Tough Mudder Dubai Breakdown
The Tough Mudder event in Dubai marked the end of my season for the year. The end of a crazy, 35-event fuelled season, finishing on a total of 55 events and 450 miles ran just in this year alone in Tough Mudder mud/sand.
When I organised my events for this year, I started considering which events I was able to get to and the events that I had the funds for: I had set myself up for a manic, ‘go big or go home’ season and it certainly didn’t disappoint.
Tough Mudder Dubai was always in my sights. An idea stemming from a simple discussion in December 2017. A plan that seemed so far in advance, I didn’t think too much about until the week before the event. I was going to be flying to Dubai. I was going to be in a new country, with laws that go against certain aspects of my lifestyle yet, I was going out to complete a course.
I travelled with my Tough Mudder friend Jack, who I have mostly travelled with this year. As it was also his 30th Birthday, we stayed in a lovely hotel near the Creek, near the airport. Arriving first thing Thursday morning, we acclimatised to the weather and ventured out to a more popular area to explore. As we had arrived on an overnight flight, I hadn’t slept so as soon as we hit a sun-bed, I was zonked out. Later in the day, we went out to an Indian, Vegetarian restaurant and get an early night for the day to come.
The Venue
Tough Mudder Dubai is very difficult to describe. Imagine a desert, the most multi-cultural place in the world, a Tough Mudder environment scaled down, a beaming sun and mash them all together - that’s Tough Mudder Du.
The shop consisted of a tiny merchandise tent with one table and several TM Du branded items. Not in a patronising way whatsoever however it was adorable. It’s like Tough Mudder’s cousin; a much smaller, cuter, more obstacle-based cousin…..across sand.
After mandatory face-marking, we headed into the warm up, operated by the UK’s Bobbie. A very PC warmup, with some pretty awesome tunes, filled with high-fives and energy. Just like in the UK, once Bobbie was finished with us, we were sent out to the infamous MC, Gil. After a high energy performance, some great motivation and the essential information for the course, we headed out straight into the desert.
The Course
Unlike the UK and US, this course was filled with 28 obstacles - pretty impressive for only a 10km course. We first came across the standard obstacles that you’ll see on any course. From Mud Mile (actual mud), to Mudder Wheelbarrow and Bale Bonds, we quickly approached the Hurdles - a very easy obstacle with 3 horizontal scaffolding poles to jump over.
A lot of the obstacles were the same that you would expect regardless of the UK or the US, with the exception of Totally Tyresome and Big Dipper. Totally Tyresome was simply a tire pit to clamber over while Big Dipper was a HUGE sand dune to climb up - you were certainly out of breath by the time you reached the top!
With regards to the sand, I was sort of expecting some sections of harder sand and only a few bits where softer sand would be present - I was certainly very wrong with my judgement. With the exception of the first hundred metres-or-so, the whole course was on very soft sand, making running extremely difficult, if not impossible to someone on a running blade. In the future, i’ll be posting about running on sand with a blade however for now, just accept that it’s extremely difficult as the sand simply absorbs all of the energy.
‘Everest 2.0’ was a bit more like Everest 1.5 however fortunately, there was some hard ground underneath, to allow you to gain some speed. Shortly after helping a lot of individuals, we headed towards the finish line, straight past Electroshock Therapy.
The headbands were pretty awesome - the same as those in the UK however with a ‘Du’ added extra and the T-shirts were much better quality.
Overall, it was a fantastic little event with some great new and returner obstacles. I’d highly recommend anyone to go out to Tough Mudder Dubai if they happen to run the event again.