FORT RILEY, Kan. — Army physical training is just the start of one Fort Riley soldier’s workout routine, as he and a team of four other soldiers prepare to compete in what is best described simply as an obstacle course on steroids.
Sgt. Richard Mansford, a soldier with the 601st Aviation Support Battalion, Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, is preparing for a Tough Mudder event June 25 at Beaver Creek, Colo.
The competition is a nine-mile endurance course featuring 25 military-style obstacles with names like “Sweaty Yeti,” “Electroshock Therapy,” and “Everest.”
And it’s what Mansford does best, he said.
“Getting dirty, crawling through the mud, it’s a blast, my favorite thing to do in the Army,” said Mansford, who scored 315 out of 300 on his last PT test.
Mansford heard about the competition from a friend while he was deployed to Iraq last year. Since then, he and his team have been “hitting the gym and flipping tires” to get ready for the course, he said.
Mansford also prepared by competing in two similar challenges within his unit while he was deployed, he said.
The event is a chance for his team to give back to the military community, he said.
Tough Mudder has raised more than $1 million for the Wounded Warriors Project by offering ticket discounts to competitors who raise $150 for the charity.
“It’s something that hits close to the heart, something that I think is awesome,” said Mansford.
Competitors finishing in the top five percent of each Tough Mudder event are eligible to compete in the World’s Toughest Mudder competition.
“We’ll see about that,” said Mansford. “We are just excited to go have fun and knock it out.”