Welcome to the official Sunshine Coast Tough Mudder review, by TMtour2014. As you know, we are running every single event in Australia and New Zealand this year, and reviewing each one for you. If you want, you can check out the Melbourne and New Zealand reviews too. I have decided to give two reviews for Sunshine Coast this time around, one a more personal review including the day’s pre and post event, and which was more about my time up on the Sunshine Coast doing Tough Mudder, and then this Official Review, which will be going into detail only about the event itself. You can have a read of my personal review here.
This Tough Mudder was marketed a lot more than previous Mudders in Australia. I feel this is because it was 111 days since New Zealand Mudder and Sunshine Coast, or 146 days between Australian Mudders Melbourne and Sunshine Coast. There was a long time between events, so obviously they marketed it a lot more than usual. Also, This Mudder weekend there was 5 events across 4 countries, on 3 continents for 2 days. 1 Mudder Nation. A lot of effort went into making this weekend huge across the Tough Mudder world, and it paid off, with over 60,000 participants globally. But enough about how good a business Tough Mudder is, let’s get into what you want to know – how the actual event went.
All my notes for this review are all over the place, so let’s do this in some kind of order, instead of me throwing my random thoughts at you.
- Mudder Village
- Obstacles
- New Obstacles
- Legionnaires Loop
- Best and Worse
- Sunshine Coast vs other events
Mudder Village
Mudder Village lacked something at this event. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something missing. Let’s go through what it did have first though: The entrance where you collect bibs and scan tickets, bag drop area, merchandise tent, tent where you collected your finisher shirts and Mudder Legion headbands, maybe 4 or 5 different food stalls, a couple of sponsor tents including Nova FM and Stihl (I think?) and one or two other tents which I didn’t even bother checking out, as the weather was atrocious and I didn’t feel the need to explore and find out what was inside them.
There was no strength challenges for participants and spectators. No competitions going on. Nothing really happening in the Mudder Village apart from the few tents mentioned above. Granted the weather on the Saturday was absolutely horrible, the most rainfall in a very long time up North, but that doesn’t mean that the village should be dead like it was. I can’t speak for Sunday, as I wasn’t there, but hopefully it was livelier than Saturday.
The biggest area was the Merchandise tent. This doesn’t come as a surprise to me, as I know Tough Mudder is a business before anything else. They want our money. That’s not a problem, but with the amount of money we spend on a ticket at each event, I though there should be something more to do in the village.
Speaking of Merchandise, I did however buy a pair of Mudder gloves for my next event. I found in the pouring rain this weekend that I didn’t have the grip to complete some of the obstacles. At only 20 bucks, I figured they will be a good investment for the remaining 3 events this year, and whatever else I do Tough Mudder wise in the future. My running partner Laura bought another movie references Mudder shirt. Apparently every Mudder in Australasia this year will have a different shirt, and she is collecting them all. Check out the Auckland and Sunshine Coast ones below. The only problem with this, is that there has been absolutely no marketing for them what so ever. They could have been a huge thing this year, and with just a little advertising of them online, Tough Mudder would have sold way more shirts. The only reason I know there are different ones in each event this year, was because I ran into a Tough Mudder employee on my flight home to Melbourne, and we chatted about it. I dare say no-one else outside of people working for Tough Mudder know this.
Mudder Village lacked something at this event. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something missing. Let’s go through what it did have first though: The entrance where you collect bibs and scan tickets, bag drop area, merchandise tent, tent where you collected your finisher shirts and Mudder Legion headbands, maybe 4 or 5 different food stalls, a couple of sponsor tents including Nova FM and Stihl (I think?) and one or two other tents which I didn’t even bother checking out, as the weather was atrocious and I didn’t feel the need to explore and find out what was inside them.
There was no strength challenges for participants and spectators. No competitions going on. Nothing really happening in the Mudder Village apart from the few tents mentioned above. Granted the weather on the Saturday was absolutely horrible, the most rainfall in a very long time up North, but that doesn’t mean that the village should be dead like it was. I can’t speak for Sunday, as I wasn’t there, but hopefully it was livelier than Saturday.
The biggest area was the Merchandise tent. This doesn’t come as a surprise to me, as I know Tough Mudder is a business before anything else. They want our money. That’s not a problem, but with the amount of money we spend on a ticket at each event, I though there should be something more to do in the village.
