We arrived early one Sunday morning in McCarren Park, where the Brooklyn Fitness group was training. The team had been training in the park bi-weekly since the beginning of summer. One member described the trainings as "too damn early and too damn cold."
The team was put together by Allen Bozeman, a personal trainer with Soma Health Club. Most members of the team train regularly with Bozeman.
To prepare for the Mudder, Bozeman designed a training series that includes multiple different exercises and obstacles broken up by long distance runs. "The goal was to mimic the format [of the event]," explained Bozeman.
Bozeman also included some different exercises to build up strength, like these "resistance sprints." During the exercise, one person wears a large resistance band and attempts to sprint, while another tries to stop them by holding the band.
Bozeman was an enthusiastic leader of the group, constantly pushing the team to train harder and get tougher. At their last training session before the event, Bozeman gave the team a pep talk on what to expect. Weather was a concern. Reports indicated that it could rain hard on the day of the event.
It ended up pouring. The team, however, was too pumped to care. Everyone on the team was a first-timer, except for Chris Belmore (right, with orange headband), who ran Tough Mudders at Mount Snow, Vermont (reputed to be the hardest Mudder) and Philadelphia.
Bozeman led the team through a series of stretches and sprints in the warm up area. Outside the track is "Mudder Village," which has a carnival atmosphere. There are tents selling Mudder gear and food, as well as sponsored stands and challenges from Tough Mudder's corporate partners.
Prior to the start of the race, all the participants gathered in a mob before the starting area. Music blasted over the PA and an announcer tried to get people pumped up. We met more than a few teams that were dressed in costumes, like these superheroes.
When participants are given the okay, Mudders have to climb a six-foot-high wooden wall to enter "the start chute."
Once in the start chute, everyone gathered around the emcee, Sean Corvelle, an actor and stand-up comedian, who is now one of the main motivators for Tough Mudder.
Corvelle gave the first-timers a welcome before offering safety instructions, leading a sing-a-long of the National Anthem, and giving a rousing speech about what it means to be a part of "Mudder Nation." Here's a short clip:
After giving Corvelle a high-five, the team was off. They nearly sprinted the first mile of the course. It was tough to keep up. Everyone on the team is a former collegiate or high school athlete. Among the sports: soccer, baseball, track, tennis, basketball, swimming, and power lifting.
The first obstacle was "The Pitfall," two giant pits of chest-high freezing mud. It was a baptism-by-mud for the team. More than a few Mudders were shocked by the initial temperature.
But the Brooklyn team stayed in high-spirits.
Next was the Pole Dancer, where participants use upper body strength to swing themselves along two slippery railings. Bozeman did the task with ease, but more than a few of our team struggled. As Corvelle said during his opening speech, "There's no shame in skipping an obstacle." The event is about "giving your best."
The next part of the course has no name, but is certainly an obstacle. It's approximately a mile of hills over what looks like a dirt bike track. At the end is The Cliffhanger, tall hill canted at a 45 degree angle. You have to practically sprint up the hill and then work together with your teammates to pull each other up.
The way down looked like more fun.
Then it was time to go back in the mud for the "Mud Mile," multiple chest-high mud pits that you have to climb in and out of.
Dotted along the course were fun signs detailing the obstacles or spurring the contestants on. One read, "Leave Dignity Here.”
The Arctic Enema is one of Tough Mudder's buzziest obstacles. The obstacle consists of a dumpster filled with water cooled with pounds of ice to a temperature of 34 degrees. Participants must jump into the dumpster and swim under a wooden wall to get to the other side.
Almost everyone on the team said that it was the obstacle they were looking forward to the least. It didn't help that one of the volunteers kept adding ice as the team jumped in.
After a short run, the team came to "Balls To The Wall," a pretty straightforward rope-climb over a wall. There was a long line before the team could go however, which left the team shivering while they waited.
The "Kiss of Mud," a crawl through the mud under barbed wire, was easy for the team. They were pretty used to the cold temperatures at that point.
The "Funky Monkey" looked like the most physically challenging event of the day. Participants cross a 15-20 foot pool via a set of inclined and declined monkey bars, greased with mud and butter. According to Tough Mudder, only 40% of participants complete the challenge.
Not even Bozeman was able to finish the Funky Monkey. Most people just swam across the pool. Seetram got across with major kudos from the team.
Next came the Berlin Wall, a 12-foot high wooden wall. The strongest team members went first and then stayed at the top to help everyone over. Teamwork was a core strategy for the day.
One of the most interesting challenges of the day was "Pyramid Scheme." In order to scale the slightly inclined wall, team members have to work together to form a human pyramid so that one member can scramble to the top and help pull the others up. People worked with other teams to complete the task.
"Everest" looked difficult, but a ton of fun. Participants have to scale the slick 15-foot high quarter pipe any way they can. Most people tried sprinting and then jumping at the last moment to catch a team members' hand. More than a few people fell on their face.
"Walk The Plank" is a standard high-dive into a muddy pool, but after several hours of being cold and wet, it did not look appealing.
The team started flagging when we hit "Sewage Outlet," a claustrophobic crawl under barbed wire through a pipe and into a pool. Everyone was tired and a few people skipped out on the challenge.
Those who completed the challenge were pretty confused on how to drop into the five-foot deep pool that greeted them on the other side.
"The Devil's Beard" looked easy, until you tried to lift the net. The team had to work together to get to the other side.
The team got split up before "Glory Blades," the second to last challenge. A few team members had decided to walk the rest of the course and one or two dropped out due to injury. We heard more than a few other contestants calling it quits.
The last challenge of the day (and the most painful) was "Electroshock Therapy," a run through a field of live wires pumping with 10,000 volts of electricity. Emcee Sean Corvelle was there cheering everyone on, but only a few of the Brooklyn team members had the stomach for it.
Everyone that went in got shocked bad. Team member Robert Azapinto said that it hurt just as bad as he was expecting.
Here's the first group of finishers from the Brooklyn team. Volunteers wait at the finish line to greet Mudders with an orange headband, a beer, and a meal replacement bar.
The Brooklyn team was pretty stoked about finishing. Team members said that on a difficulty scale from one to ten, the course was about a seven.
"This was the most uncomfortable I’ve been in my life. It's not anything you can actually train for," one team member said of the cold, wet conditions. Most said they would do it again though, especially if it was summertime.
Americans spend their weekends doing some strange things...
