My World’s Toughest Mudder Journey: Aiming for the Buckle

It’s either meant to be or it isn’t, call it fate, call it timing, call it whatever you like. After finishing Europe’s Toughest Mudder last year, I had no plans to fly to America for World’s. But then they dropped that big announcement, didn’t they? World’s Toughest Mudder is coming to the UK.
Well, there was only one thing for it… We’re going to World’s in 2025, aren’t we!

Why 75 Miles?

So why did I go for 75 miles?

Honestly, when I entered World’s, I didn’t fully know what I was letting myself in for. I just assumed it would be like Europe’s Toughest Mudder — but twice as long. Simple, right?

Well, not quite. It quickly became clear that World’s is its own beast — bigger, longer, colder, and, as the name promises… tougher.

I’d managed 40 miles at Europe’s TM, and after doing a bit more reading, I came across a rule of thumb that many seasoned Mudders seem to use:

“Whatever mileage you hit in the first 12 hours, cut that in half — that’s your predicted total.”

So if I could repeat my 40-mile effort in the first half, I might be looking at 60, maybe 65 miles in total. Not bad.
But… if I could push a little harder — just find a bit more pace, move a bit more efficiently — then there was something even bigger on the table:

🎯 75 miles.
The Bib. The Buckle.
That’s when the target was locked in.

The Training Plan vs. Reality

My training plan for World’s? Solid. Sensible. Structured.
Join the gym in December. Tick.
Keep the ultra training going strong. Tick.
Add regular upper-body sessions all the way through to June. …Yeah, about that.

The plan looked like this:

• January: 30-miler and a 100-miler ✅
• March: Backyard Ultra ✅
• April: Mountain Challenge ✅
• May: Transylvania 100k with 6,500m of climbing ✅
• Strength work from January through to June ❌

Despite paying for a gym membership for six months, I didn’t step through the door once until about four weeks before World’s. That’s when I panicked slightly, started doing some pull-ups, dead hangs, and eventually moved some weights around like I knew what I was doing — all in the name of building grip strength.

With the ultra races I had lined up, plus the usual work and life commitments, my build-up to World’s wasn’t exactly what I’d call perfect. But sometimes you just roll with what you’ve got and trust the engine you’ve built along the way.

Race Weekend – The Setup and the Gamble

I booked the Friday off work so I could drive down early, get set up, and hopefully take a look at the course and obstacles in the daylight.
For the most part, that plan worked out.

One thing I still needed to sort was a surf suit or wetsuit for the night section. I usually run hot and figured I might not need it, but this was World’s Toughest Mudder, and I didn’t want to take unnecessary risks. Still, I was on the fence.

After checking in, setting up the gazebo in the pit, jogging the course for a quick recce, and sitting through the race briefing, the evening started slipping away. It was already getting late and I still had all my gear and nutrition to organise for the next day. Sorting a wetsuit would mean another couple of hours lost, and I really wanted to prioritise some rest.

So, I made the call:
No wetsuit. No surf suit. Just layers.
A bit of a gamble, but I figured I’d bank the early night and hope for the best.

In Reflection – Should I Have Taken It More Seriously?

Looking back, maybe I should have checked myself a bit.

This was World’s Toughest Mudder! The first time it had ever been held in the UK and honestly, I was a little blasé about the whole thing. The build-up, the prep, the atmosphere… I could’ve soaked it all in a bit more.

Or maybe I had it right.
Maybe if I’d overthought it, I’d have made myself nervous and messed with my head, or worse, my gut. Staying relaxed might’ve actually been my best tactic.

Either way, I showed up with everything I needed (apart from the surf suit) and I had:

• Plenty of food options
• Pit crew legend Nick Kendall on hand to keep me sane
• And two clear race plans printed and pinned, straight from my Excel sheet:

Plan A:

Hit 75 miles within 24 hours, leaving room for an extra lap if things went really well.

Plan B:

Crawl it home with minutes to spare and just scrape the buckle.

