TOUGH MUDDER IS coming to Ireland for the very first time with events in Dublin on 4 & 5 of October. Pat Divilly, a personal trainer from Galway, is aiming to raise €100,000 for Cystic Fibrosis by getting a team of 400 competitors together. We spoke to Pat earlier this week about the challenge.
First of all, tell us a bit about yourself, Pat…
I set up in Galway two years ago. I was a waiter in a restaurant but I moved home because I was struggling in Dublin with the personal training.
I started on the beach with a couple of clients and it has just blown up. It has been amazing and I opened a studio less than a year ago and had about 200 clients in six months.
I then set up an online business, which has blown up to 600-700 people training with us online. That would be if you want to do what your friends in Galway are doing with us, you can follow along from home with close forums.
Then I signed a book deal and brought it out last year. Then I got some work out of RTE on the back of that so it is one thing after the other at the moment.
So, what’s this challenge all about?
Cystic Fibrosis approached me about being an ambassador for the year and with so much charity stuff going on all the time, you’ve got to think outside the box to a certain extent.
I’ve brought clients to these mud runs over in the UK in the past year. 20 of us went to Tough Mudder in Scotland and 100 of us were in London for Spartan, which would be similar.
Tough Mudder is coming to Dublin for the first time. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a 10-12 mile obstacle course which is franchised all over the world.
So I’m planning to bring a big gang and decided to try and get a team of 400 together in order to raise €100,000 for Cystic Fibrosis. We believe it would be a world record and are onto Guinness at the moment to look at that side of it.
The difference between this one and others I’ve done is that we will be fundraising as opposed to people just playing the entry fee and doing it for themselves.
I want to get at least €100,000 raised by October starting from scratch… which is where we are now.
How much training would be involved?
A certain level of fitness in terms of running would be needed. The race itself is about 12 miles but it’s very different to doing a road race so you wouldn’t need to be able to run it continuously.
You can start and stop but would need a certain amount of upper body strength from push-ups and pull-ups. They brand it as the toughest thing in the world but it is very accessible.
They’re not out to get people. It’s challenging but it’s definitely enjoyable. Most people would be okay to do it with a bit of training.
For more details about Pat’s challenge, go to his Facebook page and for information on Tough Mudder click here for their website
