Mulligan Drawn to 'Tough Mudder
New England'
Ryan Mulligan is a pretty tough teenager; just ask his Blue Devil football and lacrosse teammates and opponents. But, in 'Tough Mudder New England', the teenager met his match.
What made the Class of 2011 member do it? What made him submit to a competition so grueling it defies the imagination of almost everyone? Mr. Mulligan, who is headed to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, was drawn to the sheer challenge of it all.
"Let me scream, 'I love Tough Mudder,'" Mr. Mulligan said. "It was amazing and one of the most rewarding experiences in my life and that's saying a lot. It was such an accomplishment."
Tough Mudder New England was held at Mount Snow in Vermont, Mr. Mulligan's "home mountain" for snowboarding. He spends almost every weekend there during the season.
The event required participants to go more than 10 miles up, down and around a mountain, with a 13,750 foot elevation change. "Not to mention that 70 percent of it is through ankle deep mud and you are constantly in and out of 38 degree water with 25 military obstacles in your way."
Mr. Mulligan wasn't the only one from the Huntington school community on the mountain that weekend. Trustee Emily Rogan was there, too, completing the course a day earlier with her brother, Josh Pollack (Huntington High School Class of 1979) and two friends Todd and Jo Ann Bellistri.
Mrs. Rogan, like almost everyone else on the course, walked away with the deep bruises that come with trying to surmount the difficult obstacles and scale a mountain. She can testify to the grueling nature of the event, which drew 14,000 participants over a two-day period. "It was one of the most challenging, rewarding and fun things I've ever done, and a little crazy, too," Mrs. Rogan said.
According to the Tough Mudder website, the courses are designed by British Special Forces to test the "all-around strength, stamina, mental grit and camaraderie." Except for an elite group of participants, no one else is timed on the course. "Simply completing a Tough Mudder is a badge of honor," organizers say.
Instantly Sold on Tough Mudder
"Mount Snow an e-mail about it one day with a link to the Tough Mudder website," Mr. Mulligan said. "I watched one video and I was instantly sold. As soon as the video ended, I ran up, got my credit card signed up and created a team."
The Mulligan family has a house in the neighboring town of Stratton, so the teenager know that "getting up and staying there would not be a problem," he said. "I called my mom and tried to explain in words what this was, which is difficult until you see the video."
Five minutes after the promotional video ended, Mr. Mulligan had his friend Mike Milanese from Walt Whitman High School watching the same film and shortly thereafter calling his mother, too. Bill Milanese later joined the team.
"I knew Mike was the only kid crazy enough to do this with me because we were up every morning at 6 a.m. to go boxing for a few hours, attempting to get accustomed to the tough military lifestyle we would see the following year at military schools," Mr. Mulligan said.
Tough Mudder offers participants a physical challenge unlike almost anything else. Already a highly conditioned athlete, Mr. Mulligan knew it was the mental side of equation that would carry the day on the mountain.
"As far as training, that was basically it last summer," said Mr. Mulligan about his conditioning regimen. "I pushed myself farther than I ever knew I could and it wasn't the physical part that gets you through something like this event, it's all mental. That summer I learned 'Mind over matter; if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.'"
Pure Will Power
Although he didn't train specifically for Tough Mudder, Mr. Mulligan knew that the only way he would get through Tough Mudder was "on pure will power," he said. "Mental strength would put that next foot forward. No matter how much it hurt, I was getting up that mountain. If I couldn't get through this event, I knew there would be no way that I would get through the Merchant Marine Academy this summer."
After registering for Tough Mudder, Mr. Mulligan tried recruiting more friends for his team, but he ran into some obstacles. "You have to be 18 to participate," he said. "Because of insurance, they make you sign a 'death waiver,' so that weeded out one or two potential candidates, but for the most part they thought I was insane. Afterwards I considered switching my group of friends because it's events like this that I live for."
Tough Mudder has been called the world's most difficult obstacle course and that suited Mr. Mulligan just fine. "I dream of participating in the Baja 1000 or the Dakar rally when I'm older and this [Tough Mudder] is that for runners, I suppose," he said.
