Everyone has a favorite memory from World’s Toughest Mudder, whether it’s coming into the finish after having pushed themselves to the limit for 24 hours out on course, or cheering on a loved one in the middle of the night. That said, I think we can all agree that these are the best 10 moments of World’s Toughest Mudder 2017: from a proposal, to a wedding, to a record-breaking 110 miles, these are the events that made WTM 2017 one for the books.
Missed the epic event and feeling a little out of the loop? Don’t worry. We put together a list of the top 10 WTM 2017 moments below. And if you’d rather form your own opinion, good news: you can relive the magic, madness, and mudness from World’s Toughest Mudder 2017 with the World’s Toughest Mudder Special on CBS on December 23rd at 12:00pmEST. It’ll be an epic 1-hour show down that’ll have you asking, are they even human?
And now, back to that list…
1. The Best Start Speech Ever
“Who’s better than your best?” Sean pumped up all 1,665 WTM competitors with the best start speech ever heard before at an obstacle race (let alone the world championships of obstacle racing.) By the time Mudders rose to take their starting positions, everyone knew exactly how to answer. “No one. No one is better than my best.”
2. The Wedding
You know you’re a true Mudder when you run WTM—right after getting married! Samantha and Michael Jogoleff tied the knot in front of hundreds of fellow Mudders at WTM 2017 with Coach officiating. To make it even better, they incorporated a unicorn theme, complete with sparkly, bright hair, a white wedding dress made better with a rainbow, and Coach donning a unicorn hat.
3. Dan Kosick Nabbed 50 Miles
Dan Kosick, also known as “Danimal,” is an amputee who completed an inspiring 50 miles at WTM 2017. After losing his leg to cancer at the age of 15, Dan wanted to become someone who could, rather than couldn’t, do activities. At 18 he became a member of the U.S.A. Disabled Alpine Ski Team; he competed in both the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics. Now, Dan runs Tough Mudders as a way to push his personal limits—seeing him hit 50 miles at this year’s WTM showed us we can push our personal limits farther, too.
4. Matty Gregg and Team Rubicon
Named this year’s recipient of the OCR Humanitarian Award, Matt Gregg ran WTM 2017 with Team Rubicon, a non-profit organization that unites the experience of military veterans with first responders in order to better deploy emergency response teams. Matty and his team helped raise over $40,000.
5. 21 Countries
21–that’s the number of countries represented at WTM 2017. Just take a look at all these flags…
6. Superman
Tyson Perry, better known as Superman, is a 33-year-old paraplegic from Woodland, California, who has racked up more Tough Mudders than most of us. A Legionnaire with 9 Tough Mudders and 1 World’s Toughest Mudder to his name, Superman stunned the crowd with a fantastic descent down the cliff in the wee hours of the morning.
7. Jesi Stracham Earns Holy Grail
Jesi, an adaptive athlete, took on WTM with E-Rock and Kill Cliff Athletes, Sam and Jenn Dancer. Additionally, she earned the Tough Mudder Holy Grail. Talk about inspiration.
8. Top Mileage
Ryan Atkins and Rea Kolbl, who came out on top after 24 hours of crawling, climbing, running, and mudding, also tackled insanely high mileage. Atkins completed a best-ever 110 miles, while Rea conquered 90 miles, a tie for the highest female mileage ever recorded at WTM.
9. Roxie the Dog
Roxie is a special Mudder—not only is she the youngest Mudder to ever complete WTM but she’s also the furriest. That’s because Roxie is a dog, and a dog with a mission at that. Roxie is an Australian Sherperd and a service dog for Mudder-human Desiree Rincon. This year Desiree and Roxie finished 30miles of WTM.
10. The Proposal
There’s nothing better than completing WTM and running into the arms of your loved one—or is there? In our opinion, the photos of these epic WTM 2017 proposal say everything there is to say. Mud love, is the best love. But we’re biased.
