So you're a tough guy, huh?

February 4, 2009 4:56 PM

"The safest most dangerous taste of physical and mental endurance pain in the world"
posted by Brandon Blatcher (51 comments total)

This guy wins for most enduringly painful outift.
posted by peggynature at 4:59 PM on February 4

I've been writing and erasing links to just that picture for the past hour.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:06 PM on February 4

That's not so tough. I could wear that.
posted by Balisong at 5:07 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

peggynature beat me to it! Toughest guy in the place.
posted by Xoebe at 5:07 PM on February 4

I almost said "tuffest outfit."
posted by peggynature at 5:08 PM on February 4

Wow. John Mayer is a tougher little guy than I ever thought he was.
posted by maudlin at 5:09 PM on February 4

Nah. I'll just drink beer and watch TV instead.
posted by jbickers at 5:19 PM on February 4

(21) A man is punched in the groin while underwater.
(22) A contestant is shot in the hip.
(23) Competitors are verbally abused for buying foreign cars.
(24) Another dude in muddy water.
posted by boo_radley at 5:20 PM on February 4 [4 favorites]

LUXURY!!!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:22 PM on February 4 [7 favorites]

I'm so used to correcting idiots that I wanted to come here and complain about number four. But then I realized, "hey, there's probably a hill right after that."
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 5:38 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

As this picture shows, it's not just tough guys. Should be named the Tough Person Challenge, in light of this.

As someone who readily admits they could never be involved in this challenge, I feel a mixture of admiration and pity for these people. Admiration, because they're all 'arder than I clearly am. And pity, because anyone who does this to themselves has to be just a little unhinged.

And it's all to help old horses and criminals!
posted by Effigy2000 at 5:39 PM on February 4

This thread would be incomplete without mentioning an earlier feature on this topic. "Death Race 2007". Nice video and article:

..to fully appreciate Tough Guy, you need to run it. And not in July when they hold a summer version and temperatures are in the pleasant 70s and swimming through the Underwater Tunnel is nothing more than a refreshing dip in the pool. You need to run it in January, when the weather can be so cold the first competitors occasionally scrape some flesh off their legs as they break through the ice on the water hazards. You need to run the opening 6-mile cross country portion, haul your body up and down, up and down, up and down the hillside Slalom, climb over and into and out of the 7-foot-high cement containers of knee-deep horse manure in the Elephant Graveyard, wade, crawl, slip and slide through the series of waist-deep trenches of mud that make up the Ghurka Grand National, climb the nets to the top of 30-foot twin pyramids in the Tiger and dash through its tentacles of stinging electric tape.

And then you need to pause briefly at the water stop, and look ahead to the remaining 22 obstacles spread over two miles of the Killing Fields. Where the course now gets tough.
posted by thisisdrew at 5:39 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of my commute only I look fresher when I get to the finish.
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 5:44 PM on February 4

As this picture shows, it's not just tough guys. Should be named the Tough Person Challenge, in light of this.

Women who partake in it are tough enough not give a crap about such silly things.
posted by xmutex at 5:46 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

I'll just do the Michael Phelps workout instead.
posted by LordSludge at 5:47 PM on February 4

Dear Penis,

I've come to realize that you are a bad influence on me. We need to talk. Soon.

Love,
me.

ps. If you sprinkle when you tinkle be a sweetie and wipe the seatie.
posted by stavrogin at 5:53 PM on February 4

The challenge is also a fundraiser for charity, with funds going to the Mr. Mouse Farm for Unfortunates...

The toughness just permeates every aspect of this challenge.
posted by DU at 6:07 PM on February 4 [2 favorites]

Somehow, I don't think Charlie Brooker would appreciate this.
posted by JHarris at 6:16 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

As this picture shows, it's not just tough guys. Should be named the Tough Person Challenge, in light of this.

But weirdly, the photos were almost exclusively of men. Well, and of some mud-covered primates who could have been men, women, or chimpanzees under the mud.
posted by Forktine at 6:18 PM on February 4

Making something from nothing. bleh.
posted by zerobyproxy at 6:45 PM on February 4

Just another day in the infantry.
posted by procrastination at 6:48 PM on February 4

Whatever! While I love the photography -- it does look awesome -- somebody has to be the jerk who is all like, "That's not tough!"

Check this out: the The Hardrock 100. And as if running 100 miles on trails wasn't bad enough... from the site: "The Hardrock 100 connects or passes near the old mining towns of Silverton, Lake City, Ouray, Telluride and Ophir. With a total elevation gain of approximately 33,000' and an average elevation at near tree line of 11,186', the Hardrock 100 peaks out at over 14,000’ on Handles Peak, one of Colorado’s 14’ers."
posted by ph00dz at 7:01 PM on February 4

I totally, absolutely applaud the physical and mental stamina required for this sort of an activity, and the photography is brilliant, but dude: this is a tough guy.
posted by grippycat at 7:14 PM on February 4 [5 favorites]

As far as this contest or whatever, being the "toughest guy" is one thing. Being an asshole is quite another.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 7:18 PM on February 4

This thread isn't complete without a link to the Badass Games.
posted by splatta at 7:34 PM on February 4

