Rugged Maniac
| Rugged Maniac | |
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Rugged Maniac Logo
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| Location | 30 Locations United States / Canada |
| Event type | Obstacle Racing, Mud Run |
| Distance | 5K (3.1 miles) |
| Primary sponsor |
Men's Health Women's Health (magazine) Harpoon Brewery American Cancer Society |
| Beneficiary | American Cancer Society |
| Established | September 2010 |
| Course records | Rugged Maniac Results |
| Official site | www.ruggedmaniac.com |
| Participants | 150,000 in 2015 |
Rugged Maniac is an annual obstacle course race, otherwise known as a mud run, hosted in multiple cities across the United States. Participants run a 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) course with obstacles ranging from muddy water slides, crawling through tunnels, jumping over logs set on fire, and scaling large, curved walls. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban is an investment partner with Rugged Maniac, after their appearance on season 5 of the hit ABC reality show Shark Tank.
Rugged Maniac was first established in June 2010 by founder and CEO, Brad Scudder, a former attorney. Rob Dickens, the co-founder and COO, was previously a corporate lawyer on Wall Street at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.
In October 2010, the very first Rugged Maniac event was held in Southwick, Massachusetts, where they hosted over 2,000 race participants. Scudder used his savings from the past two years as a lawyer to fund the event, which featured race waves of 330 people every half hour and a festival with music, food and beer for the racers.
The event has since expanded to 30 event days in the United States and Canada. The largest event, held in the inaugural New England location Southwick, MA, boasted approximately 12,000 total race participants in the fall of 2015.
Rugged Maniac (under company name Rugged Races LLC) experienced steady growth and in 2013, caught the attention of Shark Tank, a reality television series in which entrepreneurs pitch business ideas to a panel of investors. In September 2013, the producers of Shark Tank contacted Scudder and Dickens to compete in the show. The initial investment they asked for from the Sharks was $1 million for 10% of the company. Eventually they reached a deal with Mark Cuban and settled on a $1.75 million investment for 25% of the business.
On January 16, 2016, Rugged Maniac, appeared again on Shark Tank in an update video. Since first appearing on the show, the Rugged Maniac event has expanded to Canada, increased in sales from $4.2 million to $10.5 million before and after Shark Tank, expanded to 28 cities, and created a second race called "The Costume Dash 5K", which debuted in Boston in October 2015.
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