It is hard for me to generate enthusiasm for this posting. I enjoyed the Tough Mudder, but must give it a failing grade because of the logistics. The Tough Mudder events bill themselves as "Probably the Toughest Event on the Planet", and they are certainly not that. They might be one of the most fun, and I think that a team doing this together would have a blast, but it's not really an aerobic endurance event and should be viewed as an enjoyable group outing.
First the bad news: getting there. Our event was at the Hightop Ranch outside of Tampa, and we got there early in the morning, several hours before our assigned starting time. Even so, traffic was backed up onto the Interstate, and it took us about 90 minutes to travel the final 2-3 miles. Our friend, who came later, was stuck in traffic for 6 1/2 hours waiting to get into the event! There was nothing else going on, and the Tough Mudder was the only cause of the congestion. Police directing traffic? Zero. Entrances to the parking lot? One. Number of entrants in the event? 25,000. Do the math and you can see that this outcome was predictable. So if you want to do a Tough Mudder choose an early start time and get there a few hours in advance..., unless you live next door.
Now for that good part: the race was fun, well organized, and definitely worth the money. We ran about 12 miles, and topped maybe 23 obstacles. There was freezing water, morasses of mud, plunges from heights of 20 feet, monkey bars, live electrical wires, and barbed wire. The race is patterned on the training for the British Special Forces, and all we were lacking was live fire overhead and 40 lb. backpacks.
If you do this race bring a tall and strong friend. Todd was our go-to-guy at 6' 3"; lean and muscular, he was able to help the rest of us ascend the wooden walls and then pull himself up behind us. Without him we might have resorted to chicanery, but with him we were unstoppable. Since Doug was stuck in traffic so long we started in the very last group to leave. Throughout the race we were passing through some of the slower teams that started ahead of us, and near the end a large number of teams that had slowed to a walk. That made us feel good, but didn't really reflect our abilities. We never caught any really dangerous looking crews.
My favorite event was the Monkey Bars. I thought I should train for that, so I went to the local elementary school and tried them out. I could only do three before dropping. This event had 27 which I knew from my research, so I decided not to train for it at all. That turned out well, surprisingly. These rungs were closer together and much easier than on the schoolyard. All of our team made it across without a splashdown, though I couldn't have gone much farther than I did.
So the Tough Mudder is a fun event, but marred by logistical issues. If you do it bring a large team and have fun, get there early, and don't worry too much about training. And if you're as lucky as I was your Mom will be there to take pictures of you and your team!
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