The “hardest and toughest obstacle course race in the world“ will be brought to Scotland by an Alloa company for the first time ever in January 2016.

McTough Guy is set to push entrants’ endurance, stamina and willpower to the limit in the Scottish winter when the event takes place around Knockhill on 3 January.

The 15km event will be based on the renowned Tough Guy event, held near Wolverhampton under the directorship of Billy Wilson – commonly known as Mr Mouse, and it is promised to make the original proud.

Local man Alex, founder of Brass Monkey Events, the company bringing the race to Scotland, spoke to the Advertiser about the event and his passion for obstacle course races (OCR).

He said: “Over the past four to five years I’ve had a relationship with Mr Mouse just as a friend.

“It has taken that long for him to allow me to bring Tough Guy, which was the original obstacle course race, to Scotland.

“Tough Guy is the hardest and toughest obstacle course race in the world and this is the first time it has ever been allowed to leave his back garden, which is where Tough Guy takes place.

“He owns a farm and the back garden is this 15km worth of horrific obstacles and freezing water and electric shocks and fire.

“At the beginning of the year he basically said, ‘right Alex, take Tough Guy to Scotland, get a venue and take it, see what can happen’.” The race will take place on the countryside surrounding the Knockhill Race Circuit and Alex hopes that around one or two thousand people will take part in the run with daring racers from Poland, Germany, France, Belgium, Ireland and Wales already signed up.

The original Tough Guy was first staged in 1987 and features a cross country run followed by an assault course with 25 obstacles. The event regularly attracts up to 5000 competitors.

Alex added: “People will expect cold, they will have to expect water, ice, I am not a big fan of electric shocks to be honest with you, so the chances of electric shocks being in there is pretty slim. But there will be fire jump and there will be water tunnels.

“One of the highest obstacles that we’ll have is the Knockhill itself, [racers] will go up there with a 15kg sand bag, it is about 1.2 miles to the top. It is gonna be tough.

“Obstacle course racing is probably one of the fastest growing sports in the UK and there are various types of people who do it, from fundraisers and fun-runners to serious runners and lead athletes.

“I hate running, but I’ll do an obstacle course because it’s interesting.

“As well as it being physically demanding, OCR is psychologically demanding. It is fantastic.” He said that those who are physically fit and can run 10 miles should be able to finish the race and warned that appropriate warning is very important. At last year’s Tough Guy around 800 people were pulled out due to hypothermia and Alex said people should avoid the use of clothes made out of cotton.

Tickets are priced at £75 and people can enter via brassmonkeyevents.co.uk. Alex said that OCR is a great way to raise funds for charity and that he is happy to arrange a discount for charitable teams or individuals, contact info@brassmonkeyevents.co.uk.