In 2011—the first year Sunday River held its Tough Mountain Challenge race—there were 200 runners.
This year, the race was sold out with the available slots—more than 4,000—filled weeks before the starting gun on July 29.
The event’s popularity reflects a nationwide trend toward obstacle-type races designed to test overall fitness as well as mental toughness. With names like Spartan, Tough Mudder, Rugged Maniac, Sawtooth and the all-female Dirty Girl Mud Run, the races have exploded in popularity over the past decade or so. They range from the extreme (some might say borderline sadistic) to races designed to be as much fun as arduous.
The Tough Mountain lands on the fun side of that wide continuum, although the obstacles are nothing to joke about, at least when you are trying to get over, around or through them. Racers are released in heats of 100 on the 5km course to avoid bottlenecks on the obstacles, which include walls, mud pits, barbed wire and lots of water to plunge, slide and fall into.
Darcy Lambert, the director of communications for Sunday River, said that when the ski resort was looking for an event to host during the summer months, the new type of race seemed like a natural fit. As a ski resort, Sunday River was in the outdoor recreation business and had lots of challenging terrain tailor-made for an obstacle course. Then, of course, there were all those snowmaking machines, which it turns out are also useful when it comes to creating a solid wall of wind and water for racers to run through.
Because the Tough Mountain is pretty much all uphill, it would be challenging as simply a footrace. Add the obstacles and you have a course that nobody is going to breeze through. Still, Tough Mountain is also designed for fun – drinking a beer has been an optional part of one obstacle in years past – and regardless of the time it takes them to finish the course, just about every competitor will leave with photos worthy of posting on social media.
In terms of demographics, most competitors are between 30 and 49 and split roughly 50/50 male and female, with the majority coming from Maine. Often groups of friends or family compete together.
One year, a grandmother who had survived treatment for cancer ran the race as part of her bucket list with her son and daughter.
Lambert, who herself has competed with her brother, said team members help each other over obstacles and strangers help strangers. And if a competitor finds themselves stymied by an obstacle, they can just go around.
The year she was part of the race, Lambert said fellow competitors cheered her on and she found herself cheering on complete strangers.
Showing support for other racers is part of the culture and tradition of the Tough Mountain competition, as is the party the night before the race and the mini-mountain competition for children the day after the race.
If somebody is interested in participating, some degree of training is always a good idea, said Lambert. While they don’t necessarily have to be in the best shape of their lives, they should be able to run four miles. She also suggested that anybody interested in participating sign up as soon as registration opens. Heats are released a few minutes apart, starting in the morning and ending early in the afternoon. Space in the first heats of the morning fill up first because competitors prize slots when the course is still relatively unchurned. As the day goes on, the course gets muddier and more difficult.
For more information on the Tough Mountain, visit toughmountain.com.