Six years ago, the Mill Race Marathon took over Columbus.
This weekend, the Inaugural Tough Mudder Indiana Classic is poised to do the same.
Although the course will be confined to Ceraland Park as opposed to the entire city that the marathon encompasses, numbers for the Tough Mudder are expected to be similar to the ones from Columbus’ first day of marathon events in 2013.
About 5,000 competitors and 1,000 spectators are expected for Saturday’s event for professionals and amateurs. Another 1,500 competitors and 200 spectators are expected for Sunday’s event for amateurs.
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"It should be a good crowd," event producer A.J. Monette said. "It will be good weather for us, so we’re hoping people will want to hang around and enjoy everything that we have going on in our village area. I think it will be a good one."
Monette, who lives in New York, has been in town all week helping get the course ready. A group of eight eight construction workers from the Lafayette area have been here for two weeks putting up obstacles, and 10 staff members have been here this week marking the course.
"They’ve had no delays," said Ike DeClue, director of sales and business development for Columbus Visitors Center. "Everything is running on schedule. Everything is looking good, and they’re ready to run it."
Monette is in his third year with Tough Mudder and has designed close to 30 courses. He said the organization has used campgrounds and parks before, but never one that’s an active campground during the event like Ceraland will be.
The past two years, Monette has been the producer for the Tough Mudder event at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky. That event was moved here this year.
"It’s a pretty nice upgrade," Monette said. "We were in Kentucky before, and that one was a little bit further away from the cities we were trying to hit. This one is a little more centrally located, and we’re excited to be in Columbus for the first time."
The cost to compete is $149 both Saturday and Sunday for the Classic, which is a little more than eight miles and features 25 obstacles, and $49 both days for the 5K, which has 13 obstacles. Admission for spectators is $20.
The eight-mile course will take up most of the Ceraland property.
"It was good for an eight-mile one," Monette said. "If it was to be longer than that, it would have been some loops and things that people don’t tend to enjoy as much. It’s eight unique miles, which I think will work out well for everybody."
Action begins at 7:45 a.m. Saturday with a wave for professionals. After that, waves of 200 will go off every 15 minutes until around 1:30 p.m. Sunday’s events also will start at 7:45 a.m. and will continue with waves of 200 through 9 a.m.
While 24 of the 25 obstacles are standard Tough Mudder obstacles, one will be unique to this event.
"We have a menu that we pull from, and we have some standards that are one every single course," Monette said. "We also try to incorporate natural features if we can or things that the area is locally known for. For example, here, we have an obstacle called ‘King of the Mountain,’ which is this giant stack of hay bales, like a ladder almost. We don’t really put it on a lot of courses because hay is not as readily available in come cases. But we figured here in Indiana, that would be a good one to have out there."
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Registration for this weekend’s Inaugural Tough Mudder Indiana Classic at Ceraland Park remains open and will be available on-site before the event.
Cost is $149 both Saturday and Sunday for the Classic, which is a little more than eight miles and features 25 obstacles. Cost for the 5K, which has 13 obstacles, is $49 both days.
Professionals who start in the 7:45 a.m. Saturday wave will receive medals when they finish. All other participants will receive t-shirts and will have access to beer in Tough Mudder Village.
Cost for spectators is $20.
For more information on the event, visit toughmudder.com/Indiana
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