Tough Mudder Photos: Pennsylvania 2011

I had the privilege this weekend to be hired by Tough Mudder to shoot another one of their extremely trying endurance/obstacle events. I last photographed the Tough Mudder Tri-State last November at Raceway Park in NJ (see photos). This time around the event was held at Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Macungie, PA and I have to say, it was even tougher than the New Jersey one. Running 11 miles is hard enough; try doing it up and down several ski slopes while overcoming over a dozen diabolical obstacles.

There were the usual walls, barbed wire and flames. The 10,000 volt electric wires were back again, as well as a couple of new mystery obstacles. My favorite was one where you had to eat a habanero pepper and then jump into a dumpster full of ice water and red dye. The combination of extreme physical exertion, thirst, and (in some cases) beer consumption with extremely hot pepper… let’s just say it didn’t agree with everyone. Oh, and the good people at Bear Creek Mountain Resort were kind enough to manufacture lots of snow for certain sections of the course. It was everything a Tough Mudder should be, with all the pain, costumes, camaraderie, teamwork, and of course, lots of mud.

Tough Mudder raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Wounded Warrior Project, and there are always quite a few veterans out on the course. Two of the participants running on Saturday had lost limbs Afghanistan and Iraq. Those were some Tough Mudders.

Hope you enjoy viewing these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.