I’d mapped out estimated lap times, pit stops, and checkpoints so Nick could keep me on track, when I should be in the pit, when I should be back out, and whether I was trending ahead or behind schedule.

Beyond pacing, my strategy was all about efficiency:

• Get help on obstacles whenever possible to save energy.
• Quickly identify which obstacles I could consistently complete solo, and which ones weren’t worth the energy or risk.
• Know how to use my Bypass Bands smartly (one earned after completing 25 miles and one for every additinal lap completed) to skip the right obstacle at the right time.

Going into the race, I figured Lucifer’s Luggage or Mud Mile would be the ones I’d save those bands for…
But read on to see how that actually played out in the later stages.

Wil Chung Interview

I said Hi and thanks for the Podcast info Wil Chung and the various podcasters had released recently and he roped me into an interview, I laid down the 75 miles in here and hoped I wouldn’t live to regret it on Sunday. Check out the video below:

Race Day – Chow Mein, Pit Crew, and the Pledge

Race day cometh.

I started the morning with some leftover chicken chow mein from the night before’s carb load (elite fuelling, I know) and began packing the car with all my gear and food. After a quick swing by to pick up my pit crew — Nick Kendall — we were on-site and getting the pit area sorted before I knew it (Special thanks to Mark Fielding for the Gazebo 👌🏼).

As we organised the setup and ran through last-minute strategy, we could hear the race briefing happening in the background. I was half-listening, half-talking logistics with Nick… and then, just like that, it was time to head to the start pen.

Cue the usual Tough Mudder craziness.
If you’ve done one, you know what I mean — the energy, the music, the chanting. It always makes me smile, but I’ll be honest… I tend to fade to the sidelines during all that. It’s just not me.

That said, I do bend the knee and join in for the Tough Mudder pledge — that part I respect — and then we were treated to an inspirational story from none other than James “Jim” Campbell. If you haven’t heard his story, it’s worth a few minutes of your time (check the short YouTube clip below). After a serious motorbike accident, he came back not only to recover, but to complete over 200 Tough Mudders.
Phenomenal.
What a way to kick off the race.

Showtime – And We’re Off

Here we go — it’s showtime.

The countdown begins.
I’m just seconds away from starting my first World’s Toughest Mudder. One final mental reminder:
Race smart. Keep pushing. Be patient.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
Klaxon blares.
Smoke fills the air, and we’re off, working our way out onto the course for the hot lap — no obstacles for the first hour.

I focus on settling into a steady run, letting the adrenaline die down and the legs find a rhythm.
But wow… it’s warm out here.

To spare you a blow-by-blow of every lap, here are some key takeaways from the running side of things:

• The heat peaked at 32°C — dry, dusty, and energy-sapping in places.
• I found it hard to stomach anything but liquid calories in the daytime heat.
• As the evening brought cooler temps, I finally got some solid food down — soup, bread, and sandwiches — and it honestly brought me back to life. Couldn’t have come at a better time.
• Later laps became a rinse-and-repeat mission. Repeating sections I now knew well, I focused on holding a steady pace and consistent lap times.

Now, onto the obstacles — the real soul of this race.

Rather than lumping them all together, I’ll break them down one by one to give some honest insights from the perspective of someone who, as a kid, climbed trees and swung on ropes…
…but hasn’t done much of that since.

I’ll share which ones I could manage solo, which ones broke me down, and how each obstacle impacted my body and my mindset as the race wore on.

Obstacle Breakdown – WTM UK 2025

Brexit Barrier = Berlin Walls
Not a great one for me, requires upper body strength to pull yourself up and over. I managed a couple on my own but relied heavily on other Mudders or the legend who sacrificed 23 hours helping people over this one.

Twinkle ToeZZZ
So, Twinkle Toes but in the shape of a “Z” roughly, which made it a little more difficult. I’ll be honest, I’m pretty good with my balance, and out of the 11–12 attempts I had one wobble, but no failed attempts.

