--- title: How I Became A Tough Mudder | TIME description: Running a Tough Mudder course means jumping into freezing water, crawling under barbed wire and getting electrocuted. TIME’s Sean Gregory puts his body to the extreme test. canonical: https://time.com/video/mEPGIZrQ/ og:title: How I Became A Tough Mudder og:description: Running a Tough Mudder course means jumping into freezing water, crawling under barbed wire and getting electrocuted. TIME’s Sean Gregory puts his body to the extreme test. og:url: https://time.com/video/mEPGIZrQ/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/mEPGIZrQ/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How I Became A Tough Mudder twitter:description: Running a Tough Mudder course means jumping into freezing water, crawling under barbed wire and getting electrocuted. TIME’s Sean Gregory puts his body to the extreme test. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/mEPGIZrQ/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How I Became A Tough Mudder > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How I Became A Tough Mudder [Watch (HLS stream): How I Became A Tough Mudder](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mEPGIZrQ.m3u8) (6:49)  _Published 2013-01-17. Running a Tough Mudder course means jumping into freezing water, crawling under barbed wire and getting electrocuted. TIME’s Sean Gregory puts his body to the extreme test._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:29 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Climber Kyra Condie Trains TIME's Sean Gregory on New Olympic Sport](/video/6MqlQjDZ/) ### Climber Kyra Condie Trains TIME's Sean Gregory on New Olympic Sport [How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory](/video/TeZ5hoMc/) ### How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory [How They Train: Synchronized Swimming with Sean Gregory](/video/wTK70mH0/) ### How They Train: Synchronized Swimming with Sean Gregory --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] This is Tough Mudder. [ NOISE ] Get off [ INAUDIBLE ]. Part obstacle course. Your jumping and your climbing. And it's like a boot camp. Part marathon. The bottom half is not working very well. Park on [ NOISE ]. [ MUSIC ]. [ NOISE ] I guess we're just a little crazy man, that's that's about the only answer I can give to you. I'm not crazy, but it didn't take long before I got swept up in the cult of [ INAUDIBLE ]. On a beautiful December morning, in Sarasota morning. [ SOUND ] I strapped a camera to my head and joined it. [ NOISE ] Will Dee a Harvard Business School graduate and former British counter- terrorism analyst. Launch Tough Mudder in 2010. I had done marathons and triathalons in my twenties, and I just couldn't bring myself to train for that. I found it boring. I was looking for other challenges like these adventure races, for which you have to really in general be in very, very good shape. And I said, I could put something on in the States that's actually really quite, you know, to my mind, quite different. From this. It's a challenge, it's tough but we're not going to make this something that only 1 % of the population can do. [ NOISE ] I got a course today that's designed to test all you got. Dean bet that if properly branded, the right kind of obstacle course could have mass appeal. [ SOUND ] And three years later, that bet is paying off. In 2012 about a half million people paid between $ 95 and $ 200 to torture themselves on a tough mudder course. I mean in retrospect, [ NOISE ] I could of, I should of finished the race. With the help of social media it has garnered an almost cult like following. [ UNKNOWN ] There are t- shirts, backpacks, Nerf balls, and the coveted orange head band. Which you can only get after finishing the course. I hadn't heard. [ LAUGH ] Participates then choose Facebook and Twitter to brag about their performance and refer to each other as fellow Mudders. They even have their own pledge. I do not whine. [ NOISE ] Kids whine. I hope. This is the tough club. And our first rule in the tough club is we do talk about it. [ LAUGH ] [ MUSIC ] You know, I'm trying to approach this as like, a going for a run at my own pace. I'm a natural wimp. I don't like roller- coasters. I don't like any dare devil type stuff, so. [ LAUGH ] See? That guy scared the crap out of me! [ MUSIC ] I wouldn't call myself a pinnacle athlete, but I'm in decent enough shape. So I know I can handle the long jump. But there is something about the course that is invoking a deep seeded fear inside of me. Maybe it's the death waiver I have to sign before the race. [ LAUGH ] Signed your life away. [ MUSIC ] We're hearing that one of the obstacles is called the ball shrinker. I'm pretty sure that it mostly has to do with this thing. Get in their buddy, get in there. [ NOISE ] Stay out, stay out. Dozens and dozens of dangling electric wires over a pile of mud, dubbed electro shock therapy. [ SOUND ] Standing just a hundred yards from the finish. And surrounded by a group of sadistic spectators [ NOISE ] this final obstacle sends the biggest and strongest to [ UNKNOWN ]. If I was gonna finish the race, I would have to muster up a lot more courage by the time I reached it. [ NOISE ] [ MUSIC ] The course consists of 22 obstacles scattered across 12 miles. [ MUSIC ] The first real challenege comes about two miles in. It's an ice pit that jolts your body into a state of shock. Get out, or freeze to death. [ SOUND ] Don't let my whimpering fool you. It's actually pretty refreshing. Oh god. And not nearly as terrifying as walk the plank, a fifteen foot drop into water. Go, go, go, go, go! After a few minutes of getting yelled at. Go, go, get off my tower. Go, go. I finally jump. [ SOUND ] This weekend I'm joined by thirty thousand people of all ages. From college kids to seniors. Like 70 year old Signey Gut. My nephew says I'm a, I'm a badass. [ LAUGH ] I've seen the 1 % represented, I've seen big, I've seen em small. I've seen people from women that were still pregnant still coming running through this, you know. It doesn't matter. They all ( no period ). Do it. No goal. [ NOISE ] 48 year old John Russo has been training for this since January.: A little bit of running a little bit of gym then a few days to heal up. Then a little bit more gym and running and we're here. [ LAUGH ]: Unlike me Russo has no problem walking the plank. He whisks through most of the obstacles in the first half But fatigue has started to set in. The obstacles aren't bad man. Trying to run them between them. Old age caught up with me on that one. [ LAUGH ] What makes tough hunter so accessible is that it's not really a race. If you're tired, you can walk like Rucell. Or if you can't scale a wall, like me, someone will lend you a hand. You need a little more help here? [ NOISE ] You guys are awesome. Thank you, thank you, thank you. If someone helps you with the event, you, you instinctively want to help someone else. [ NOISE ] Alright, you really feel like you're part of something together. It's not just. You know, the eight guys you turn up with, it's the sense that everyone's helping everyone. By the time I come to the electroshock therapy, I have no choice. I've had so many screw up moments all day, what's one more? [ SOUND ] [ NOISE ] Go all the way in, past the photographer! Not a dignified end, but an accomplishment nonetheless. Good job! Thank you. I gratefully accept my sacred orange headband. I don't know if I'll ever do this again, but I'm pretty glad I did it. [ SOUND ] And enjoy a fresh beer with my fellow muggers. I've been thinkin' about this a long time. 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