Tough Mudder London South 2018 Race Recap with Video

Tough Mudder London South is the finale of the “full” Tough Mudder UK season. Coming off the back of Tough Mudder North West, I personally thought TMHQ had some work to do to end the season on a high. 

TLDR – It freaking did! It was an awesome and fitting season finale.

The course used a variety of terrain including forest, trail and fields. It made fine use of the little elevation across the estate whilst the actual route took on the shape of a clover leaf. The layout allowed spectators to view the “showcase” obstacles all within easy walking distance of each other and very close proximity to the village.

Some parts of the orange course seemed to be very “runny” but the varied terrain ensured it wasn’t just running around the perimeter of fields which Tough Mudder North West definitely felt like.

It was great to see the reintroduction of Walk the Plank – a vault obstacle which I had never experienced before. This helped to negate the loss of Kong. Whilst cage crawl had the cheeky introduction of a small dunk half way through which was only previously seen at Europe’s Toughest Mudder.

Read further below to see a list of obstacles and check out the short video run through (less than 5 minutes long!)

Video Recap

The Course and Obstacle list

Blue Loop – “Half” participants run a 5 mile loop

• Bale Bonds – two stacks of hay bales
• Skid Marked – 10ft walls tilted towards you at an angle
• Kiss of Mud – barbed wire crawl through muddy trenches
• Hero Walls – 10ft walls
• Everest – quarter pipe ramp with two difficulty levels
• Cliff Hanger – steep climb (I dont think this actually appeared on course)
• Devils Beard – cargo net crawl – much longer than usual
• Hero Carry – piggy back a partner and switch
• Hold Your Wood – team log carry
• Hydrophobia – Water dunks
• Mud Mile – large mounds and trenches across water and mud
• Killa Gorilla – switch backs up a hill (pretty small this time)
• BlockNess – traversing across two rotating blocks in 5ft of water
• Pyramid Scheme – 20ft traverse to the top of a wall with the help of your team mates

Orange Loop – “Full” participants carry on for another 5 miles 

• Arctic Enema – dunk into a skip of water – full of ice!
• Kiss of Mud 2 – second crawl through mud
• Alpha Test – slack line traverse over a shallow pool of water.
• Funky Monkey – monkey bar climb followed by spinning wheels
• Cage Crawl – water crawl under a chain link fence with dunk
• The Liberator – peg board climb up a 15ft wall – for a challenging version go for “All pegs, no legs”
• Mud Mile – a second chance to get muddy
• Walk the Plank – 10m (?) drop into water (who would have thought a drop would have been so much fun?) I had a mini panic the first time as it seemed to take forever to get to the surface.
• Electro Shock Therapy – Gauntlet run through wires with 10,000 volts of electricity running through them
• Pyramid Scheme – climb to the top with your team mates

Thoughts

Tough Mudder London South was a fitting end to the UK season. Probably my favourite UK course (this and London North)which pretty much had a bit of everything. No “horribly” steep hills, but there was quite a bit of elevation, whilst the route through the trail, forest and flats made sure that there was plenty of variation.

Walk the plank was a fantastic addition and made up for the lack of Kong which disappeared after South West due to queuing issues.

A large village with what seemed to be plenty more seating and a grandstand view of Electroshock therapy, complete with commentary (not seen this since 2016) made for a welcome return to what I believe to be it’s rightful place.

Great route, fantastic obstacles and large village makes Tough Mudder London South one of the best Tough Mudder UK experiences. 

Rating: A-

Thank you to Epic Action Imagery for the photos.