Do you think you could tackle the Tough Mudder challenge? Our reporter Rhys Thomas had a go...

“Turn them off!” That was the plea from my Tough Mudder teammate Andy Raw as he was mercilessly zapped by wires dishing out up to 10,000-volt blasts.

Electroshock Therapy - the final obstacle on the 12-mile challenge at Broughton Hall, near Skipton - is a 20-yard dash or dodge through electrified wires that dangle down to about knee height.

And unfortunately for Andy, despite his request, they weren’t turned off.

Andy, who is a supremely fit 32-year-old, had breezed through the rest of the course, saying afterwards: “I’m not being big-headed, but I found it quite easy.”

But the electric shocks were a different matter altogether - and even left him shaking for 30 minutes afterwards.

“They were absolutely awful,” he admitted.

My own experience of Electroshock Therapy felt just as bad.

Our team of six had agreed to just run right through the wires - in pairs - and see how we fared.

When the first pair fell into the mud, I presumed they had slipped or fallen over the strategically-placed humps. In fact, as I found out myself, we were all knocked off our feet by an electric bolt.

It was painful - and only slightly remedied by the bottle of cider we were handed at the finishing line seconds later.

That said, what a brilliant event Tough Mudder was. We took about two and half hours to complete it and, electric shocks apart, enjoyed every second of it.

There was even time to take in wonderful Dales views as the course climbed high into the hills.

There is a remarkable sense of camaraderie and togetherness between every person taking part. Everyone is in the same boat and no-one gets left behind.

There is absolutely no pressure to prove you are better, fitter or stronger than anyone else. No-one is judging you and, right from the beginning with the upbeat warm-up and the “Ooo rahs”, there’s a real sense of fun.

We used one man as a ladder on the Pyramid Scheme obstacle, hauled people over the slippy climbs of the Mud Mile, and encouraged a girl as she battled to complete the monkey bars.

On the run up Everest - a slippery, ten-foot-high, sloping, almost 90-degree ramp - you are met at the top by numerous fellow Mudders offering a hand to help pull you up.

Some people were dangled over the edge and held on to by their ankles by those at the top as they tried to help people who couldn’t run that far up the ramp.

I failed to get across the monkey bars, slipping into the water just before halfway. And, somewhat embarrassingly for me, my teammate Rob Brooks managed to get across despite tearing his bicep a month earlier.

That said, he couldn’t clamber over a log positioned six feet from the ground - so honours even.

On the whole, we found every obstacle enjoyable and challenging. The Berlin Walls - a flat ten-foot wall with nothing to grip on to - tested upper body strength, while crawling through the wet, muddy and tight Birth Canal let you know whether you were claustrophobic or not.

And the plunge into Arctic Enema - a metal container full of ice-cold water - was, shall we say, a shock to various parts of the body.

We also waded through streams, clambered over hay bales and carried heavy logs on a truly varied morning.

Perhaps the most enjoyable obstacle was King of the Swingers. Mudders leapt from a platform as high as a two-storey house, grabbed a metal bar in mid-air, and tried to swing out to touch a bell hanging high in the air - before crashing into water below.

Only two of our group managed to successfully complete that one - from several attempts - and the two didn’t include me.

Away from the course, there was plenty of things going on, including a bar, food court, various stalls and hot tubs.

There was also a Tough Mudder Half course, and Mini-Mudder for the kids.

So, what now? All six of us agreed that we coped comfortably with the course, so perhaps we need to step it up a gear.

So, Tough Mudder’s ‘World’s Toughest Mudder’ event could be an option. A challenge to complete an extreme five-mile obstacle course as many times as you can in 24 hours. We’ll see.