On this episode, news of Amelia Boone’s return to racing (Don’t call it a comeback) along with her rare beef jerky audio, and three different interviews.
First, Sandy Rhee, of the NE Spahtens Podcast joins us to talk Toughest Mudder Philly and give her take on the race from the “non-elite” side of things. Then we get a view of the race from the top of the podium as we talk to Trevor Cichosz. Trevor won Toughest Philly, as well as World’s Toughest Mudder 2016. We talk to him about both races.
Finally we check in with Nolan Kombol and Eli Hutchison of TMHQ. Nolan and Eli are the brains behind Toughest Mudder. They’re the ones to thank for that Mud Mile in Atlanta. We talk about that obstacle specifically. We also talk about Stage 5 Clinger in Philly, as well as lots of other Toughest and World’s Toughest information.
If you'd like to join the World's Toughest Podcast Winner's List and enter the contest for a free pair of Merrell Agility Peak Flex shoes email WorldsToughestPodcast@gmail.com with Merrell in the subject line and the following in the body: 1) Your Name 2) Your email address 3) Your cell phone number
The Mud Movement YouTube Channel
Amelia Boone for Oberto Beef Jerky
Who would you like to hear on the podcast? Let us know in a comment on the World’s Toughest Podcast Facebook page, or leave us a review on iTunes. Don't forget to subscribe and listen for new episodes every week.
Toughest Mudder Philly Recap!
Toughest Mudder Philly was this past weekend. Trevor Cichosz and Allison Tai came away with the first place wins and 208 runners out of 717 (29%) qualified as contenders.
Before we get into the Toughest Philly recap information Will talks about Ian Panter and the car accident he was in as he was leaving the Saturday morning Tough Mudder course. The local news station where Ian lives did a story on the accident and we listen to a clip from it. If you’d like to help Ian and his family with their medical expenses, a GoFundMe page has been set up. You can find a link to it at facebook.com/worldstoughestpod
Kris Mendoza borrowed the World’s Toughest Microphone and talked to several people in Philly, pre-race. He spends some time talking with Trevor Cichosz, Lou Fisher, Stefanie Bishop, John Fagan, Jim “Da Goat” Campbell, Keith Allen, Joel Forsyth, and Melissa “Sharkbait” Dugan. Da Goat and Sharkbait are on this podcast as often as Will Hicks lately.
As we start talking about Philly, we talk about the Philly results and stats, as well as discussing the Toughest Mudder series as a whole. Philly had 29% of the field qualify as contenders, Europe had 33%, Atlanta had 61%, and LA had 46%. Total contender numbers so far: 2,272 people have run Toughest Mudder. 885 have completed 25 miles. 39% have become contenders.
Will then reads a few iTunes reviews (Have you left your review yet?) and reminds everyone how to enter to win a free pair of Merrell Agility Peak Flex trail running shoes from the World’s Toughest Podcast. If you want better odds, you can also win of a pair of the shoes from Amazon, but the entry fee is about $130.
Once we go to the phones, we don’t come back. We have a conversation with Allison Tai, Kevin Given, Alex “Chikorita” Roudayna, Kevin “Bubbles” Gregory, Sara Knight, Jordan McDougal, and Stefanie Bishop.
Allison Tai won first place at Toughest Philly. If you’d like to hear more from Allison, check out episode 17 of the World’s Toughest Podcast.
Kevin Given ran Toughest Philly this weekend. You’ll recognize him on course in his straw cowboy hat.
Chikorita won third place at Toughest Philly and has qualified as an Elite Contender three times. She will make some noise this year at World’s Toughest Mudder.
Kevin Gregory has the nickname “Bubbles”. If you listen to his whole call with Will you’ll find out why.
Sara Knight is one of two women (with Sharkbait) who have run every Toughest Mudder so far. She and Chad Trammell are the only two people to qualify as an Elite Contender in more than one country.
Jordan McDougal won second place at Toughest Mudder Philly. He has a background in ultra-running. This is his first Toughest Mudder event.
Stefanie Bishop is the reigning World’s Toughest Mudder. She needs no introduction. You introduce yourself to her. That’s not her job.
This episode is almost two hours long. What do you think about that? Next time should we split it into two or three different episodes and put out a shorter episode each week? Or would you prefer to get as much information as you can, as soon as you can? Let us know in a review on iTunes. We would sincerely appreciate it.
If you'd like to join the World's Toughest Podcast Winner's List and enter the contest for a free pair of Merrell Agility Peak Flex shoes email WorldsToughestPodcast@gmail.com with Merrell in the subject line and the following in the body: 1) Your Name 2) Your email address 3) Your cell phone number
Who would you like to hear on the podcast? Let us know in a comment on the World’s Toughest Podcast Facebook page, or leave us a review on iTunes. Don't forget to subscribe and listen for new episodes every week.
Toughest Mudder Philly Preview!
Philadelphia is the site of the fourth of six Toughest Mudder races. Races in Whistler and Chicago will take place later this year.
After a bit of Tough Mudder news and a plug for friends-of-the-show Pis n' Cox, we talk to Kris Mendoza.
Kris competed in Toughest L.A. and missed qualifying as an Elite Contender by less than two minutes. He talks about the disappointment he felt in L.A. and his plans for Toughest Mudder Philly.
We also talk about his performance at World's Toughest Mudder. His first year was 2014 where he completed 50 miles. In 2015 he completed 80 miles, and in 2016 he became one of only six people to complete 100 miles at World's Toughest Mudder.
Kris talks about how he went from zero running background to 50 miles, to 75+, all the way up to 100 miles. If you hit 50 miles at WTM last year and are chasing 75 this year you'll want to hear his advice.
