One tough test ahead for St. Charles North grads

The racecourse is laid out on the grounds of Devil’s Head resort in Merrimac, Wis.

It’s an aptly named locale for what Steven Miller and Jack Skelton will encounter.

The two St. Charles North graduates, 1,600-meter relay teammates as seniors in 2009, will compete today in the Tough Mudder, a 10-mile course strewn with more than 20 devilishly difficult obstacles.

“It’s really kind of a fun way to challenge yourself and kind of do something a little bit crazy,” said Miller, an incoming Iowa State junior who helped the North Stars win the Class AA 3,200-meter relay at the 2008 boys state track championships.

One of 14 Tough Mudder competitions held nationwide since late January, the courses were designed as tests of physical and mental endurance and camaraderie by British Special Forces, according to toughmudder.com. Athletes, who can range well past 50 years of age, may expect to finish in about two and a half hours, though the website notes that only around 78 percent of entrants finish the event.

Skelton, who is both coaching and competing as a sprinter with the University of Illinois Cross Country and Track Club — he won the 400-meter race and was second in the 200 at the 2011 club national meet in April — discovered the Tough Mudder by reading about it online. Skelton tried to enlist as many ex-North Stars as possible. He and Miller are the ones who will be running Saturday, under a predicted heat advisory for their noon start.

“I think it could be very hard, and I think it could be easy,” Skelton said.

For Skelton, whose farthest distance run is 800 meters (“and that was brutal”), says he believes the first challenge, the “Death March,” may be the toughest. It’s a long charge up a ski run to the top of the mountain.

Accustomed to the rigors of cross country paths, Miller may find more difficult challenges elsewhere. The obstacles include a maze of burning straw, a 15-foot plunge into an icy pond and navigating an assortment of nets, walls, logs, pipes and rock faces. The final hazard is the masochistic-sounding “Electroshock Therapy” in which runners sprint through a field of dangling live wires.

“I want to compete hard and obviously finish,” said Miller, an industrial engineering student who has undertaken judo to help keep fit. “Having not done it, I don’t know what time would be good. Also, the designers of the course didn’t make it so much a race. More like something to finish.”

There are teams entered in the Tough Mudder, which also was part of the designers’ plan. Scaling the “Berlin Wall,” for example, may require a helping hand at the top, or a shove from below.

“Definitely we’re going to stick together,” Skelton said. “Steve’s a pretty big endurance guy so hopefully he won’t mind slowing his pace for me. But with the obstacles, it’s a team effort. You don’t want to leave someone behind.”