Speaking of Merchandise, I did however buy a pair of Mudder gloves for my next event. I found in the pouring rain this weekend that I didn’t have the grip to complete some of the obstacles. At only 20 bucks, I figured they will be a good investment for the remaining 3 events this year, and whatever else I do Tough Mudder wise in the future. My running partner Laura bought another movie references Mudder shirt. Apparently every Mudder in Australasia this year will have a different shirt, and she is collecting them all. Check out the Auckland and Sunshine Coast ones below. The only problem with this, is that there has been absolutely no marketing for them what so ever. They could have been a huge thing this year, and with just a little advertising of them online, Tough Mudder would have sold way more shirts. The only reason I know there are different ones in each event this year, was because I ran into a Tough Mudder employee on my flight home to Melbourne, and we chatted about it. I dare say no-one else outside of people working for Tough Mudder know this.
The tent handing out the finisher shirts worked really well this time. They had every size available for both men and women towards the end of Saturday still. Also, they had obviously overstocked Tough Mudder Legionnaire Headbands this time, after not having anything over the blue 3x finishers at Melbourne and New Zealand earlier in the year. I had to get my yellow 4-6x finish shipped out, which came from overseas eventually months later. This was good to see they were prepared this time around.
Obstacles
Most of the usual suspects were there, Everest, Electroshock Therapy, Arctic Enema, Mud Mile among others, but there was also some major players missing from this event. Funky Monkey, which has been featuring in Tough Mudder pretty much from the start, was nowhere to be seen, being replaced by Hangin’ Tough. Electric Eel, one of my least favourite obstacles, was also missing, but I don’t think many people were crying over that though.
Quite a few new additions to the Australia Tough Mudder circuit, but we will talk about those in a minute.
There was a few let downs with the obstacles on the Sunshine Coast for myself. Berlin Walls seemed to be not as tall compared to Melbourne and especially New Zealand this year (New Zealand looked and felt, from memory, a whole other foot taller than Sunshine Coast). I personally got over both walls of Berlin without the help of anyone, on the first try - a feat I haven’t been able to do before. This could mean either I have grown stronger/taller/more able to complete this obstacle, or the walls were shorter than normal. Granted, I know I am a beast, but I just feel that the walls were smaller.
Electroshock Therapy, everyone’s favourite obstacle, was downright easy. I’ve been zapped at 5 different events now, for 8 laps of Tough Mudder total, and I swear every event the shocks get less and less painful. Are they turning down the voltage? I’m not sure, but for me it sure feels like it. At least it wasn’t like Melbourne earlier this year, where it was so windy that the wires were blowing to the side, and everyone was running through the side away from the wires. They could technically say they completed the obstacle, but they cheated and didn’t touch a single wire the whole way through. I got zapped 3 times on the Sunshine Coast on both laps, and it barely made me shudder.
Glory Blades needs to be redesigned in my opinion. Too many people are just climbing up the planks holding the walls upright. This defeats the purpose of the obstacle.
That all being said, there was a lot of good with the repeat obstacles. Everest had a sneaky trick up its sleeve this time round. Not only was it pouring with rain on the Saturday, which made it hard enough as it is, but there was also a man-made puddle a few inches deep along the whole bottom on the quarter pipe, so no matter where you ran up Everest, your shoes were guaranteed to be wet from the start, making it that much harder. This could well have made it more dangerous for participants, but everyone knows the risks of running a Mudder. It just seems that Mudders have been getting easier as the time goes on, so this extra trick with Everest was welcomed by me.
Arctic Enema, although down right easy – jump in the water, put your head under, jump out – worked great as per usual. While on course, the biggest whinge/fear/hated obstacle that I hear time and time again, is the Arctic Enema. Why, I don’t know. It’s simple. I get that its cold, and people don’t like jumping in icy water, but come on, it’s so easy! Anyways, Arctic Enema worked perfectly as per usual.
Walk the Plank seemed like a bigger jump this event also, which was good. I believe the higher and further we can jump off of Walk the Plank, the better. There was a lot more volunteers and lifesavers stationed around this obstacle than previous Mudders that I’ve completed, and I think that’s got everything to do with the re-emergence of the issue at Walk the Plank in America at the beginning of last year. You can read more about that here.
Overall, I would say that the returning obstacles were a little below average. Too many of them were easier than normal. Tough Mudder is supposed to be tough! If I can just coast in and do all of these obstacles easily, what is the point? I grade the returning obstacles a C+ or B-
Luckily for Tough Mudder Sunshine Coast, they had their brand new obstacles to fall back onto.
Most of the usual suspects were there, Everest, Electroshock Therapy, Arctic Enema, Mud Mile among others, but there was also some major players missing from this event. Funky Monkey, which has been featuring in Tough Mudder pretty much from the start, was nowhere to be seen, being replaced by Hangin’ Tough. Electric Eel, one of my least favourite obstacles, was also missing, but I don’t think many people were crying over that though.
