WESTBROOK — On weekdays Kevin Salley is an elementary school music teacher, but on weekends the Connecticut resident likes to run giant obstacle courses, through mud, over slippery walls and across monkey bars.

Salley was the first out of an expected 10,000 athletes participating in the Tough Mudder obstacle course to cross the finish line Saturday at Sunset Ridge Golf Links on Cumberland Street. Salley made it through 10.3 miles of muddy quagmires, ice-filled pools and a 19-foot vertical drop through a wall of fire in about 1 hour and 45 minutes, several minutes ahead of the next finisher.

But for Salley and the thousands of others taking part, it was all about personal challenge, not competition.

“This is good training for a 50-kilometer road race and a 30-mile mountain run coming up,” said Salley, who was planning to run the course a second time Saturday with his girlfriend.

Tough Mudder, created in 2010, was the idea of a Harvard Business School student from Britain who went on to found the company with a childhood friend. The company’s business model has spawned an industry of for-profit participatory athletic events. It is promoted exclusively through social media and word of mouth.

One million, three hundred thousand people have participated in Tough Mudder events to date, 70 percent of them men. The average age of participants is 29. About 78 percent of the participants manage to finish the course.

The event in Westbrook is expected to draw 13,000 to 15,000 people before it winds down Sunday afternoon. About a third of participants are from Maine while others came from 36 other states and five countries.

Thirty-two members of Cutting Edge Fitness in Miramichi, New Brunswick, traveled to Westbrook to take part.

“This is about teamwork and camaraderie,” said Kevin McLean, spokesman for the group.

Athletes paid $69 to $185 each, depending on when they signed up, to run the course. Spectators paid $20 to get in if they registered online ahead of time. Tickets at the gates cost $220 for athletes and $40 for spectators.

Parking costs $10 to $15 a vehicle at either of two lots several miles away at Idexx Laboratories in Westbrook or the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, where an armada of school buses and private bus lines shuttled people back and forth.

This being Maine, many enterprising homeowners along Cumberland Street and River Road in Windham – which led to the event – set up their own makeshift parking lots, shuttle services and displays of handcrafted items and home-baked goods. The event was expected to infuse $5 million into the local economy.

During the two days, 563 volunteers, who get 90 percent off the entry fee at an upcoming Tough Mudder event for helping out, and 125 staff members directed traffic, manned water stations and handed out course maps.

Starting at 8 a.m., the athletes set off in groups of 500 every 15 minutes.

Many of the athletes were part of teams raising money for various causes. Charlie Albair, 7, of Gray, who has diabetes, was too young to participate, but 12 of his parents’ friends and relatives were dressed in neon orange T-shirts to raise money to benefit diabetes sufferers. This was team Dirty for Diabetes’ first venture into the world of Tough Mudder.

“It is pretty intimidating,” said Dan Albair, Charlie’s father.

Some of the athletes are seasoned Tough Mudder veterans. Joe Grant of Boston was running his 12th event, while his wife, Amy Parzych, and son, Callan Grant, 7, watched from the sideline.

Parzych said the obstacle course challenges are fascinating to watch, as total strangers pause to help each other out.

“There will be a lot of bruises at the end of this,” Parzych said.

But not enough to sate her husband’s appetite for personal challenges. As soon as he was finished with the obstacle course, the family was headed to Old Orchard Beach for an arm-wrestling contest.

Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at:

bquimby@pressherald.com

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