Tough Mudder South West was a new location for me and was actually a new location altogether in Badminton as in 2016, it was based in Cirencester. I can’t compare new for old, but I can compare to the other Tough Mudders so far this year.
- FLAT FLAT FLAT – very little in way of elevation and porobably as flat as London South 2016. The course was just over 10 miles long and in my opinion the most boring Tough Mudder Course as felt like a basic loop of out and back. Of course looking back at the GPS map it was more than just a loop. A flat course made for a fast course, with the winner of the tougher wave, completing the course in just over an hour!
- Even Bale Bonds and Pyramid Scheme was shorter than usual. Bale Bonds being two shorter peaks and Pyramid Scheme being the shorter version – around 3/4 of Tough Mudder Yorkshire.
- Mud Mile was anything BUT flat. Epic trenches that meant that people really needed help to get back up and out. Awesome Awesome Awesome.
- BlockNess was deeper than usual. Ok, so I admit Im relatively short – but the water is usually shallow enough to allow me to help rotate the block at the front by pushing it – I was pretty much treading water the whole time, so having to climb up as soon as possible to my usual spot on top of the blocks.
- Weird placement of obstacles. This course was a runners course, a lot of unbroken trail running and then a block of obstacles together. Personally, I thought this was ok. It was nice to stretch out a little bit, but Tough Mudder usually spreads the obstacles out quite well ensuring that running and obstacles are quite even.
- Even though most of the great obstacles were there – BlockNess, Agustus Gloop, Everest, Liberator and Reach Around, there were a few that was missing. No Sewer Rat, Shaw Shanked or Killa Gorilla (so flat!). With the addition of these obstacles, it would have probably made up for the lack of elevation
- They ran out of goodies! So coming in around 11.30 on Satruday morning, you would have thought I would have had the pick of the t shirt sizes – nope they had already ran out of small. I picked up an XL for a friend instead. However I did hear from fellow mudders that by Sunday they only had XL left and that volunteers refused to give t shirts out as they were getting so much flack from the finishers. C’mon Tough Mudder, this is not like you at all
All in all, it was a Tough Mudder – bringing awesome obstacles, fantastic environment and swag. However there was something not quite right about this one. Flat course, some awesome obstacles missing and a lack of the right sized t shirt would certainly put some people off. I will be back at Tough Mudder North West in a few weeks and I am sure everything will be back and as slick as we expect a Tough Mudder to be.
