Why we are discontinuing the 5K, 10K & 15K in 2024?
As we at TMHQ have been hard at work, planning the start of our 14th season in 2024, we wanted to provide an update on some of the important, radical changes that we have been working on. Whilst we elaborate on the details below (keep scrolling for our open letter to the community), the short story is that we will be taking Tough Mudder back to its roots next year, in recognition that our events are most meaningful when they are universally tough, rugged, and outside your comfort zones.
Going back to our roots entails a few key changes:
- Dropping our various 5K/10K/15K distance formats, returning to a single, longer event format
- Substantially increasing the difficulty of our obstacles and course designs
- Providing a small set of earned rewards (headbands and coins) that reflect the substantial achievement of completing a Tough Mudder
Tough Mudder in 2024 promises to be our most exciting year yet. Come experience it for yourself, if you’re up for the challenge.
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Mudder Nation,
When Tough Mudder was founded in 2010, we took the world by storm, quickly earning a reputation as the hardest, craziest, and most unforgiving obstacle event on the planet. Tough Mudder was something new – not a race, but a challenge. We introduced terrifying new concepts like electric shocks, ice, and fire – many of which still can’t be found elsewhere today – and packaged them with our signature style of irreverence and teamwork.
Along the way, we didn’t take ourselves too seriously, because we didn’t need to. Reaching the finish line of a Tough Mudder was a universally acknowledged badge of honor. The finisher drink was a necessary salve. The orange headband, aching limbs and array of bruises on Monday morning were your signals to the mundane weekday world that you were capable of something more.
Millions of you have been on this journey with us over the past 13 years, reaping the benefit of true accomplishment, reinforcing that we are all tougher together and forming a community like no other. Still, as we grew quickly and endeavored to share the Tough Mudder experience with a wider audience, we lost sight of our signature toughness – introducing shorter formats and easier obstacles.
An unintended consequence of this expansion – we began to undermine the very things that made Tough Mudder meaningful to begin with: an experience so intimidating, so mentally taxing, so wickedly creative, and so hard that it demanded teamwork to get through. Merely making it to the finish line said something about who you were. The orange headband wasn’t a scrap of cloth; it was a symbol. And it’s high time we reclaim that aspirational infamy.
As we look to the future, our sole focus is on reigniting the muddy, bloody, deeply evocative soul of the Tough Mudder experience.
Here’s what you can expect as we proceed through the 2023 season and plan for 2024 (and beyond):
- Expect our course design across all formats to be noticeably harder. More hills. Longer slogs in the mud. A healthy amount of rounding up the actual distances.
- Existing obstacles will become more challenging, while new obstacle roll-outs will return with increased frequency
- Beginning in 2024, we will retire the 5K, 10K, and 15K formats, returning to a single format that is 10+ miles.
- The Endurance Series – Infinity, Toughest, and World’s Toughest Mudder – will remain in our portfolio as an enduring badge of derangement.
Together, these changes reflect our deeply held belief in the value of teamwork, camaraderie, grit and accomplishment, anchored in a few key beliefs:
- The sense of an achievement reflects the scale of the challenge (both mental and physical).
- We are all capable of more than we believe – especially when we face challenges together.
- It is more important than ever to come together, escape the ordinary, and get outside of our comfort zones.
- Marathons are boring 🙂
For those that have been with us since the beginning: we look forward to bringing back the Tough Mudder experience that first captured your imagination. For those that have joined us along the way: we can’t wait to show you our best face. For those that haven’t been to a Tough Mudder yet: you’d better get those 5k’s and 10k’s under your belt while you can, because 2024 will be here before you know it.
Sincerely,
Giles Chater
CEO, Tough Mudder