Quite a few new additions to the Australia Tough Mudder circuit, but we will talk about those in a minute.
There was a few let downs with the obstacles on the Sunshine Coast for myself. Berlin Walls seemed to be not as tall compared to Melbourne and especially New Zealand this year (New Zealand looked and felt, from memory, a whole other foot taller than Sunshine Coast). I personally got over both walls of Berlin without the help of anyone, on the first try - a feat I haven’t been able to do before. This could mean either I have grown stronger/taller/more able to complete this obstacle, or the walls were shorter than normal. Granted, I know I am a beast, but I just feel that the walls were smaller.
Electroshock Therapy, everyone’s favourite obstacle, was downright easy. I’ve been zapped at 5 different events now, for 8 laps of Tough Mudder total, and I swear every event the shocks get less and less painful. Are they turning down the voltage? I’m not sure, but for me it sure feels like it. At least it wasn’t like Melbourne earlier this year, where it was so windy that the wires were blowing to the side, and everyone was running through the side away from the wires. They could technically say they completed the obstacle, but they cheated and didn’t touch a single wire the whole way through. I got zapped 3 times on the Sunshine Coast on both laps, and it barely made me shudder.
Glory Blades needs to be redesigned in my opinion. Too many people are just climbing up the planks holding the walls upright. This defeats the purpose of the obstacle.
That all being said, there was a lot of good with the repeat obstacles. Everest had a sneaky trick up its sleeve this time round. Not only was it pouring with rain on the Saturday, which made it hard enough as it is, but there was also a man-made puddle a few inches deep along the whole bottom on the quarter pipe, so no matter where you ran up Everest, your shoes were guaranteed to be wet from the start, making it that much harder. This could well have made it more dangerous for participants, but everyone knows the risks of running a Mudder. It just seems that Mudders have been getting easier as the time goes on, so this extra trick with Everest was welcomed by me.
Arctic Enema, although down right easy – jump in the water, put your head under, jump out – worked great as per usual. While on course, the biggest whinge/fear/hated obstacle that I hear time and time again, is the Arctic Enema. Why, I don’t know. It’s simple. I get that its cold, and people don’t like jumping in icy water, but come on, it’s so easy! Anyways, Arctic Enema worked perfectly as per usual.
Walk the Plank seemed like a bigger jump this event also, which was good. I believe the higher and further we can jump off of Walk the Plank, the better. There was a lot more volunteers and lifesavers stationed around this obstacle than previous Mudders that I’ve completed, and I think that’s got everything to do with the re-emergence of the issue at Walk the Plank in America at the beginning of last year. You can read more about that here.
Overall, I would say that the returning obstacles were a little below average. Too many of them were easier than normal. Tough Mudder is supposed to be tough! If I can just coast in and do all of these obstacles easily, what is the point? I grade the returning obstacles a C+ or B-
Luckily for Tough Mudder Sunshine Coast, they had their brand new obstacles to fall back onto.
New Obstacles
There was a few brand new obstacles, never seen in Australia before, at Sunshine Coast Mudder. Sewerage Outlet, Pole Dancer, Hangin’ Tough and the much hyped Fire in your Hole. As Fire in Your Hole was on the Legionnaires Loop, you can read about in a minute in the Legionnaires Loop section.
Sewerage Outlet was a simple climb on your back up through a 45 degree tube, then drop out and fall a couple metres into the muddy water below. Simple to accomplish, yet strangely fun. I enjoyed this obstacle quite a bit, not enough to want to turn back and go it again straight away, but just more so than some of the other obstacles.
Pole Dancer I have mixed feelings about - I wasn’t able to complete this obstacle both times I tried, and that annoyed me, but it was fun and is quite challenging. You have to shimmy along these two poles about 2 feet apart, half is tilted up, and the second half is tilted downwards, and all over muddy water below as most obstacles are! Those with shoulder issues, I must warn you – stay as far away from this obstacle as you possibly can! A great addition to the 2014 Mudder line up - a real challenge!
Hangin’ Tough is a gladiators style swinging rings over water obstacle. I believe this is the reason that Funky Monkey didn’t make the cut this event, which I was pretty bummed about, but this swinging obstacle is very challenging (especially in the pouring rain of the Sunshine Coast), and you need quite a bit of upper body strength to beat this one. Just getting into a rhythm to swing over the obstacle is hard enough. Another great addition to the event.
And Fire in Your Hole, which you can read about below. That was an amazing addition to the Tough Mudder event. Truly top notch!
