World’s Toughest Mudder is a non-stop 24 hour Tough Mudder designed to find the toughest man or woman in the world. Signed up to participate in the event is Corinne Kohlen, Tough Mudder SoCal finisher, Portuguese Man-O-War survivor, and gun shot survivor. Does she have what it takes to be World’s Toughest Mudder?

Corinne Kohlen

Why did you first sign up for Tough Mudder? Which event did you participate in?

My first Tough Mudder was Tough Mudder SoCal May 28th 2011. My friend Jessica told me she was forming a team of girls and asked me if I wanted to do it.Jessica had gotten married the weekend before, and I am getting married in a month so our friends wanted to throw us a joint bacholerette party that weekend. I insisted on doing Tough Mudder and told them to do it with us or come cheer us on, and then we would go bachelorette party. In the spirit of being bachelorette’s and Tough Mudder we had to have costumes. We wore bride’s veils, headbands with flowers, and colorful tutus and a lot of people thought we were marrying one another when we told them it was our bachelorette party. After Saturday’s event , we put on our dry Tough Mudder T-shirts, hopped in the car sore and dirty and drove to Palm Springs where we were met by 8 of our best friends and cold Jack and Cokes. We sat by the pool, bruised, scraped, and with dirt stuck to our scalp and loved every minute of it. I couldn’t have wished for a better bachelorette weekend and was instantly hooked on Tough Mudder

What was your favorite part of Tough Mudder SoCal? What was the toughest?

My favorite part was the monkey bars because I rocked them and made it all the way across. The toughest part for me was the water obstacles. I haven’t really swam for years and the altitude combined with my lack of swimming skills caused some panic in the water. I think I barely made it across the last lake

How will you train for World’s Toughest Mudder?

I am starting my training by working on my biggest weakness: swimming. I moved to a place with a pool and have been practicing swimming with my clothes and shoes on. I am also trying to run longer distances and will work on my upper body strength. I love rock climbing so that will be a given part of my training. I think when the weather gets cooler I will train myself to be comfortable being uncomfortable–there are some early morning, cold, rainy, and dark trail runs in my future. I found a spare tire in my work parking lot a few weeks ago and put it in my car with intentions to run with it. It hasn’t happened yet but it will soon. My neighbors will think I’m crazy but that’s just fine.

What do people say when you tell them you are participating in World’s Toughest Mudder?

People can’t understand the excitement and draw to the event. They wonder why I would pay a good amount of money to freeze, get dirty, and get electrocuted. My fiance offered to electrocute me for free with our dog’s shock collar and save me some money and a plane ticket to Jersey.

Why do you want to participate in World’s Toughest Mudder?

I think it is an amazing opportunity for me to push my body and mind to its limits and become a stronger person. I love the process of training for the event. I love the camaraderie associated with the event and I love an event when adults are encouraged to dress up and get dirty!

What are you most looking forward to at World’s Toughest Mudder?
I am looking forward to any obstacle that involves climbing or using upper body strength. I am also looking forward to crawling on my belly in the mud because it is so fun and such an opportunity. I am nervous about the weather and temperature in December and hope I don’t get frostbite or hypothermia!

What has been your toughest life moment so far?

I went to Hawaii last summer with my fiance and like any other couple, we wanted to go snorkeling. We thought we would splurge and go on a catamaran around the island which also included a snorkel tour. The boat ride was awesome and we saw all sorts of dolphins and turtles. We stopped at a very calm looking bay on the east side of the island and this was supposed to be a great snorkeling spot where all the boats stop. We got outfitted in our gear and hopped in. There was a “lifeguard” which was really just a boat boy on a stand up paddle board who instructed us to put our arm in the air if we needed any help. Of course I wasn’t worried at all. We had fins on and a life jacket so what else did we need?

Jeff and I swam around the bay for about 5 minutes and really didn’t see very many fish. The water was deep for snorkeling – about 15 or 20 feet and kind of dark for Hawaii. I was following Jeff and I suddenly felt fire on my face. I was in shock because I hadn’t seen anything at all. No jelly fish or sting rays or sharks or even kelp. I thought I was crazy and I swam a few more feet. More FIRE. Now my face really began to hurt and I felt my neck and shoulder burning too. Something wasn’t right but I still couldn’t figure it out. I popped my head out of the water and ripped off my snorkel mask. I was still on fire. My lips were burning and I touched them with my hand. A tiny thin blue string came off on my fingers and now my hand was on fire too. I stuck my arm up in the air and started towards the “lifeguard” board. When I got close enough to him for him to see me the smile on his face sunk and he looked at me in horror. Now I was really scared. I asked him, what’s on my face? Is there something on my face? He told me it was a Portuguese Man-O-War and I thought I was going to die because I had watched shows on the Discovery Channel about people dying from their stings and tentacles. I asked him if he was serious, and I knew he was when he started using his paddle to scrape the tentacles off my shoulder and neck. He wouldn’t even touch me with his hands and now his feet were out of the water and curled indian style on the paddle board. By this time I was pretty panicked and in a lot of pain. Jeff heard the commotion and swam over to help. He pulled off tentacles from my upper lip, my cheek, and my ear. I had to hold on to the paddle board to get back to the boat. When I got back to the boat I was scared, red, and swollen. I had swam into some tiny tentacles of the jelly fish and not even realized it. The boat was slim pickens in the first aid department. The captain gave me a small packet of gel that looked like neosporin and a bag of ice from the bar to hold on my face and shoulder. They assured me that I was not going to die and that the pain would go away within a few hours. Thanks a lot…

We ended up going snorkeling the next day just outside our hotel and saw much better fish with no jellies!
All in all I would take the Tough Mudder electrocution any day over the Portuguese Man-O-War. At least in Mudder the pain only lasts seconds!

Tell us a little bit more about yourself:
I was born in England, I am an only child, I have 5 hound dogs, and I was shot by my neighbor in 4th grade.

My dad passed away almost 5 years ago but he would have loved to see me do the World’s Toughest Mudder and would have been happy to been my pit man. He is the only person that I think wouldn’t think I am crazy.