Tough Mudder Urban 5km Clapham Common is the finale to the Tough Mudder UK season. Based at Clapham Common (of course) this 5km obstacle course is perfect for those doing their first ever obstacle race.
With no mud or water, and based in an “urban” location, Tough Mudder has pitched this for those who want to take public transport to and from the venue without the worry of getting muddy.
This was my second visit to Clapham Common after taking on the course in 2018 (read the review here) but 2019 had a different vibe and some new obstacles
Obstacle List
- Blades of Glory – Inverted walls tilted towards the particpants requiring support from team mates to get up and over them
- Devil’s Beard – Cargo net crawl
- Hero Walls – Walls of various heights to climb up and over with the team
- Next Level – Large crawl up and over a frame with great views of the course and event village
- Spread Eagle – Cargp strap traverse
- Tight Squeeze – Tight Crawl underneath bags of sand pushing you down to the floor
- Over tired – Climb over a large A frame using tires and ropes for help
- Clean & Jerk – Grab your team to carry a friend
- Texas Hold ‘Em – Traverse across a long pyramid using your friend to balance
- The Whopper – Tough Mudder’s longest obstacle. This was comprised of climbing wall traverse, Slack line traverse and balance beam
- Hanging Out – Pipe traverse, by hanging upsides down and pulling yourself along
- Everest – Quarter pipe ramp
My views
Tough Mudder Urban 5km Clapham Common was the perfect finale to the Tough Mudder UK season.
Clapham Common (like a lot of places in London) is well served by public transport, tube, train and bus ensuring mudders can get to the location easily. The course itself, took in Clapham Common and crossed past a number of football games adding to the character of the location.
The 13 obstacles across the 5km course made for a good break between running, with mostly no more than 500m of running before another obstacle comes, making it perfect for those that have just started obstacle course running or running in general!
The obstacles were pitched at a level that mostly needed team mates to get through (Blades of Glory, Hero Walls and Clean & Jerk for example) but the ones that could be done solo were easy, but fun – Hanging Out, Tight Squeeze and Over tired. There were no challenging obstacles that are usually seen on the “classic” courses – Funky Monkey is one example, whilst Hero Walls and The Whopper are slightly easier on the 5km course. This is no slight on Tough Mudder, but it is to ensure that those new to obstacle courses find the obstacles fun but challenging.
The event village was free for all to enter (there is a fee for spectators at Classic courses) which made for a great atmosphere. Everest, Hanging Out, Next Level and Pyramid scheme were all next to the village, allowing spectators to cheer (and take that all important photo) of their friends and family who were running.
The perfect course, village and obstacle set up for those new to obstacle running and wanting to start out without getting muddy or wet. The 2020 Tough Mudder Season has just been released with the 5km Urban courses to come very soon. Watch out for them at Toughmudder.co.uk
