Vizag native shares his Tough Mudder Race experience in Boston

Tough Mudder is a series of hardcore obstacle race and mud run events, designed by British Special Forces to challenge the toughest of the tough. It has different event types, starting from Tough Mudder 5k to World’s Toughest Mudder (24 hours).

Yo! Vizag got an opportunity to collaborate with a group of friends who have decided to participate in the race on June 23rd in Boston. One of them, Mahesh Rednam, a native of Vizag, shares his experience with Yo! Vizag and here is his race story.

“Around 3 months back, a bunch of my friends met at my place for a get together in Baltimore, MD. During which, one of our friend, Mrudula, suggested that all of us should enroll for Tough Mudder Challenge as it would be fun to run along with friends.”

“We all got excited about Tough Mudder because it’s not a race. It’s a challenge that involves both our mental and physical strength and more importantly its teamwork. As it is our first race we want to balance the toughness so instead of choosing the easiest or the toughest course we choose to run Tough Mudder Half (5 miles with 13 obstacles course) in Boston MA. So after we signed up for the race all of us started working out more regularly by hitting the gym, running the trails, taking up classes like Cross Fit and Boot Camp.”

“As we are running the course as a team we decided to give a name to our team. During which we realized a majority of us are from Vizag so we decided to name our team by referencing Vizag in one or the other way. I thought my best bet is to consult Yo!Vizag team to help us out with the design. The team of Yo! Vizag came up with a spectacular idea and designed our team jersey. The jersey has an incredible design showing all the important landmarks of Vizag on the coastal line. Then we named our team as Yo

 Race Day                                                                           

“We had 11:30 A.M start time. We all reached to the venue around 11 Am, the race track is packed with challenging obstacles it seemed very difficult but at the same time, we are so eager to accomplish them. While we are walking to registration desk we can see the other mudders running around who had an early start time.  After registration, we had to leave all our stuff at a bag drop area and rush to the start line. At the start line, we were given few instructions along with the motivation to complete the race and finally the Tough Mudder Pledge before we started.

– I understand that Tough Mudder is not a race but a challenge

– I put teamwork and camaraderie before my course time

– I don’t whine – Kids whine

– I help my fellow Mudders complete the course

– I overcome all fears

List of obstacles we did on our race day:

• Kiss of Mud 2.0
• Hero Carry
• Pitfall
• Mud Mile 2.0
• Berlin Walls
• Quagmire
• Pork Soda
• Trench Warfare
• Everest 2.0
• The Blockness Monster
• Devil’s Beard
• Happy Ending

As the race is flagged off we started jogging and the track is like a terrain full of mud pits, rocks, and dust. After an initial mile, we came across our first obstacle Kiss of Mud 2.0. It’s a barbed wire crawl for 40 feet with less than 18 inches of clearance above, it seemed easy to cross this obstacle but by the end of it, all our super cool white t-shirts are drenched with mud. Later on, we did the Hero carry where we had to carry each other on our back for certain distance.”

“Followed by our next obstacle Pitfall where a small area is filled with mud water and with deeply hidden pits, all we need to do is cross the area holding each other.  Then we came across the Mud mile 2.0 this is a series of ten mud hills and water filled valleys. Both Pitfall and Mud mile 2.0 seemed fun and not very difficult. Later on, it started to drizzle when we got near the Berlin Wall (10-foot wooden wall), but we all know whether it rains or shines we will finish the course.  It started to get a bit more slippery but it didn’t stop us all from crossing the wall. After the wall, we had to run through the trail for a bit and then we came to cross Quagmire and Pork Soda, both of them are similar like mud puddles easy step into but it’s difficult finding out way out of them. Both of these obstacles are filled with some really bad and sticky mud.”

“From here we started experiencing the real obstacles (Tench Warfare, Everest 2.0, The Blockness Monster, Devil’s Beard ) with more challenging and excitement. As we reached the Everest 2.0 We could see people cheering each other and helping out every one irrespective of which team they are from. Everest 2.0 is a slick quarter pipe placed over 15 foot tall, with a curved top which makes it harder to get a handhold. Few of us did it on our first try, few did it with multiple after multiple attempts but most importantly every one crossed it. Everyone felt mission accomplished after all of us cleared this monolith and we all felt stronger.”

“Immediately after this obstacle, we did jog for around half a mile and then came across the Blockness Monster. Just like other obstacle this is completely a team obstacle but in water. We had to push, pull, and roll our way through 60ft of slick, rotating barriers in water.”

“As we were almost approaching the end of our race, we came across our next obstacle Devil’s Beard. It’s an obstacle involving climbing up a hill underneath giant netting. After finishing this obstacle we reached the final obstacle, Happy Ending.  For this, we need to climb up a sloppy side of the obstacle and then slide down into a water pit. As this is our finishing obstacle we all got up to the top of obstacle and we all slided down into the water. And slowly headed to the finish line where we collected our finisher t-shirts and bands.”

“Overall, the course is defiantly over 5 miles with obstacles spread out entire course. It’s fun, challenging and exciting. The best part of this is race is that all of us have overcome every obstacle with a smile on our face and that gave us fulfillment and happiness, along with some fun-filled memories and of course with few memorable injuries. We already started looking for another challenge a tougher one for next time. If there are any team events like Tough Mudder, Spartan race or any fun sports involving team activity I suggest everyone should try them out with friends.

The Team:

Anirudh Addala

Anurag Uppada

Hardik  Arora

Mahesh Rednam

Mrudula Dhavala

Namitha Gade

Nithin Varma Rudraraju

Pallavi Pappala

Prem Mithilesh

Sandeep Kavala

Sagar Neeli “