Born Survivor: Lancashire 2026

What a start to the run! Repeated climbs and descents across a gently sloping field, made considerably harder by six rows of roughly five-foot-high straw bales. Probably tougher because I wasn’t fully warmed up yet…and being a shortie doesn’t exactly help with five-foot bales!

Not particularly taxing. Essentially a walk through a very boggy pool, although the water was up to my chest in places. Wet rather than difficult.

A crawl through heavily tarpaulined trenches in complete darkness. You genuinely couldn’t see where you were putting your hands or knees, so I was rather pleased there weren’t any rocks waiting at the bottom.

One of the less memorable obstacles of the day. From memory, a relatively straightforward series of logs and low obstacles to negotiate. Nothing particularly taxing.

Not attempted. Para Plunge was withdrawn by the organisers before we started because of safety concerns on the course.

A good, high A-frame climb. It would probably have offered a decent view from the top if it hadn’t been surrounded by trees, low cloud and Lancashire rain!

Not to be confused with Tough Mudder’s obstacle of the same name. An approximately eight-foot inverted wall. I managed to complete it by using one of the side braces to get enough footing to work my way over.

I was apprehensive about this one because I still can’t conquer Tough Mudder’s Twinkle Toes. These planks were probably two or three times wider, though, which made the balance much easier despite being considerably higher off the ground. Nicely completed.

Rows of tyres mounted on bars that you crawl underneath. Not particularly difficult, although the tyres give your back a surprisingly effective massage as you go through!

WALLS! I got over them, although some definitely required a bit of work. I initially tried using one of the support struts for footing, but eventually moved more centrally, where one of the boards flexed just enough to help me get over. Another encouraging wall completion.

The weight itself wasn’t particularly difficult, but jerry cans are awkward things to carry up and down a hill. Tough Mudder’s sandbags are considerably easier to get hold of. More uncomfortable than challenging.

A series of walls of different heights. The smaller ones were straightforward enough to hurdle, while the larger walls were closer to Tough Mudder’s Hero Walls. Solid support braces provided useful footing and I managed to get over them all.

A jump over fire followed immediately by a landing in water. Not especially difficult, but good fun, with the rather pleasant smell of the burning wood as you approached.

A quick trip into the river for a dunking. Very straightforward and, for me, one of the less memorable obstacles on the course.

Exactly what the name suggests: a walk through the river. More of a course feature than an obstacle and not particularly challenging.

Two ropes stretched across a water-filled ditch. I used both ropes and found it fairly straightforward. I was considerably more impressed by another runner coming the opposite way who simply traversed using the upper rope!

This felt very similar to Tough Mudder’s Devil’s Beard: stay low, keep moving and work your way underneath. Fairly straightforward and completed without too much trouble.

Probably Born Survivor’s signature obstacle. There’s not really much technique involved here. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

I knew almost immediately that this was going to be difficult. The metal monkey bars were soaking wet from the rain and my hands were slipping slightly with almost every movement.

I made it to roughly the middle before a hand slipped, I lost my rhythm and dropped into the water.

This was the obstacle that ended my Elite classification.

The positive is that it highlighted something very useful for the training programme: grip strength and sustained upper-body endurance still need work.

A large wall that took rather more effort than I would have liked. Eventually one of the boards flexed just enough for the edge of my trainer to find some purchase and I managed to work my way over the top.

As I rolled over, my right calf cramped, the first real issue I’d had with my legs all day. I started running again and fortunately it disappeared fairly quickly.

Not elegant, but completed.

This had a little of the feel of Tough Mudder’s Mud Mile, but on a much smaller scale. Easy enough to work through and, for me, one of the more underwhelming obstacles on the course.

A pair of very tight tubes with a couple of inches of water running along the bottom. The difficulty came from the lack of space, which meant I could do very little with my legs and had to rely largely on pulling myself through with my arms.

A water pool with three bars that had to be ducked underneath. Going under wasn’t particularly difficult. Getting back out of the pool was actually trickier because the bank had become extremely wet, muddy and slippery.

Crawl backwards up a slope with water spraying down towards you. A couple of bars provide something to pull against with the arms before transferring the work to the legs higher up. Straightforward once I worked out the movement.

A steep climb up a muddy bank. Technically not especially difficult, but this came late enough in the run that the appearance of yet another hill wasn’t particularly welcome!

A large A-frame wall with a rope to assist the climb. Grab the rope, lean back and walk your feet up the face. A decent-sized obstacle but relatively straightforward with the rope.

Very similar in concept to Tough Mudder’s Arctic Enema, except with one fairly significant omission: the ice.

After several other water obstacles during the day, this wasn’t particularly intimidating.

Born Survivor’s answer to Tough Mudder’s Everest, although with a rubberised running surface.

I gave it a couple of proper attempts and got reasonably close to the top, but couldn’t make the grab. On one attempt I slid back down and bounced my head off the rubber surface, at which point repeatedly throwing myself at it stopped seeming particularly sensible.

There was an assistance rope at one side, so I eventually used that to get myself over.

Under the Elite rules the rope was not available to male competitors without disqualification. My Elite classification had already ended at Commando Crossing, so I chose the assisted route and completed the obstacle that way.

For Tough Smudge performance tracking, this should count as an unsuccessful unassisted attempt rather than a normal obstacle completion.