Sam and Jenn Dancer, Stacie Tovar, Margaux Alvarez and the three Panchik brothers will head to Minnesota this week to compete in the Tough Mudder X competition this Friday, July 14. The CrossFit athletes will be two of 200 athletes competing for the $25,000 first place prizes against the best OCR (Obstacle Course Racers), an American Ninja Warrior contestant, an Olympian and others who have been selected by Tough Mudder.
Tough Mudder X is a new competition that combines obstacle course racing with functional fitness in a one-mile course featuring 10 obstacles and 10 workout zones. Based on comments from the creators of Tough Mudder X, it sounds like the course will take around 10-15 minutes to complete.
The competition is this Friday, but it will be televised on CBS on August 27 and September 3.
Sam Dancer told WGEM in an interview, “We’ve never done obstacle course racing, but with the functional fitness aspect added into it, it makes it a little bit more attractive to us.”
Sam’s wife, Jenn added, “I think the dynamic is going to maybe play towards me and Sam’s strengths because we’re having to do a lot of running. Because there’s so many obstacles, and so many fitness stations, I feel like that’s going to be more of a CrossFit type movement. I’m excited for that.”
The competition will start with 200 athletes competing in qualifying heats of 12 athletes in each heat. The winner of each heat will advance to the Finals. In addition, there will be a last chance heat to allow the top 12 non-winners another chance to qualify for the Finals as well.
The top 3 men and top 3 women will receive cash prizes while 4th and 5th will receive a free entry into the 2017 World’s Toughest Mudder competition in December. First place will receive a $25,000 cash prize. Second and third will receive $2,500 and $1,000, respectively.
The athletes will face 10 obstacles including some of the most famous Tough Mudder elements including Everest 2.0, Kong and Funky Monkey. But in a deviation from most Obstacle Course Races, athletes will also have to do 10 functional fitness-based elements as well. The images below outline what the athletes will be facing.
Tovar, Alvarez and Scott Panchik are also preparing for the 2017 CrossFit Games just three weeks later. It will be interesting to see if this obstacle course test will pay off when they are in Madison facing unknown events at the Games.
Check out this interview on Mud Run Guide where they talk about the various athletes who will be competing at Tough Mudder X. The first seven minutes is all devoted to the CrossFit Games athletes! Other notable athletes competing are Erin (Cafaro) MacKenzie (married to Brian MacKenzie) and Hunter McIntyre.
If you want to hear more about what the creators of Tough Mudder X have to say about the event on Friday, check out this other interview by Mud Run Guide.
