Tough Mudder stops at Gopher Dunes

Toronto’s 2023 Tough Mudder took a turn south to Courtland in Norfolk County for its two-day obstacle and endurance event on Sept. 16-17.

About 175 km to be exact.

“It was so close being at Gopher Dunes this year,” said Marleen Van De Wiele, who participated Sunday on the ‘Langton Mudders’ team.

“How could we pass it up? Now we’ve got 35 people going to a barbecue at our place after, so that’s so cool.”

Last year she completed a Tough Mudder at Christie Lake Conservation Area, near Dundas, with a team of Simcoe Composite School staff and family members. SCS entered Saturday’s Tough Mudder courses at Gopher Dunes, running the 5-km and 15-km, but Marleen, a teacher at SCS, and her husband Rick, a teacher at Holy Trinity, formed their own family team this year which entered Sunday’s 5 -km and 10-km.

“This time we asked both sides of the family, then other people joined in, and the team just got bigger and bigger – there’s about 30 of us,” said Marleen, who did the 5km. “We’ll probably do it again next year, too.”

“Our family loves doing stuff like this,” said Rick, who completed the 10-km. “Everyone runs in groups of 3-5, everyone helps each other through the events, everyone cheers each other on. Everyone goes with a group of the same ability and it’s a very good event.”

After three years of hosting the 5-km Mud Girl, and more than 30 years of mud-making experience, this year Gopher Dunes wanted to try something bigger. Up to 10,000 people were expected for Tough Mudder on the weekend.

“It really is quite an event,” said Frank Schuster, co-host. “We wanted to get one under our belt because we had no idea what to expect. These guys are good to work with and I think you’re going to see it back here again.”

“This was a good location for it,” agreed Rick Van De Wiele. “Last year, they were digging up a conservation area… this year, here, it was ‘go to town, dig as much as you want, make as much mud as you want,’ and everyone loves it.”

Marleen said she loved the personal challenge of the event, and the team effort and camaraderie – even with people who weren’t on her team.

“You have to have help to do some of the obstacles.”

Climbing a vertical wall was one of the toughest challenges, she said, as well as the ice bath frequently replenished with bags of ice.

“I wasn’t going to do the wall, but a guy from another team said ‘step on my hand…’ and another said ‘step on my shoulder…’ and they got me over it. So that was awesome. I had skipped that one last year, but did it this year.”

Rick, a cross-country runner and coach, compared the sport to Tough Mudder.

“Tough Mudder’s a lot more fun,” he laughed. “You get little breaks here and there, and then we get to do things like get shocked at the end. In all honesty, the water challenges are the best because you can cool down after running hard.”

The rotating squares in a pool of water, known as the Loch Ness Monster challenge, was one of his favorites.

“You can’t do it by yourself. You have to push people over, and people have to pull you up and over. You simply cannot do it without a team.”

[email protected]