Tough Mudder Wisconsin was held this weekend at Devil’s Head Resort in Merrimac Wisconsin. We understand that there were 11,000 competitors over two days, and thousands of spectators. That’s a whole lotta peeps.
Billed as “the toughest event on the planet,” the 10-12-mile obstacle course was designed by British Special Forces to test “all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie.”
The only obstacle we watched for any length of time was the last one on the course, aptly named “Electroshock Therapy.”
There’s nothing like running through curtains of live wires over uneven ground, mud (and maybe some manure?), and bales of hay. We could literally hear the zapping of the wires on some of the competitors. Owie. Owie zowie.
Note: linking arms while running through live wires is almost always a bad idea. 
There were lots of wipeouts. Like this:
Some people really flew through the air when they hit the wires. I guess that’s what a little jolt of electricity will do to ya. For these athletes, my husband would yell “Ten points for form!”
Oh my goodness, he is a funny man.
These events are always more fun to watch when you know someone who is climbing the walls, swimming through ice water, running through burning bales of hay and getting zapped.
Enter Kurt and his brother Alex.
Kurt is a diehard athlete and outdoorsy guy. Married to my cousin Kirsten, we’ve watched him compete in triathlons and an Ironman.
So when we saw them running the last few yards of the competition towards the last mud pit and the dangling live wires, it was pret-ty darn exciting.
I yelled “ROSS-E-BO!”
And this is what I saw…
They made it through the electric shock obstacle with no problems…
… And came out as happy finishers. (He’s much cleaner at Thanksgiving and Easter.)
It was the perfect people-watching venue.
Actually, these are people watching people.
And these are some of the people they watched.
If you couldn’t tell, Mohawks were the “do” of the day. And — you could get one free if you wanted!
There are always a few surprises at events like this. My surprise, other than actually finding Kurt and Alex in a sea of muddy people, was spotting a family I had just photographed a couple of weeks ago. They wore matching shirts then, too!
