Many people have heard of the Tough Mudder competition, a grueling obstacle course challenge for hardcore fitness enthusiasts. Fewer, probably, have heard of the Toughest Mudder Challenge, an event for qualified champions only, which takes place over a 24-hour period once per year. In the Toughest Mudder Challenge, only the strongest of the strongest survive; last year, one of those survivors was Andrew Beeghly.

Andrew Beeghly is no stranger to extreme physical challenges; he has been deployed as a battalion surgeon in Afghanistan and administered aid to countries ravaged by natural disasters. In addition, Andrew Beeghly runs ultramarathons, extreme distance runs of 70 miles or more; he has even been part of an expedition that trekked to Camp 2 of Mount Everest. And still he thinks of the Toughest Mudder as one of the most extreme things he has ever done.

The Toughest Mudder, according to Andrew Beeghly, is a 24-hour competition. That means that participants are running, crawling, climbing, jumping, avoiding hazards and dealing with obstacles, for an entire 24-hour period without stopping. “It’s essentially 24 hours of torture,” Andrew Beeghly says, laughing. Sounds fun.

“It is an extreme physical challenge, of course, but it is also a very extreme mental challenge,” Andrew Beeghly says. “Keeping your brain alert and awake, keeping the gears turning for that whole time, it’s very taxing. At times your brain wants to just quit on you, and you have to kind of override it. It’s a special skill, for sure.”

Andrew Beeghly finished the Toughest Mudder a year ago; he made it through the entire 24-hour span. He does not know what place he came in, though, saying that it’s not really about placing. “The thing about this competition, it’s some of the toughest people around. I mean, yeah, somebody wins, and somebody comes in last, but in between it’s a bunch of people all striving to make it through, and it’s funny; it becomes kind of like a big team effort out there. People are urging other people on, telling them they can do it. It’s really pretty great.”