Just signed myself up for next years winter toughguy with a few mates with the aim of having a good laugh and doing something a bit different, but also to keep my training over the winter motivated.

Does anyone have any experience/advice that may help me on the day? would mtb gloves be ok or would neoprene be best? I’m guessing base layer combo’s all over would be best for the conditions.

How are the obstacles? Any of them I should be looking out for?

Cheers

Never heard of this so had a search !!! 😕 I would say choice of gloves would be the least of my worries … best of luck with it all the same
your a brave man for giving it a go

You will love it, it’s like a giant kids playground but a lot less fun. Crawling through the tyres was one of the worst bits for me, the electric wire is good for zapping your mates with. I’d go for neoprene gloves and not too many layers as you get really wet and muddy. I hope you enjoy it.

always fancied doing something like this, but I know as soon as I come to the obligitory ‘crawl through a pipe that goes underwater’ I’ll freak out and not do it. Or die.

Not far from me so went along to watch a year or two back.

Very cold when we arrived, snow in the air and the organisers were breaking the ice on the pools you have to make your way through.

The crawl through the mud underneath the barbed wire, was funny watching peoples faces as they approached it. Electric wire was very funny!

Looked pretty grim to me although those taking part all seemed to be enjoying it. Except those keeping the St Johns busy.

Good luck!

My brother did it … he loved it, but he says it broke him at the same time.

I did it in 98, Brilliant fun. There were only 5 broken legs and 70 cases of hypothermia that year. 😀

Thought about it last, but then I saw the price tag – £100 or so!! WTF!
Did Hellrunner instead, A lot more affordable and reasonable £30.
I can see that the TG organisers do a lot of work on the course, but £100 is still just silly money.

Hellrunner was cold, very cold and I expect TG to be the same. Ice on the water for the front runners. My hands completely froze, but I do suffer. Plenty of people without gloves, yet I had gloves and could hardly move them at the end. Water upto neck!
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Bf4TKk0DA[/video]

Try to keep your hands out of the water I would suggest. Make use of the fire to warm them back up on TG!

did it for 5 years but stopped a couple of years ago as the cost was just taking the piss for 2 hours of torture.
Clothing wise, used an old pair of lycra cyling shorts, my oldest crappest running trainers, a longsleeved skin top, cheap aldi running gillet( to cut out wind chill to make it easier to slide on stomach when in the mud) and a old knackered pair of longfingered summer cycling gloves. Buff to keep some heat in the head helps a huge amount to0. It’s impossible to keep hands out of the water!!

Only tip I can give, is run like **** at the start to get to obstacles as quickly as possible.. as you will waste huge amounts of time and body heat waiting to get up them when the other 3000 odd people get there..

hope this helps.

I’ve done it before, its a great laugh and everybody helps each other. MicArms has some good advice, as waiting at the obstacles is a nightmare and its where the cold really kicks in. The worst part for me was dunking under the telegraph poles, it made my head hurt like ****.

Trainers with good grip also made a big difference for me, base layers, but stay away from anything that soaks up water. Remember most stuff will get binned at the end of the event.

Cheers guys some good advice, it’s a weird one I am really looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time, I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a clash of emotions for an event like this before ha.

I’ll post up the GpPro vid when its done and if I survive 🙂