Overall, the new obstacles kick the original ones out of the park. Hopefully all 4 of them will be in each Mudder course for the rest of the year, so that we at TMtour2014 can tackle them again! A definite A+ for the new obstacles.
There was a few brand new obstacles, never seen in Australia before, at Sunshine Coast Mudder. Sewerage Outlet, Pole Dancer, Hangin’ Tough and the much hyped Fire in your Hole. As Fire in Your Hole was on the Legionnaires Loop, you can read about in a minute in the Legionnaires Loop section.
Sewerage Outlet was a simple climb on your back up through a 45 degree tube, then drop out and fall a couple metres into the muddy water below. Simple to accomplish, yet strangely fun. I enjoyed this obstacle quite a bit, not enough to want to turn back and go it again straight away, but just more so than some of the other obstacles.
Pole Dancer I have mixed feelings about - I wasn’t able to complete this obstacle both times I tried, and that annoyed me, but it was fun and is quite challenging. You have to shimmy along these two poles about 2 feet apart, half is tilted up, and the second half is tilted downwards, and all over muddy water below as most obstacles are! Those with shoulder issues, I must warn you – stay as far away from this obstacle as you possibly can! A great addition to the 2014 Mudder line up - a real challenge!
Hangin’ Tough is a gladiators style swinging rings over water obstacle. I believe this is the reason that Funky Monkey didn’t make the cut this event, which I was pretty bummed about, but this swinging obstacle is very challenging (especially in the pouring rain of the Sunshine Coast), and you need quite a bit of upper body strength to beat this one. Just getting into a rhythm to swing over the obstacle is hard enough. Another great addition to the event.
And Fire in Your Hole, which you can read about below. That was an amazing addition to the Tough Mudder event. Truly top notch!
Overall, the new obstacles kick the original ones out of the park. Hopefully all 4 of them will be in each Mudder course for the rest of the year, so that we at TMtour2014 can tackle them again! A definite A+ for the new obstacles.
Legionnaires Loop
The Legionnaires Loop is a new concept brought into Tough Mudder this year, so there hasn’t been that many events that have included one. New Zealand didn’t have a Legionnaires Loop, as it was the inaugural Tough Mudder in the country, so a very tiny percent of people would actually be multi-mudders (pretty much the TMtour2014 crew and a couple other people were the only legionnaires). Melbourne Mudder back in March had the first loop in Australia, and it sucked hard – a tall A-Frame cargo net to crawl up and down the other side, and a little Kiss of Mud to crawl through. That’s it. So I wasn’t expecting much from Sunshine Coast Mudder in the Legionnaires Loop, that is until a little birdie told me a couple months ago that Fire in Your Hole would be making its debut in Australia at this event.
Fire in your Hole is a massive 20 metre tall waterslide, through a wall of flame, and into a pool of water. Amazing. I have seen photos and videos from international Mudders this year of this obstacle, and they all look amazingly awesome.
It did not disappoint.
It was a behemoth of an obstacle, easily the tallest one at the event. It could be seen for miles around, and being strategically placed right next to the finish line, it got a lot of spectators watching. Just have a look at some of the photos taken of the TMtour2014 crew riding the Fire in Your Hole obstacle, and judge for yourself if it’s great or not.
The Legionnaires Loop is a new concept brought into Tough Mudder this year, so there hasn’t been that many events that have included one. New Zealand didn’t have a Legionnaires Loop, as it was the inaugural Tough Mudder in the country, so a very tiny percent of people would actually be multi-mudders (pretty much the TMtour2014 crew and a couple other people were the only legionnaires). Melbourne Mudder back in March had the first loop in Australia, and it sucked hard – a tall A-Frame cargo net to crawl up and down the other side, and a little Kiss of Mud to crawl through. That’s it. So I wasn’t expecting much from Sunshine Coast Mudder in the Legionnaires Loop, that is until a little birdie told me a couple months ago that Fire in Your Hole would be making its debut in Australia at this event.
Fire in your Hole is a massive 20 metre tall waterslide, through a wall of flame, and into a pool of water. Amazing. I have seen photos and videos from international Mudders this year of this obstacle, and they all look amazingly awesome.
It did not disappoint.
It was a behemoth of an obstacle, easily the tallest one at the event. It could be seen for miles around, and being strategically placed right next to the finish line, it got a lot of spectators watching. Just have a look at some of the photos taken of the TMtour2014 crew riding the Fire in Your Hole obstacle, and judge for yourself if it’s great or not.
Aside from FiYH on the Legionnaires Loop, there was also a Kiss of Mud, 2-3 times longer than usual, and a tunnel with (supposedly) 100,000 volt wires hanging down inside (bit of a shock once you get to the end…). But really, Legionnaires Loop is all about Fire in Your Hole.
