Twice Through the Mud: Tough Mudder South West

Event Blog

August 19, 2026

THE RESULT

TOUGH MUDDER SOUTH WEST

Badminton Estate, Badminton, Gloucestershire

DISTANCE

15K + 5K

STATUS

COMPLETED

RESULT

DOUBLE-HEADER FINISHER

THE DOUBLE HEADER

A Tough Mudder weekend becomes a slightly different beast when the first obstacle is getting yourself halfway across the country before you have even reached the start line.

This time it was Tough Mudder South West at Badminton Estate, and my first proper double header: a 15K followed by a 5K on the same day.

Yorkshire had answered the first big question. Yes, I could complete a Tough Mudder 15K. Badminton was about asking a different one: could I finish the longer course, recover enough to go back to the start, and do it all again?

That made this weekend as much a training exercise as an event. I wanted to learn more about preparation, pacing, recovery and what happens to the body when the finish line is not actually the end of the day.

First challenge?

Getting there.

The drive from Yorkshire down to Gloucestershire took a little under four hours. What a nightmare.

I’m sure that when I used to make this journey regularly to visit a friend it didn’t take quite that long. Perhaps it did and I have simply erased that particular trauma from my memory.

Then there was the heat. The thermometer in the car stubbornly refused to drop below 30°C for pretty much the entire journey.

Not exactly ideal preparation for spending the following day running around a country estate, climbing over things and voluntarily throwing myself into mud.

But that was tomorrow’s problem.

FRIDAY: TRAVEL, FUEL AND STRETCHING

After arriving in Gloucestershire, the first stop was Sainsbury’s to stock up on some protein and, equally importantly, a few treats for after the event.

You’ve got to treat yourself, haven’t you? Particularly after spending a day crawling through mud.

Then it was on to the Travelodge, get checked in, unpack everything and try not to spend the evening wondering what I had forgotten.

Once I was settled in the room, there was still some work to do. I opened the Peloton app and completed 50 minutes of stretching:

20 minutes full body
30 minutes lower body

Nothing heroic and definitely no last-minute workout. The point was simply to loosen everything up after nearly four hours sitting in the car and give the legs the best chance possible the following morning.

The plan was to get to Badminton early and repeat the same four stretching classes before the start. One of the aims of this weekend was to recover better than I had after Yorkshire and start learning what works for me before, during and after an event.

Then it would be time to find out how the body handled the first real double-header test.

Tough Mudder South West.

15K. 5K. One day.

SATURDAY: HEAT, OBSTACLES AND AN EARLY WARNING

Up at 4.00am. Showered, dressed and out of the Travelodge by 4.30am.

And even at that time in the morning, I could already feel the heat.

It was around a 30-minute drive to Badminton, nice and quiet with hardly any traffic, exactly how I like it.

I arrived very early and promptly took the wrong road into the event. For a brief moment I looked less like a competitor and more like either a delivery driver or an accidental member of the organising team.

Badminton Estate, Tough Mudder South West

As with most things Tough Mudder so far, there was no real drama. Someone pointed me towards the correct parking area and explained that I would have to wait until a few more people arrived.

Rather than waste the time doom-scrolling in the car, I got out and started stretching. Yes, it was still a long time until I would actually be running, but stretching is rarely wasted, and this weekend was partly about learning a better routine for preparation and recovery.

At 7.00am the tent doors opened and the wristband collection started. There seemed to be one for everything:

Orange: 15K start
Green: 5K start
Pink: bag drop
Yellow: photo authorisation
Black: confirmation that I was of legal age for the post-race cocktail

RUN ONE: THE 15K

I had not paid for a First Mud start, although given the conditions there was not much mud around at that point anyway, so I was originally in the first standard wave at 8.00am.

In my head, that was probably no bad thing. Being near the front of the day’s runners should mean more people around when I reached the early obstacles that needed teamwork.

