I asked Joseph LeBaron of the Utah-based production company The Good Line to set up this piece. They're partnering on a feature documentary about extreme obstacle races called Rise of the Sufferfests. This is an excerpt from that work-in-progress.
"Mr. Mouse is the self-proclaimed Father of Mud. In 1987 he founded the world's first competitive obstacle race known as The Tough Guy Challenge; a brutal 8 mile course held each January just outside of Wolverhampton, England. During a recent interview we asked him to share with us his reasons for creating a race full of barbed wire, electrified obstacles and frozen water hazards. What followed was a cautionary tale of his battles with the "black dog" of depression and his temptations to live in entitlement, "ultimately leading him to create a place where people could meet and face those shared battles together."
