Cape Town - The normally quiet grounds of Houwteq campus in Elgin were on Saturday transformed into a muddy arena where gladiators and mere mortals alike challenged themselves into doing something new, taking part in the first ever Discovery Tough Mudder event on African shores.
More than 2 700 people, mostly Capetonian Tough Mudders, took on the 8km and 16km courses and 21 gargantuan obstacles with the world's best back-up: each other.
It took months of planning and weeks to build, but the course was a perfect replica of the stuff that makes Tough Mudder an international sensation - with a few proudly South African touches.
"I couldn’t be more thrilled with today’s event and growing Mudder Nation here in Africa. I’ve seen countless venues around the globe and this place is remarkably stunning! I can’t wait to see what Invictus Events has in store for the next Tough Mudder,” stated TMHQs Global Licensing Director, Johnny Little.
“Seeing teams working together to achieve the same goal and feeding off each other’s strengths was a great sight. By testing both teamwork and fitness, the course turned into a fitness playground pretty quickly, and before they knew it, the Tough Mudders had worked all their muscles and got their heart rates to healthy levels. They all took their fitness and endurance levels,” said Iona Maclean, Head of Experiential Marketing at Discovery.
There certainly were some Herculean efforts on the course: in the single timed wave of elite Mudders in which over 50 people competed for a total prize purse of R70k, the winning results were as follows:
- Louis Smit
- Claude Eksteen
- Chad Gordon
- Carla van Huyssteen
- Nedene Cahill
- Lisha Sookan
The beauty of this event is, while only six Mudders "won a prize" every single person who completed the course felt like a hero.
IOL Editor Riana Howa, who was part of a team of IOL staff members and friends, said: "I still can't believe we finished the course! It was tough but also loads of fun. I couldn't have done this without the muscle and spirit of my teammates, and the complete strangers who helped us along the way."
The man behind the South African operation, Andrew Douglas of Invictus Events, was blown away by the Mudders' efforts: “The event exceeded all my expectations and then some! It was amazing to see so many Capetonians come out today to challenge themselves on this tough course.
"Tough Mudders not only challenged themselves to do something new for the first time but worked together and helped each other along the route, even those who weren’t their teammates. Great sportsmanship overall."