Three staffers of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center's Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division are tough stuff after surviving the Tough Mudder obstacle course earlier last month.

Nurse and clinical supervisor and transplant coordinator Tatiana Alvarez, transplant dietician Beth Coplan and transplant coordinator Kristin Kacsur completed the 10-12 mile course designed by British Special Forces to test strength, stamina and mental grit, according to its website.

More than 10,000 people battled through the Tough Mudder May 13 at Pocono Manor in Pennsylvania.

"Despite the fear of not knowing if I would be able to complete the course, the best part of the event was doing it with Kristin and Tatiana," said Coplan in a press release. "They were so helpful and supportive. We had each other’s backs throughout the entire course."

Some obstacles included scaling three 12-foot wooden walls, called Berlin walls, sprinting through a field of live wires, some carrying as much as 10,000 volts of electric shock, crawling through pipes into the freezing mud, climbing across Funky Monkey bars greased with mud and butter and climbing Everest, a quarter-pipe coated in mud and grease.

The toughest obstacles to get through were the Funky Monkey bars and getting over the first Berlin wall, according to Alvarez.

Though, she added, "I would do it again with my teammates."

For more information on the Tough Mudder, click here.

– Staff reports

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