Then, while we were waiting, the First Mud start was delayed. Two Mudders in that wave said they were waiting for friends and were happy to give up their places. A guy called Ben was standing next to me, also running solo. He took one place.

I did not need asking twice.

Suddenly I was in First Mud.

At around 8.15am, rather than the planned 7.45am, we were finally off.

I had only realised on the Thursday that Badminton Estate was used for The Gentlemen, so running across the front of the house right at the start gave my brain plenty to work with. Instead of concentrating purely on the course, I was already imagining my own increasingly ridiculous version of the television series playing out around me.

Unfortunately, obstacle number two brought me back to reality rather quickly.

HERO WALLS: DON’T TRY TO BE CLEVER

At Yorkshire I had been given a leg-up over Hero Walls. This time I was fresher, everyone in front of me seemed to be planting a foot halfway up the wall and hurdling themselves over, and I decided I would do the same.

Nope.

Not happening.

I got my hands over the top, so the basic theory was sound, but I did not have the pulling strength to finish the movement. At the same time something in the right glute and upper-thigh area decided it had been feeling neglected and announced itself very loudly indeed.

I still do not know exactly what I did, but from that point onward it hurt.

There were still 19 obstacles left on the 15K, followed by another 12 on the 5K.

So the internal conversation was fairly simple: suck it up, lad. This is Tough Smudge doing Tough Mudder.

And, as I had shouted during the Tough Mudder pledge only minutes earlier: “I do not whine. Only kids whine.”

The full run data and obstacle-by-obstacle breakdown are further down the page, so I will not repeat all of that here. But the 15K gave me several useful takeaways.

Trail running can actually be enjoyable. Running along woodland paths on a country estate on a fine August morning is surprisingly relaxing. My internal monologue was still saying things like “you idiot, you hate running”, “avoid that stone” and “why are you doing this?”, but there were moments when I could simply settle into the route and keep moving.
My upper-body weakness is becoming more specific. Just the Tips, Hang Tough, Funky Monkey and Human Gecko all showed that I can support and hang from my own body weight. The missing piece is pulling strength. I need to get better at moving that body weight upwards rather than simply holding it.
Funky Monkey and The Block Ness Monster are rapidly becoming favourites. They are challenging, but they are also the obstacles I genuinely look forward to seeing.
My running pace feels consistent. I am not trying to race these events, but being able to settle into a sustainable rhythm matters more and more as the target distances increase.

By the closing stages, the heat was building and the leg was increasingly uncomfortable. I was very glad to see the finish line, collect the medal and finally stop moving forwards for a few minutes.

Normally that would be the point where the event was over.

Not today.

RUN TWO: BACK OUT FOR THE 5K

The second run had a completely different feel.

This was the first time I had been in a wave containing both 15K and 5K runners, and there were a lot of people. In my view, that changed the Tough Mudder experience quite noticeably.

The first obstacle was simply too crowded. The teamwork and shared challenge are a huge part of Tough Mudder, but there is a point where a busy obstacle stops feeling communal and starts feeling like a queue.

I do wonder whether some events have enough space to separate the 15K and 5K runners before the first shared obstacle. It would probably help, although I can also understand the practical problem: every 5K obstacle is also part of the 15K course.

As the run went on, I skipped several obstacles. Sometimes the sore leg influenced the decision, but often it was simply the length of the queue and the sheer number of people waiting.

That gives me something useful to work on for the next double header. Completing two events in a day is not only about having enough energy to cover the distance. It is also about staying mentally engaged when the second lap feels busier, slower and less tidy than the first.

It will also be interesting to compare this with Infinity, where the event instructions tell other competitors to give way to Infinity runners. Repeated laps are going to create a very different set of problems from simply completing one course.

The 5K also felt long.

My GPS agreed. What was labelled as a 5K came out at roughly 6K on my tracking.

By the end of it, though, the important thing was simple: I had gone back out and finished the second run.

15K completed. 5K completed. First Tough Mudder double header completed.