Some stunning photos if nothing else.. Thanks..
posted by drpynchon at 7:44 PM on February 4

posted by ph00dz

I grew up that part of Colorado and I will attest that the Hardrock 100 seems a lot tougher from an endurance perspective than this race. Although this one seems to take a bigger toll if only because this course is designed to take a competitor down. But it is over in an hour or so. Hardrock is at least a day of running for most of the competitors.
posted by Rashomon at 8:06 PM on February 4

Hah! I want to see those "tough guys" get through a MetaTalk thrashing. They'd be crying like little babies in no time.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:53 PM on February 4

Mr. Mouse Farm for Unfortunates? That's way more awesome than anything else.
posted by theefixedstars at 8:56 PM on February 4 [1 favorite]

Haven't spoken to him for a while, so I'm not sure if he's run it or yet, but MeFi's own DangerIsMyMiddleName was in training for this, last I heard.
posted by middleclasstool at 8:57 PM on February 4

oh, pshaw, when i was a kid, i used to have to do that every day just to get to school
posted by pyramid termite at 9:03 PM on February 4

MeFi's own DangerIsMyMiddleName [mefi] was in training for this

He is insane enough to do it.
posted by Wolof at 9:23 PM on February 4

Isn't the shiny side supposed to go inside?
posted by salvia at 9:30 PM on February 4

Hm, these pictures look like they're from a movie about a large band of all-male of marathon runners escaping an internment/refugee camp. The guy in the slingy-banana-hammock-thingy, part of a heart-wrenching sub-story about medical experimentation.
posted by mmmleaf at 9:33 PM on February 4

Isn't the shiny side supposed to go inside?

He's reflecting the cold away. Duh.
posted by niles at 9:59 PM on February 4

He's reflecting the cold away. Duh.

Oh, of course, he's heating the whole outdoors. That will warm him up.
posted by salvia at 10:59 PM on February 4

I have actually done this, 7 or 8 years ago.

My only real memory of the event now is half-wading, half-swimming slowly through a chest-high stream, jagged ice on either side where it hadn't been broken through yet. Unlike the leaders who get to set their own pace, the pack have to handle the continual stop/start around, on and under each obstacle as they stand around in thin wet clothing waiting for their turn.

After a little while, you reach a low wooden bridge, which sits flush with the water, and that you have to swim under. This bridge is only a meter or so wide, but there's a guy on top of it whose only job appears to be shouting at people emerging from the head dip to "breathe! come on, breathe!" Because you're so cold, and your brain is now so numb, that you really do need all the help you can get to do even that.
posted by robtoo at 11:27 PM on February 4

He is insane enough to do it.

lol, I was training for it, yes. But I had a big stress fracture^* late last year, and only just started running again. Next year I say we send a team.

^*Where you think it's just a muscle thing, and try to run it off for a couple of months, until your doctor blinks at you and tells you to sit the hell down and not get up again until this nice carbon-fibre cast thing is nice and snug, because dammit to hell you've snapped your fibula and how didn't you notice?.

Ah, happy days.
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName at 11:51 PM on February 4

how didn't you notice?

You're a legend, sailor.
posted by Wolof at 12:00 AM on February 5 [1 favorite]

It's hotter with, you know, the whips and chains and all, but to each his own I guess.
posted by Bokononist at 1:01 AM on February 5

When I first heard the name of this competition, I expected a long line of men whipping out their penises and placing them on a board, then a person firing a starter pistol and yelling GO!, whereupon another board is slammed down on top of the first board over and over again, with the last remaining penis being the winner's.
posted by tehloki at 2:16 AM on February 5 [3 favorites]

BAD DREAM.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:16 AM on February 5

Tehloki may well have just invented America's next big reality show.






... but I really hope not.

posted by datter at 5:33 AM on February 5 [2 favorites]

tehloki, you are a bad person.
posted by public at 6:55 AM on February 5 [1 favorite]

One of my favorite pieces of magazine sports writing, It's Gonna Suck To Be You, details the 2000 Hardrock.
posted by djb at 7:36 AM on February 5

Wow. Whoever created that is truly a sadist. Geez.

I guess this is what men do to prove themselves since they don't have to push watermelon sized humans out of their bodies.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:45 AM on February 5

theefixedstars nailed it: a masochistic fundraiser for the mr. mouse farm for unfortunates? it's like reality tv meets dickens. the question is: would the farm for unfortunates still have the financial support without the spectacle? but i think we know the answer to that . . .
posted by barrett caulk at 10:27 AM on February 5

grapefruitmoon: you missed pictures (28) and (33).
posted by boo_radley at 10:56 AM on February 5

Let's see one of these tough guys when he gets a kidney stone!

HA! Not so tough now.
posted by Drasher at 12:25 PM on February 5

Oh... neat, djb. I'll give that a read in a sec. I have a number of friends who have done it and it and it sounds... totally insane. One guy I know even did it without a pacer, which just seems nutty beyond nutty. ('Course, he's survived Badwater, so....)
posted by ph00dz at 1:07 PM on February 5

Tehloki may well have just invented America's next big reality show.

I'm pretty sure Joe Rogan has pitched that same concept to every network in the US and several in Japan.
posted by middleclasstool at 6:14 PM on February 5 [1 favorite]