Over a thousand people competed in the desert to see who could endure the most extreme obstacles and climates for the longest distance in the tenth annual World’s Toughest Mudder obstacle race.
WTM, a 24-hour endurance obstacle course race, was held in Laughlin, Nevada, on Nov. 13-14.
WTM is an annual endurance race hosted by the obstacle course race. At WTM participants do a 5 mile course with 20 obstacles as many times as possible over the 24-hour time period.
About 1,300 race participants, pit crew members, and spectators came to the events from many parts of the world including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Singapore and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, according to a press release by Tough Mudder.
The top female and male finishers each received a prize of $10,000. Second and third place received $5,000 and $2,000 respectively.
Men’s winner, Mark Batres, set the record for most mileage at WTM with 115 miles. Women’s winner, Katie Knight, tied the women’s record with 90 miles.
Two-time men’s WTM winner, Trevor Cichosz, got second place with 105 miles. Also three-time women’s winner, Amelia Boone, who came in second place on the women’s podium with 85 miles. This was Boone’s first WTM since her 2015 win.
Boone said in a post on Instagram, “This weekend showed me that I can have big goals, fall short of those, and *still* be thrilled with the results.”
Tough Mudder CEO Kyle McLaughlin said, “We always level-up the Tough Mudder experience for our World’s Toughest Mudder event, with new variations on obstacles and extra surprises along the way.”
A theme for the obstacles at this year’s WTM was combinations. For example, the WTM obstacle “Lumberjack Your Wood,” which is a combination of Tough Mudder Classic obstacles “Lumberjacked” and “Hold Your Wood.” Or the WTM obstacle “Kissed Down Under,” which is a combination of “Kiss of Mud” and “6 Feet Under.”
McLaughlin said that they wanted to use obstacles from the past 10 years of WTM.
Due to COVID-19, there was no WTM held last year. “We had to dust off some cobwebs,” said McLaughlin on this being the first WTM since 2019.
McLaughlin did one lap of the course with a couple Tough Mudder Headquarters staff who were new to WTM. “About 100 yards into the lap we ran into Jesi Stracham, our adaptive athlete, on their third lap and her team was exhausted.” He helped pull Stracham’s chair for a good portion of the course and through some of the toughest terrain. They completed the lap together on the way to Stracham and her team’s goal of 25 miles. McLaughlin said the experience of running with Stracham and her team was life-changing.
This is the first year that Laughlin has hosted the event and the fifth time Nevada has hosted. WTM 2020 was going to be in Dallas, Texas. The venue changed ownership during the pandemic and Tough Mudder did not hear back about hosting WTM, said McLaughlin.
Tough Mudder announced on Nov. 15 that WTM 2022 will be hosted in Gulf Coast, Florida.
More information on the event can be found at toughmudder.com
