Tough Mudder Yorkshire 2018 Race Recap (with video)

Tough Mudder Yorkshire is based at the Broughton Hall estate, just a stone’s throw away from Skipton in North Yorkshire. Fortunately for me, its just 70 miles drive from my house, so pretty easy to take the short road trip after work on a Friday to camp over for the weekend. 

If you have never been camping at Tough Mudder, I really recommend it, a fantastic vibe on camp – but I’m thinking that’s another blog post…

The Course

The Tough Mudder Yorkshire course had been changed in line with all other UK courses so far – 2 loops of a 5 mile course. At some points the loops joined together (such as water stops and for some obstacles) but at Tough Mudder Yorkshire, the loops were more distinct than at other courses, where until the end, you didn’t really meet up with the first loop. However, the course still took on the devilish hill – twice, with the second loop climbing higher than the first.

Loop 1 – This was also the “Half” course

• Bale Bonds – Mountain of hay bales to climb over. Good, easy obstacle to begin.
• Skidmarked – A staple of Tough Mudder – walls angled towards you to get up and over. Get your friends to help and it’s a doddle.
• Quagmire – Not on the official map, but an additional mud pit and mound to start getting muddy!
• Hero Carry – Piggy back your friend and switch around.
• Hold Your Wood – Not the same without the innuendos shouted by MVP Sam.
• Hero Walls – 10ft Walls to be scaled – Be a hero and help your friend over it.
• Birth Canal – Tunnel crawl underneath a tarp of water to crush you down to the floor.
• BlockNess Monster – The best obstacle on the Tough Mudder Course – Rotating blocks in 5ft of water. It takes a team to rotate the blocks and get your team over and across.
• Lumberjacked – Sternum Checker
• Kiss of Mud – Crawl through a trench of mud, under barbed wire and over hay bales.
• Mud Mile – 4 mounds and trenches of mud – time to pose for the camera with your team, whilst getting muddy and dance along to the music.

• Hydrophobia – a new obstacle first seen at North London, a large pool of water with three dunks to undertake.
• Participants doing the “Half” then went on to Everest and Pyramid Scheme to the finish.

Loop 2

• Electro Shock Therapy – Not quite the spectacle it used to be, much shorter than before and not in the event village. But it’s still an obstacle everyone loves to hate!
• Creek Crusade – Walk through a stream – pretty much a mud bath wade on the Sunday
• Arctic Enema – Ice bath with second dunk. This weekend there wasn’t anywhere near as much ice as other weekends. Still bloody cold though.
• Boa Constrictor – Crawl down into water underneath barbed wire with a crawl back up.
• Kong Infinity & Kong – Kong Infinity is the legionnaires option – a hamster wheel transisitoning to monkey bars around 15ft in the air over a large air bag. Kong is a set of 5 rings to traverse across
• Swamp Stomp – Mud Mud Mud! This began the climb up the second peak
• Cliff Hanger – Very tall steep elevation climb leading to around 1km of running and continuous elevation
• Funky Monkey – Monkey bars and wheel transition over water
• Mud Mile – Hit this a second time whilst joining those on their first lap
• Hydrophobia – And this a second time towards the finish
• Everest – Quarter pipe ramp run – 2 versions and anyone can get up with support from their team mates.
• Pyramid Scheme 2.0 – The last obstacle to scale getting all your team to the top before crossing the finish line together

Thoughts

The course has one of the best views that Tough Mudder can offer, with two climbs up the hill, the views across Yorkshire are a sight to behold. All of the man obstacles were there, whilst Funky Monkey was once again over water. The weather was terrible and on Saturday afternoon, the course was closed due to a lightening storm coming within 1 mile of the course. Sunday morning was horribly wet and windy, but those running Sunday afternoon had bright sunshine! That’s British weather for you. 

Tough Mudder did great with the two laps, however I would say the second lap had more running, with the natural terrain being the main obstacle. I would say though, that having Hydrophobia almost immedialtey after mud mile was a big mistake. Hydrophobia basically became a mud bath and submerging three times through mud isn’t that much fun.

The village was large and also had Samsung with their Slo Motion stand for a chance to win a Galaxy S9. Other favourites including Kingstone Press and Brewdog were also in attendance making sure everyone was refreshed after their run.

The biggest issue for me was the walk between the car park and the campsite. I would guess it was around 1 mile, which in normal circumstances isn’t a problem, but if you’re carrying your tent, food, bags and other camping equipment it wasn’t much fun. I really hope they allow cars closer to the camp next time OR put on more buggies to help campers with their equipment.
My grade? I would give the course a B+ but because of the long walk to the camp site, I would rate the overall weekend as a C+.

Tough Mudder Yorkshire is around the half way point for the UK Tough Mudder Season and so a good point to check on how Tough Mudder is doing so far.

I’m really enjoying the two loop format – I think it opens up more venues to Tough Mudder and possibly more in the North of England. North London is a great course, one of my favourite courses and I really hope it doesn’t change next year. I really like the new obstacle – Hydrophobia and really hope that Happy Ending – the finished obstacle in America finally makes it’s way to the UK before the end of the season. Im excited to play on the new 5km course and really like the idea of a fun, short course with no mud, water or electricity. So far Tough Mudder, you get a “B”.

Course Map

Race Kit

361 Europe Ortega 2 trail shoes 
361 Europe QuikFix 5″ shorts
Enertor Performance Insoles & Energy Socks (use BAWIL for 25% discount)

Tough Mudder Discount

As a Tough Mudder ambassador, I have a 30% discount code for those wanting to try their first Tough Mudder. Sign up at www.toughmudder.co.uk and use the code “BRANDUK272” for 30% off the price. This code will only work on UK FULL, Half and 5KM races and only for first timers.