STRONG ISLANDER
No surprise: The world’s Toughest Mudder is a cliff-jumping, bug-eating New York finance gal
At 2 a.m., Stefanie Bishop had to slow down. She had been running laps through a grueling 5-mile obstacle course for 14 hours beneath the searing Las Vegas sun. She was severely dehydrated, suffering from heat exhaustion, and so nauseated she couldn’t keep anything down. And, she still had 10 more hours to go.
Somehow Bishop, a 34-year-old Long Island native, managed to keep going — and win the title of World’s Toughest Mudder, considered the championship event in the rugged sport of extreme obstacle racing. She completed the course 17 times in a 24hour period, more than any other woman competing and placing her 15th overall in the 1,500 person field. The event, which took place in Nevada in November, airs Sunday on CBS, showcasing Bishop’s journey from exhaustion to exaltation as she faces a terrifying 35-foot jump off a ledge into a lake and battles obstacles such as the “Augustus Gloop,” where participants must wade through a
chest-high pit of water and then scramble up a vertical tube, while a cascade of water gushes down.
“I came back from feeling like I was going to puke,” she said. “I did a cartwheel down the finish line.”
Her victory this year came after a difficult 2015. She intended to compete in the World’s Toughest Mudder that year, but had to sideline her plans after injuring her ankle and getting diagnosed with Lyme disease.
“My goal in 2016 was to do this event, and I knew I could win it,” she said.
Bishop has always been a tough competitor. Growing up in Manhasset, LI, she played on the boys’ varsity soccer team at her high school because there wasn’t a girls’ squad. After graduating from SUNY Binghamton, she started competing in — and winning — triathlons. Then, in 2010, Bishop took things a step further, signing up for the wintertime Death Race in Vermont. The notorious event involves both mental and physical tasks, from memorizing a sequence of numbers while running up a mountain to diving to retrieve a bag of coins dropped in a frigid lake. Competitors don’t get a packing list or map, and organizers decide when the race is over. It can last as long
as 65 hours. In Bishop’s case, it was only after 60-plus manure-filled miles and over 18 hours that the race finally ended. While such an event is most people’s idea of hell, Bishop loved it.
“I’m an adrenaline junkie,” she said. “I like not knowing what’s next.”
This past year, she competed in seven events. While she won $10,000 at World’s Toughest Mudder, the sport is hardly lucrative. Bishop works part time in finance to cover the high costs of registration, travel, training and gear, and coaches herself. She currently has no sponsors, but is an ambassador for Exo cricket-flour bars, which she eats during races. She used to have an apartment in Nolita but let it go to focus on the sport and save money. She now lives with her parents in Long Island. “I give up my social life,” she said. “I give up things I
absolutely love, because, in the end, the greater picture is just so much more satisfying.”
She trains up to 30 hours a week, getting up at 5 a.m. for cardio and strength training.
“When I get into the thick of my season, I run up to 75 miles a week and usually will be cycling or road biking [too],” Bishop said. One of her favorite exercises: loading 600 pounds of weights into a “prowler” sled, and then pushing it (slowly) across the gym floor.
She does some of her workouts at the Drive 495 gym in Soho, but much of her training is done outdoors. She’ll bushwhack through Harriman State Park or submerge herself in a chilly river for 15 minutes at a time.
Proper recovery is also key to her preparations. She naps as much as 90 minutes each day and sleeps eight to nine hours each night.
Such a schedule leaves her little time for romances, and Bishop is currently single.
“Dates say, ‘Let’s hang out at 7:30.’ Well, I’m in bed at 8:15 . . . I’m surprised at how many people get offended by that,” she said. “Now I’ve turned this into a full-time thing. I don’t want to go out to dinner five nights a week. I love food, but that’s so boring to me day in and day out. I’d rather jump in a frozen river. Seriously.”