Johnathan Dobbs remembers waking up faced down in the mud.

The electric shock from the hanging wires and the cold mud dropped him to his knees.

But he was only down for a split second.

“When I came to, I had to concentrate and remember where I was because it felt like I had been down for an eternity,” he said.

Dobbs, along with friends and family participated in the Tough Mudder challenge on Saturday in Edna that included crawling under barbed wire, climbing eight-foot high walls, jumping off a 15-foot high platform into a lake and plunging into a box car with ice water.

And they have the Tough Mudder orange finisher headband to prove it.

The 12-mile obstacle course known as probably the toughest event in the planet; was designed by British Special Forces. The 12-mile obstacle course tests strength, stamina, mental grit and camaraderie.

The event that raises money for the Wounded Warrior Project took place at The Brackenridge Event Center and brought in about 3,000 mudders and about 1,400 spectators.

“Every muscle in my body aches, but the challenge was well worth it,” he said.

Team effort

When Jody Dobbs saw a flier advertising the Tough Mudder at the local gym, she jumped at the opportunity.

“We can do this,” she told her husband.

Always up for a challenge, Jody began to recruit friends and family, even going on Facebook. In the end, Team Ziz was created.

For the next few months, the 15-member team began to work out. Some ran every day, others did different things.

“We all did some kind of strength training, but the running was most necessary for me,” said Dobbs.

Dobbs and his wife, Jody, worked out by running on the beach.

“Jody and I also ran with our neighbors and a couple other teammates,” he said.

Day of Mudder

The day of mudder had approached and the months of running, exercising and working out would all be done in each obstacle.

“Before I was mentally ready to start, they called us out to go to the starting line,” he said.

To get to the starting line, Team Ziz had to surmount an eight-foot wall.

“It was time to gear up and shut up,” he said.

Dobbs said they were surprised once they saw that one of the obstacles they had seen in the pre-race map had changed. Now instead of running through the fire obstacles, they had to jump over mud holes.

“I was glad we all ran through the obstacle,” he said.

Dobbs said the challenge of the entire event was to surpass the obstacles, but help each team member through them.

“The challenge was not to finish on our own, we all helped each other through each tough obstacle,” he said.

And help each other they did.

“Our muscles were cramping, but we endured,” he said. “It was absolutely wonderful to have my brother and my wife running this course alongside me. Their encouragement made this possible. We fed off each other’s enthusiasm to complete each obstacle."