Determined to Make a Statement
Mr. Mulligan's team was determined to make a statement at Tough Mudder New England, "so we went to the Salvation Army the day before and got some of the craziest outfits we could find," he said. "All morning long we had people coming up taking pictures of us before the race. We were actually nominated to perform in the costume contest where they called us up on stage and we danced and cheered in front of hundreds, with other teams that were also dressed up. The idea is that someone is going to be on their last straw covered in mud thinking 'wow, why did I get dragged into this.' They will look up and see me screaming in a crazy costume and they will smile, cheer back and keep on trekking."
The promotional videos play up the aspects of camaraderie and team work. "Wow, were they right," Mr. Mulligan said. "Everyone was like my best friend because we all had that certain distinctive character trait in us that we actually like and are willing to pay for this. As soon as you would scream or chant, right away literally hundreds would reply chanting back, it was amazing. There was a lot of falling down but also a lot of close calls as soon as you thought you were going down, a Tough Mudder on hand would come out of nowhere and grab you, keep you up and keep you going."
Cheering and Chanting
Folks were waiting near the top of Mount Snow, "just chanting, cheering and hi -fiving people up the hill," Mr. Mulligan said. "You felt like you were part of something bigger than yourself. You have to help each other to get over and through these obstacles."
Mr. Mulligan found the Berlin Walls the most difficult obstacles. "Around mile eight you have five 12 foot high vertical walls that you need to get over," he said. "So you help, like four people over, and then they lift you up; drop down the other side and fall into the mud. I got over the first wall, dropped down, my legs buckled and I looked up and said, 'Oh my God, I did it. I got over the wall. Wow! I did it.' I then turned around and saw four more walls."
At that point, Mr. Mulligan said his legs "were so tired. I had a 300 plus pounds guy fall on me twice and the crazy thing was, the second time I did it on purpose. I got underneath him when I saw him coming down because I thought I should break his fall so that he didn't come straight down on his back. That's how much you care. Guys, before they drop down, they hold on just a little longer with all their might just to say thank you. Then they put their weight on the other side, just to make sure the random guy that helped them over got over also."
Loved Water Obstacle
Mr. Mulligan's team loved the whole thing so much they went over a water obstacle a second time after everyone had finished. The obstacle, called the 'boa constrictor,' fascinated the Mulligan group. "We wanted to race to see who was faster worming their way through the sewage pipes into the water," he said.
Halfway through Tough Mudder, "you are a little delirious," Mr. Mulligan said. "You begin to do things that are extremely stupid on second thought. That caused me a lot of extra pain but hey, I liked it and I was trying to have as much fun as possible. We didn't sprint the whole thing, we walked some, but we had awesome fun rolling around in the mud for five hours."
Most of the Tough Mudder participants are not in competition with each other. It's a personal challenge. "It's not timed," Mr. Mulligan said. "If you finish, no matter the time, you did it. That's all that matters. I got my orange headband."
Several aspects of Tough Mudder stand out in Mr. Mulligan's mind. "They pour kerosene on straw to make the four foot flames we run though, which I smelled like for three days," he said. "And by the way, it's not just crazy testosterone filled guys in there 20s doing it. Moms, old ladies, fat guys and a lot of really beautiful women do the whole thing. We tried to keep up with one group of ladies but they burned us and we couldn't keep up - props to them."
Closer to Primal Instinct
The Huntington teenager's funniest moment came at the Evil Knievel obstacle, a 15 foot quarter pipe that Mr. Mulligan believed he could complete without too much trouble. "I sprinted full speed, took two steps on the ramp and slammed full speed into the vertical part," he said. "I didn't have it, so everyone laughed and I did it again where I overshot the top of it and almost fell 15 feet down the other side, but thank god there were people there to catch my tumbling body at the top."
Mr. Mulligan said "14,000 other people" would provide similar testimony about the event. "It's the best feel good event," he said. "Everyone is a winner. The Tough Mudder workers loved it and the mountain people loved it. Everyone was so happy. Even those with broken bones and hypothermia were still screaming 'Go Tough Mudder!'"
The teenager said he hopes his tale "inspires many more to go out and get muddy. You become closer with your primal native instinct."