A++ for Legionnaires Loop on the Sunshine Coast. Would have been A+++ had it not been for the lack of excitement in the rest of the Loop though ...
A++ for Legionnaires Loop on the Sunshine Coast. Would have been A+++ had it not been for the lack of excitement in the rest of the Loop though ...
Best and Worst
The best and worst bits of the Sunshine Coast Tough Mudder. This is obviously all my personal opinion, and I welcome you all to chime in below in the comments if you agree or disagree, or if I've missed something!
Best:
Worst:
Yes Tough Mudder is a rugged obstacle course, and the chances of getting injured are quite high, but in knowing this, Tough Mudder should be providing first aid tents and personnel at each and every obstacle. This is only common sense, and they surely can afford to hire another 100 first aid officers for their course at each event.
There were no parking attendants, and absolutely no contingency plan for this. With a weeks’ notice of the weather, something should have been done to fix this foreseeable problem.
The best and worst bits of the Sunshine Coast Tough Mudder. This is obviously all my personal opinion, and I welcome you all to chime in below in the comments if you agree or disagree, or if I've missed something!
Best:
- Fire in Your Hole
- New obstacles
- Camaraderie
- The volunteers
- Having more the enough supplies
Worst:
- Waiting in lines for obstacles
- Injuries/first aid
Yes Tough Mudder is a rugged obstacle course, and the chances of getting injured are quite high, but in knowing this, Tough Mudder should be providing first aid tents and personnel at each and every obstacle. This is only common sense, and they surely can afford to hire another 100 first aid officers for their course at each event.
- Tough Mudder events seemingly getting easier and easier
- Parking
There were no parking attendants, and absolutely no contingency plan for this. With a weeks’ notice of the weather, something should have been done to fix this foreseeable problem.
- #HeadbandMonday
Sunshine Coast vs previous events
Overall, I give Sunshine Coast Tough Mudder a B rating, a relatively good passing grade. It couldn’t compete with the New Zealand Mudder back in April, which definitely got an A, but did beat out the Melbourne Mudder back in March, which I rate as a C+
One of the main reasons SC was better than Melbourne, was in Melbourne the obstacles were so badly spread out, that we would run for a few kilometres, then do 3 or 4 obstacles in a row, then run for ages. Sunshine Coast was spread out perfectly, with never more than a kilometre of running before an obstacle.
New Zealand was rated much better than SC because it was just a great atmosphere, and fantastic course. Granted it didn’t have the Legionnaires Loop, or Legionnaire headbands, but aside from that, it was fantastic.
So far this year, the Tough Mudder Tour 2014 have run 3 events, Melbourne, New Zealand and Sunshine Coast. Ranked in order, they are as follows
New Zealand A
Sunshine Coast B
Melbourne C+
Hopefully Perth, Sydney and Adelaide can raise the average score up a few points, but we shall just have to wait and find out. Make sure you subscribe to get these upcoming event reviews in the next few months!
And that’s our review of the Sunshine Coast Tough Mudder event. Did you run it? What did you think? Was it easier than expected, or did it really kick your ass? We would love to hear your story in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.
Perth is just around the corner. Cannot wait!
#TMtour2014
Overall, I give Sunshine Coast Tough Mudder a B rating, a relatively good passing grade. It couldn’t compete with the New Zealand Mudder back in April, which definitely got an A, but did beat out the Melbourne Mudder back in March, which I rate as a C+
One of the main reasons SC was better than Melbourne, was in Melbourne the obstacles were so badly spread out, that we would run for a few kilometres, then do 3 or 4 obstacles in a row, then run for ages. Sunshine Coast was spread out perfectly, with never more than a kilometre of running before an obstacle.
New Zealand was rated much better than SC because it was just a great atmosphere, and fantastic course. Granted it didn’t have the Legionnaires Loop, or Legionnaire headbands, but aside from that, it was fantastic.
So far this year, the Tough Mudder Tour 2014 have run 3 events, Melbourne, New Zealand and Sunshine Coast. Ranked in order, they are as follows
New Zealand A
Sunshine Coast B
Melbourne C+
Hopefully Perth, Sydney and Adelaide can raise the average score up a few points, but we shall just have to wait and find out. Make sure you subscribe to get these upcoming event reviews in the next few months!
And that’s our review of the Sunshine Coast Tough Mudder event. Did you run it? What did you think? Was it easier than expected, or did it really kick your ass? We would love to hear your story in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.
Perth is just around the corner. Cannot wait!
#TMtour2014