If you'd like to join the World's Toughest Podcast Winner's List and enter the contest for a free pair of Merrell Agility Peak Flex shoes email WorldsToughestPodcast@gmail.com with Merrell in the subject line and the following in the body: 1) Your Name 2) Your email address 3) Your cell phone number
Who would you like to hear on the podcast? Let us know in a comment on the World’s Toughest Podcast Facebook page, or leave us a review on iTunes. Don't forget to subscribe and listen for new episodes every week.
Toughest Mudder Europe Recap!
On this episode we talk results, statistics, and interviews from Toughest Mudder Europe. We’ve got audio from the podium and you get a taste of Tough Mudder UK’s start line man, Gil Kolirin.
We talk about the list of all the 13 different men and 11 different women who have qualified as Elite Contenders for World’s Toughest Mudder 2017, as well as how many people have run each of the three Toughest Mudder and how many people completed 25 miles to qualify as a Contender at each location. If you don’t have time to listen right now, you can find this information on the World’s Toughest Podcast Facebook page, facebook.com/worldstoughestpod
Will talks to four different people who ran Toughest Mudder Europe for a few minutes each. Phil Renton, Emma Ray, Robbie Brown, and Nye Davies all had totally different, yet similar experiences at the race this weekend.
The episode wraps up with a talk with the men’s winner of Toughest Mudder Europe, Jon Albon. Jon talks about how the race went for him and gets into the mental side of long endurance racing.
If you'd like to join the World’s Toughest Podcast Winner’s List and enter the contest for a free pair of Merrell Agility Peak Flex shoes email WorldsToughestPodcast@gmail.com with Merrell in the subject line and the following in the body: 1) Your Name 2) Your email address 3) Your cell phone number
Who would you like to hear on the podcast? Let us know on the World’s Toughest Podcast Facebook page, or leave us a review on iTunes. Don't forget to subscribe and listen for new episodes every week.
LAST MINUTE NEWS: After the audio was locked for this episode we saw a video on MudRunGuide.com with Tough Mudder CEO Will Dean talking about the plans for Toughest Europe next year. Current plans are to hold a Toughest Mudder in both the UK and Germany in 2018.
Toughest Mudder Europe Preview episode!
If you can’t listen right now, download for later and read this now:
The elevation at Toughest Mudder Europe will be similar to Toughest Mudder Atlanta. Expect hills, but not “Toughest L.A. Hills”. Weather is expected to be cold; 40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 10 degrees Celsius) and a 50% chance of rain. 10 to 15 mph winds for most of the night. Wear your wetsuit and windbreaker.
Congratulations to our three winners of the Merrell Agility Peak Flex trail running shoes! If you’d like to join the Winner’s List for a chance to win a pair for yourself email WorldsToughestPodcast@gmail.com with Subscribe in the subject line and three things in the email body: 1) Your name 2) Your email address and 3) Your phone number. If you’re already on the list you’re automatically entered to win next month. No need to rejoin.
In this episode we talk about the elites that we know will and will not be at Toughest Mudder Europe and give you some athletes to watch this weekend. We also talk with Will Chung and Daniel Stephens. Wil and Daniel are both from England and have both run regular Tough Mudders at Grantham, site of Toughest Mudder Europe.
Wil Chung ran in the first ever international edition of Tougher Mudder last weekend at Midlands UK and he walks us through how it went. Wil will be running Toughest Mudder this weekend and we talk about what he expects from the event.
Daniel Stephens ran the first Tough Mudder of the UK season last Saturday morning. Then he got on a plane and flew to America where he ran Toughest Mudder Atlanta that night and put up 25 miles. Daniel tells us about that whole experience and how it went for him. We also talk about his experience at World’s Toughest Mudder. Daniel was not happy with his performance at his first WTM in 2015. He talks about how he dealt with that and came back stronger in 2016 to finish 50 miles.
Who would you like to hear on the podcast? Let us know on the WTM Community page, the World’s Toughest Podcast Facebook page, or leave us a review on iTunes. Don't forget to subscribe and listen for new episodes every Tuesday.
Allison Tai joins us to talk about Toughest Mudder Atlanta and her second place finish among the women and 7th place overall. You can find out more about her new gym opening June 1 at vancityocr.com.
Before we talk to Allison, Will talks about Toughest Atlanta and shares a few stories about the course. He loved it.
We also try out something new, with some short quick phone calls to members of the community that ran Toughest Atlanta. It's interesting to get a quick insight into what others thought about the event.
Will announced in this episode that he's giving away his personal tickets to Toughest Europe and Toughest Philly. He says if you want his ticket though, you're going to have to work for it while you're at the event. Will is looking for audio content for the podcast in exchange for his ticket. If you're interested, email WorldsToughestPodcast@gmail.com with Toughest Europe or Toughest Philly in the subject line and in the body of the email, your name, email address, and cell number, along with what type of audio content you feel you'll be able to provide the podcast from the event. This is not a contest. Will is selecting who he's giving his tickets to. The whole audience is counting on you!
Also, Merrell and World's Toughest Podcast are giving away three pair of Merrell Agility Peak Flex shoes on next weeks episode! If you'd like a chance to win a pair, email WorldsToughestPodcast@gmail.com with Merrell in the subject line and your name, email address, and cell phone number in the body. That will subscribe you to our Winners List to hear about World's Toughest Podcast news and events, as well as contests like this.
Who would you like to hear on the podcast? Let us know on the WTM Community page, the World’s Toughest Podcast Facebook page, or leave us a review on iTunes. Don't forget to subscribe and listen for new episodes every Tuesday.