and social media participation, Tough Mudder is going to bring a new business model to sports that will be to the next decade what action sports were to the last one."

A Sample Menu Of Tough Mudder Delicacies 270

Kiss of Mud

A TM mainstay. Mudders crawl through mud with barbed wire hanging eight inches above the ground. Keep your head down, marine!

Boa Constrictor

A bane for those prone to claustrophobia, this obstacle requires mudders to crawl through partially submersed drainage pipes with barely enough room for a human being. The breaks in the pipes are all covered with barb wire, forcing you to stay low head down and keep crawling.

Arctic Enema

The aim of this challenge is to clear the obstacle before you become hypothermic. Leap into an icy abyss then swim under a submerged wall and pull yourself out the other side. Special water safety crews man the sidelines, ready to rescue those in distress.

Funky Monkey

A large scale version of the playground monkey bars, mudders must climb the first half and descend the second half, all while risking plunging into the icy water below. The catch? These bars are greased.

Fire Walker

Run through a trench of kerosene-soaked straw with four foot flames tickling your legs. But the flames look more intimidating than they actually are, running through the blaze without inhaling carcinogenic smoke is the name of the game. This obstacle was not featured at Whistler Olympic Park.

Electro Shock Therapy

Sprint through a field of live wires dangling from a constructed frame. Expect as much as 10,000 volts of electric shock and watch out for hay bales tripping you up as you stumble through this field of misery. This is the last obstacle before you cross the finish line, where the beer awaits.

The Mud Glut

Military style obstacle courses geared for public participation are not a new concept and there are dozens of other mud runs and variations on the "tough" theme by various organizations trying to outdo each other, many claiming they are indeed the toughest challenge of them all.

The original Tough Guy (trademark) has been held annually in England for the last 25 years and has attracted participants from all over the world. While Tough Guy was probably the first to entertain the mass participation tough race concept, the brand has yet to expand beyond the shores of the United Kingdom. www.toughguy.co.uk

The closest event to Tough Mudder in terms of popularity is the Spartan Race, which offers three tiers of timed obstacle races of increasing difficulty at each event location in the U.S., Canadian stops (Squamish, Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa) will only have the one race. For those who want to push even further than the "Ultimate Spartan," achievement (complete all three races in a single season), a single 24 to 48-hour Spartan Death Race is held annually in Pittsfield, Vermont. www.spartanrace.com

A fun variation on the theme is to add a pack of zombies. Run For Your Lives is a 5km timed obstacle race complete with actors in full zombie make up chasing you down. You wear a belt with several red tags attached, representing your health. The aim is to cross the finish line with at least one health tag intact to be eligible for post-race prizes. Unfortunately no zombie-battling weapons are allowed on course. www.runforyourlives.com

Muddy Buddy sets two person teams on an obstacle course together and finishes with both members crawling through a 15.5 metre-long mud pit. A bike and run variation alternates the racers between running and cycling through the course, and there is a kids division open to ages 4 to 11-years old. www.muddybuddy.com/

The Warrior Dash is a 5km obstacle course where participants compete in their age division. Whistler hosted the Warrior Dash last year on Blackcomb Mountain and it attracted 4,500 participants, many dressed in warrior-themed costumes. This year's Warrior Dash will be held at Mt Seymour on August 4. www.warriordash.com



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