Skidmarked
Standard Skidmarked. I’m fairly competent at this one, although it might have worn me down if it had been opened earlier.

Pyramid Scheme 2.0
Your usual Pyramid Scheme, but with a cargo net over it. You had to go under the net and kind of ladder up with your back against the slope. It proved difficult to get over the final section. Eventually, the cargo net was removed due to accidents, and ropes were added to pull yourself up, which I found fairly easy, although my biceps cramped a couple of times at the top.

Fire Fly
Loved this one. I rang the bell every time. It played to my youthful self, we used to go cliff jumping at a local quarry years ago. Basically, a one-step jump out to try and ring the bell, then a 12–15ft drop into the water.

Rat Frost
Crawl through tubes, then drop backwards into icy water. Later changed to crawling through tubes, under a cargo net, and then into the icy water.

Kiss of Mud
Immediately followed Rat Frost. It got progressively muddier and slipperier throughout the event, which made it faster, if you didn’t mind rocks scratching and cutting up your body.

Chunky Monkey
Funky Monkey with a twist, they added the Twister bar from Spartan events where the monkey bars usually are. For me, this one really highlighted the lack of upper body strength. The handholds couldn’t fit two hands, which forced me to move quickly from one to the next. By the time I reached the top, I didn’t have the strength to pull myself up before transitioning to the wheels. Definitely something to work on, it’s a staple obstacle for Tough Mudder events. (Penalty for this was filling a tea cup, witha tea spoon until it was full….).

Blockness Monster
Another Tough Mudder staple. With a bit of back-and-forth rocking of the column, I can do this one solo, but luckily there were usually people around to work with. I saw some elites jumping and pulling themselves up effortlessly, what you need here is vertical jump power, grip strength, and the ability to pull yourself over when fully outstretched.

Netflicks & Chill
Once I got the hang of it, this was fairly easy. I just had to take my time to avoid leg cramps. My grip held up well, although I had to take the penalty a few times towards the end after wearing my arms out helping others on Blockness Monster.

Moat-er Floater
Basically a small creek crusade, or so I’m told. The trough in the middle caught you out sometimes and you’d fall on your ass, but otherwise it was a chance to wash off before the next obstacle.

Lucifer’s Luggage
Tough at first, but I figured out a technique, once the net was over me, I’d pick the Spartan sandbag up underneath me and walk bent over, with the net pushing down on my back and head. It got a little messy transitioning between nets, but once I got used to it, I actually learned to love it.

Pole Dancer
I’d completed this at Infinity a couple of years ago, so I wasn’t too worried. In the later laps, though, I had to really concentrate to avoid slipping off due to muscle fatigue.

Everest
Massive shout out to Jim Campbell and Brett Tank for this one, those guys (and others) made sure I never had to take multiple attempts or do the penalty. I’m usually decent at this one in the dry, but having help over the final steps saved a lot of muscle fatigue and let me solo it on my final lap, some 24 hours into the race.

Rain Man
Cage Crawl with added water gushing down at intervals. I’ll be honest, I didn’t realise this for the first few attempts and ended up choking on gallons of water. After that, I switched to ducking down, pushing off the hay bales, and swimming under it each lap.

Mud Mile
The usual soupy mess. Not a fan. I only completed this twice, once on lap 5, working with Grant Thompson, and again on my second-to-last lap to retain a bypass band. After the first time, I knew this was the one to sacrifice for the bypass. It’s a huge time sink, getting the grit and soil out of your shoes, the damage to your feet, the mess, changing socks at the pit, etc.

Killa Gorilla
In the early hours of the morning, some glow sticks started to appear an extra hill just past the Mud Mile, Someone mentioned “Killa Gorilla” and I couldn’t remember what it was, all I knew is I’m going to have to work a little harder over the next laps to ensure I didn’t lose time from this obstacle each lap. it was basically up and down a few times spelling out the letters “TM” on the hill side, tough one in the early hours, but just suck it up buttercup.

