First Place: Tough Mudder – 62%
Second Place: Spartan Race - 34%
Third Place: Rugged Maniac – 2%
Your lungs are on fire, but your fingers are numb. Your quads are screaming and your calves are quivering. You glance down at the ground, close your eyes for a second to shut out the pain, and then, like a crazed lunatic, you take off.
The first 10 steps of your sprint to the top of a steep mud mountain goes as planned. But suddenly, your feet start to slide out from underneath you and your momentum quickly dies. In a last ditch effort, you dive to reach the top, and just as you realize that you’ve fallen short, the mud covered hand of a stranger reaches down and pulls you to the summit.
You eek out a “thank you”, pause for a second, smile, and then turn around because it’s your turn to help out a fellow Mudder.
Sounds awesome, right? That’s because it is…and Tough Mudder is full of moments like this. Whether you are forming a human ladder to scale wooden walls or swimming underneath floating barrels, Tough Mudder is chock full of things that will make your Monday morning meetings even more brain-numbing.
By combining teamwork, forward-thinking obstacles, and a unique atmosphere, Tough Mudder is quickly gaining traction (pun intended) as one of the premier “challenges” to conquer. And if you’re a racer at heart (like a few of us here), they still offer an “elite” wave for folks who want to race and compete for a shot at the TM World Championships.
So with something for almost everyone, 2012 looks to be a banner year for Tough Mudder. And as Todd said in his review of this year’s Tri-State event, “Everyone should do this at least once in their life.”
So what are you waiting for?
Comments
Tough Mudder did a pretty good job if writing this article for you. Great work guys.
Do you guys share an office, or what?
Rugged Maniac is such a terrible event, it shouldn’t have been included on the voting list in the first place.
Outside magazine is way more credible anyways.
Awwww don’t be sore losers. This is the kind of poll that means something, one vote per person and that is it. Not this voting everyday crap like Outside did. Tough Mudders don’t have time to vote everyday, we are busy training for the BEST event!
I was like really 3rd for Rugged Maniac? My walk to work is tougher.
Kudos to Mudder…they put on a hell of an event.
Tough Mudder and Travlete are buddies.
I did Tough Mudder in June of 2011 and was pre-registered for 2012 that same week because as much as it kicked my a** I loved it and am going back for more!! Congrats Touch Mudder!
MUDDER! Going for my 4th Orange Headband in 13 months this May!
Agreed, rugged maniac was really unorganized and still needs a few years before it can be in the same category as these other races.
Doing 2nd TM in March, and Spartan Sprint and Beast this year. I love having 2 options for good adventure racing. Fighting about who is best is for babies.
Agreed, but it is so much fun to poke the sore losers.
Taking on my second mudder in 8 months. I’m chomping at the bit to get on that coarse again, and this time I’m bringing friends.
Nice.
4 in 13 months?! You’re an animal, get it buddy!!
I personally had a great time at Rugged Maniac. Of course a 12 mile race is going to be “tougher” than a 5K, but I have no desire to run 12 miles, or pay $100+ bucks to do so. Also, I enjoyed Rugged Maniac far more than Spartan which considers carrying buckets of rocks an obstacle and charged me at every corner – parking, kids course, BAG CHECK, etc. When I went to retrieve my bag, there was nobody even manning the bag check, just dozens of people rooting around looking for their stuff. There was a great vibe at Rugged Maniac, the course was challenging but fun, and I will certainly be back.
Sarah,
Which Rugged Maniac did you do? I did the one in NJ and it was so boring. Only 14 obstacles (if you could even call some obstacles) Don’t even get me started on the shower line which should not take longer then actually running the race. I still will give them another try, this year can’t be much worse.
I also ran New Jersey!!! It seemed to me that there were far more than 14 obstacles, I think I can remember around 20, which was more than the map showed. Anyway, it kicked my ass … what was it like 90 that day? The shower line was a bit long, but I think that was just because the day was so hot. I’ve participated in events with no showers, so I was happy enough for it. I also had a friend go ahead and bring me back a beer while I was in line
. It seemed to me that everyone was having a really good time. I don’t know, I personally had a great day.
I know one of the guys who works for Rugged Maniac and he’s a real jackass. Don’t be fooled – they’re just as money-hungry, if not more so, than Spartan and TM.
It was warm that day, and there was only one water obstacle. Most of the obstacles were walls, hell the mystery obstacle was a bent over fence which was super lame, and the fire we jumped over was more like smoldering embers. The only good thing was finding out about Rock Solid a month later there. Now that kicked my ass. What other events have you done that you have to compare to Rugged Maniac?
I also have no desire to run 15 miles. I’m a former Marine and thought Rugged Maniac was fun as hell! There’s a guy at my gym who wears a Tough Mudder headband when he works out – I want to be like, “You know that was only three hours of your life, right?” Different strokes for different folks, different races too.
While I haven’t done a Rugged Maniac, I have done similar like Rebel Race, Run A Muck & Warrior Dash. They were a lot of fun, but I prefer the challenge of the longer races like TM, Rock Solid or Spartan.
That guy in your gym must not be in too great of shape if it is taking 3 hours to do a TM.
Well with the extra obstacles the avg finish time is 3 hours
I did see they upped it from 2.5, but still feel anyone in decent shape can blow through in under 2.5.
Maybe they say 3 hours based on the long lines at some obstacles for the later waves, that in itself becomes an obstacle. I’ve always been in the first couple waves and there aren’t any lines yet.
No way. Try running a cold weather TM. You will NOT finish in 2.5.
@ Swoleassdude -Maybe YOU won’t, but I’m conifident I will.
I was well under 2 hours @ Tri State TM this year and it was sub 40 degrees.
Check out the new mud run company called ThundR Productions! They are located out of Denver, CO. The company is owned by two military guys one is retired Army Special Forces and the other is a Blackhawk pilot. They both love these events so they started their own company. They have 9 events planned for 2012. One of the coolest things about these guys is they liked a lot of their competitions Facebook pages. They do not talk bad about any other company’s events. Check them out on Facebook and click the like button for race info and training tips. These guys care about the military, they want to hire military veterans and support their charity Project Sanctuary. Check them out and show these veterans some love!