10 Things We Wish We Knew About Tough Mudder

Tough Mudder, a half marathon of obstacle challenges, electric shocks, ice baths and pure mud. Four of us went down to Tough Mudder UK South to go and "Mudder" this race! Here are a few things we wish we had of known before the race!

1) How painful those electric shocks are!

There were two obstacles that involved electric shocks- the electric eel and the infamous electroshock therapy.

The electric eel involves you crawling through about 2 inches of water with live wires hanging above you ready to literally "shock yo ass"! The electroshock therapy is demonstrated by yours truly, Food & Lycra, in the video above. Those electric shocks are no joke, they hurt! Apparently some carry as much as 10,000 volts (is that even legal?!). We heard the shock is spread out when more people go through it with you- hence the group run in the video.

Note: You will find a group of spectators around this obstacle laughing their arses off at you getting electrocuted- fun for them not so much fun for you.

2) Starting the race earlier has benefits that probably outweigh the burden of having to wake up really early on a weekend

Expect a lot of mud at Tough Mudder, but expect more if you're starting the race later on in the day. There will be thousands of people ahead of you who would have made the obstacles extra muddy, the trails extra slippery and the water that you will be jumping in really mucky!

3) You will need an overload of vitamins and plenty of rest after the race otherwise you will risk getting really ill!

The day after the race I decided to go to Track. I was tired but me being me I still wanted to train. Trust me when I say you need to rest and eat well, you will need it after Tough Mudder! I got a really bad cold after the race, this turned into a throat infection, then an ear infection and then a perforated ear drum. FML! No doubt we were swimming in a hell of a lot of germs that I don't even want to think about.

4) Do a lot of training on Monkey Bars

We weren't too bothered about the obstacle Funky Monkey at first but looking back I wish I had trained for it as this is probably one of the most physically challenging obstacles at Tough Mudder. It involved swinging over monkey bars to avoid falling into muddy water. I got to about the 5th bar and dropped! Take some cheap workman gloves with you, the bars are extra slippery.

5) The beautiful views and meadows we were going to run through

Seriously if you are an Instagram addict like us get yourself a waterproof phone case or a GoPro and take it along with you. We were running through such stunning fields, we didn't know anything like it existed that close to London.

6) What jumping into Artic Enema would actually feel like.

First pic: You can see Laura. Second pic: You can't see Laura... Our reaction to her falling in is epic!

We already have a tough time with our "flowers" cycling through the pot holes of London, but a frozen lady "flower" is something else! But it seems we had a better time than the lads on the course who were complaining about shrinking turtles (LOL). In this obstacle you have to jump into a tank full of ice and fully submerge in it to get yourself under a wooden plank and out of there. Moving fast is so hard because it is freezing! But with all our injuries we found that our shin splints didn't seem to hurt as much after this- winning!

7) The sheer amount of Mud

You thought there was going to be a lot... there's actually more. I'm talking armpit deep. That's all.

8) Everyone is really helpful

We needed extra help at obstacles like the Berlin Wall and Mount Everest. There were plenty of other participants more than willing to help give us the extra boost that was needed as well as the Tough Mudder volunteers. If you can't do an obstacle you can always skip it (we obvs had to do every single one for pride's sake).

9) The race isn't actually that scary

In the run up to the race we were shitting ourselves asking why the hell would we think to take part in such stupidness. This was worsened by the fact that we were signing death waivers before the race but the cherry on top had to be us finding out someone had actually died in a Tough Mudder race the day before we were to take part (Google is a powerful tool). But there's not actually much to be scared of on the day....

10) How much fun Tough Mudder was going to be

The 4 of us had a sick time, each obstacle brought us the most jokes! Classic drops, electro shocks and laughing at each other's pain (evil I know- we show no mercy). It isn't a timed event so sign up early and go and have fun!

And if you're wondering who took the pics- that would be our amazing friends and fam, can't get better than ours!