Stairway to Heaven
I cramped on this one at Europe’s Toughest Mudder, but had no issues this time. It’s also the obstacle I used to note the time from there to the finish to make sure I’d cross the line within the 25:30 cut-off.

Swings Both Ways
I believe this is a newer obstacle. I already had an idea how to tackle the first section with the doorknob-style holds. Even with muscle fatigue in the later laps, I managed to complete it every time with no penalties.

Mudderhorn
Thankfully, I only had to do this solo once, saved a ton of upper body energy. Watching clips back, I think I need to work on explosive energy for the jump up and improve pull-up strength. That’s key to making this one easier.

Electroshock Therapy
Standard EST with a 5ft hay bale in the middle. I made quick work of this one. Only caught a few decent shocks and managed not to get dropped. Tip: just speed through, the shocks pulse on a timer, so the longer you stay in, the more likely you are to get zapped.

Summary & Reflection (Obstacles)

Looking back, I definitely could have saved myself a fair few minutes, especially on obstacles where I ended up filling cups with mud or waiting around to work with others to get over them. The penalty on Funky Monkey didn’t cost me too much in terms of time, but what did catch up with me was a lack of upper body endurance. Over the course of the race, I found myself walking and massaging my biceps or pecs to shake off cramps that were creeping in more and more frequently as fatigue built.

That said, it was a great set of obstacles overall. I can’t say there were any I was unhappy with. I’m still relatively new to this, so maybe my perspective is a bit different from some of the longer-serving Mudders who might be hoping for more innovation or brand-new obstacle designs. For me, the challenge was plenty and every obstacle tested something different, whether it was grip, strength, coordination, or pure grit.

Each lap gave me a better understanding of what I can do, where I need to improve, and how to race smarter next time. Upper body training is now firmly on the agenda if I’m going to keep turning up at events like this and pushing for those big lap targets.

The Final Push – Hitting 75 Miles

There were plenty of moments where doubt crept in, and more than a few times I thought it was over, when various body parts cramped so badly I couldn’t move without wincing. But whether it’s resilience or just pure stubbornness (don’t ask my wife which), I managed to keep going.

My previous Tough Mudder events gave me valuable insights into what this might be like, and my ultra marathons have taught both my mind and body that I can keep running, even when it hurts, even when I haven’t eaten properly in hours. That experience counted for a lot out there.

Crossing the finish line after 25 hours and 11 minutes, over an undulating course, in searing heat, with new and hybrid obstacles, was something else entirely. It’s been a real experience, one I’m hugely grateful for. I set my sights on that 75-mile target and the coveted Bib and Belt Buckle nearly 11 months ago… and to actually make it happen still feels surreal.

Massive shout out once again to my pit crew chief, Nick Kendall, there is absolutely no way I’d have done this without him. And to every Mudder who helped me on course, whether with a hand over a wall or a few words of encouragement, Thank You!

Maybe, just maybe, I’ll see some of you at a future Tough Mudder Endurance event.

Detailed Breakdown of my Target Sheets

Below are the two plans I worked to and my Pit Crew tried to keep me on track with. My strategy was to hold to the “TARGET 75+” sheet for as long as I could and if I could I might be able to squeeze another lap in towards the end. With the fall back position on the “Challenging 75 miles” sheet that I must not fall behind on, otherwise I’ll already know that the 75 miles target has been lost.

You can see as more obstacles opened up, I was losing too much time to hold to this plan and therefore we moved to the next sheet for the remainder of the race. you’ll note from both sheets that my pit time assumptions are way off, some improvements can definitely be made here and an somewhat unavoidable 20min pit after lap 6 due to blisters popping and required taping.

For this plan to work, you must have confidence in yourself to continue to churn out the later laps consistently, for me this is were learning from previous ultra races have given me the reassurance I can “normally” do this. Easier said than done, when your 200+ obstacles in…. some changes I would make for future plans would be to both increase the pit time and allow for a midway longer pit to address any feet/issues and try to pit a little faster, again all easier said than done on the day when your in the pain cave.