It was not a perfect day. I had hurt the leg early, the heat made everything harder, and the second run exposed some frustrations that I had not encountered at Yorkshire.

But that is exactly why the day was useful.

The bigger targets are not going to be perfect either.

OBSTACLES

There were five new obstacles for me at South West. The carousel below gives a quick look at them, with the full event obstacle report further down the page.

Tough Mudder

Funky Monkey

5.0 / 5

1 encounters1 runs1 events

First: Tough Mudder: South West 2026 · 15K

Latest: Tough Mudder: South West 2026 · 15K

Love this. Had massive doubts about it, but took it slowly and conquered.

1 / 3

WHAT COMES NEXT

South West moved the challenge forward in an important way. Yorkshire proved that I could complete a Tough Mudder. Badminton proved that, even with an early problem, I could finish the 15K and then make myself go back out for another run.

That is now the direction of travel.

The next stage is about increasing total distance, improving nutrition before and during events, recovering more effectively between runs, and gradually building the endurance needed for Infinity and ultimately World’s Toughest Mudder.

Badminton became Tough Mudder runs number two and number three.

At London South in September I am back to a single 15K, which will give me a useful opportunity to focus on the course rather than the logistics of going around again.

Manchester, however, has already become a bigger test. I have upgraded it to double headers on both Saturday and Sunday.

South West showed me that I can do a double header.

Manchester will start asking whether I can repeat one.

View All Results

THE NUMBERS

Event: Tough Mudder South West 2026

Venue: Badminton Estate, Badminton, Gloucestershire

Distance: 15K + 5K

Format: Tough Mudder 15K + Tough Mudder 5K

Status: Completed

Result: Double-header finisher

Tough Mudder runs completed: 3

Nominal Tough Mudder distance completed to date: 35K

THE RESULT

The most important statistic from South West is a simple one:

15K COMPLETED

5K COMPLETED

I arrived at Badminton having completed one Tough Mudder. I left having completed three.

There was still no target time and no attempt to race the clock. The objective was to finish the 15K, reset, go back to the start and find out what happened when I asked the body for another run.

The answer was not that it was easy.

The answer was that I could do it.

WHAT THIS RESULT MEANT

South West was more significant than simply adding another 15K and 5K to the total.

It was the first time the Tough Smudge challenge moved from finishing an event to managing repeated effort.

That distinction matters.

World’s Toughest Mudder is not one clean run from start to finish. Infinity is not one clean run from start to finish. The longer challenges are built around going out again when the body is tired, when something hurts, when conditions have changed and when mentally it would be far easier to decide that enough is enough.

Badminton gave me the first small taste of that.

The day also exposed clear weaknesses: pulling strength, obstacle decision-making when the course is busy, managing discomfort, and understanding what I need between runs.

That makes the result useful.

Yorkshire proved I wanted to keep doing this. South West started teaching me how much more there is to learn.

TOUGH SMUDGE EVENT COSTS

Item	Description	£
Hotel Room	Travelodge, Stonehouse	79.99
Travel Costs	Round trip, 368 miles (Badminton and back)	62.48
Event Tickets	15K Run	103.84
	5K Run	81.23
Event Extras	Event T-shirt	20.00
	Mudder Tab	15.00
On the Day Merch	Patches x2, keyring, hex, wristbands x2	35.00
Fancy Coffee & Snacks	Didn’t bother, queues	n/a
	TOTAL	397.54

For the full GPS data, split times, elevation and heart-rate tracking from both runs:

Run 1 – 15K Results

Run 2 – 5K Results

OBSTACLES

The full South West obstacle report is below, including which obstacles I attempted, completed, skipped or encountered for the first time.

Runs2

Obstacle encounters33

Unique obstacles21

Hanging / grip

15K5K

1.5 / 52 runs2 encounters

Tough Mudder

Electroshock Therapy

Electrical

15K5K

2.3 / 52 runs2 encounters