Being on the start line with the other placegetters might well bring out a more competitive attitude.
"I guess it would be good to win," he said. "When you're on the start line and then the pushing to get a good position starts and the adrenaline starts, the competitive side will
kick in and I'll get the game face on and go for it."
It was Peters' first shot at the mid winter event - he is known more as a mountain biker.
"I wanted to give it a try. I'd never done it before and it looked fun, something a bit different."
He said it wasn't only the physical challenge, but also the more primeval attraction of wading through mud, that made the event something he wanted to try - and he relied on his existing fitness to get through.
"I didn't really do a lot of preparation except for a bit of running. I'm pretty fit and I didn't do any specific preparation, that's for sure.
"It was a little bit more extreme than I thought it would be. I knew it went through bogs and that, but I didn't realise they'd be so deep and it was quite cold. We had to do two laps and the first lap was alright, but by the second lap everything was cut up, so it was like a whole different lap. It was hard, but it was good."
With the weather forecast for rain between now and the weekend, Peters said he can't worry about what conditions will be like on Saturday.
"To be a tough guy challenge, it's got to live up to the name, so you want to do it when it's wet and muddy," he said.
He doesn't think the challenge is something to be taken too seriously.
"It's probably more something fun to do, I don't know whether you could focus on it much."
Earlier this year Peters was second in the Lake City Athletics Club senior men's cross country championship. He is also a former national cross country mountain bike champion, and was third when the champs were held in Rotorua in 2015. He also won last year's Rotorua MTB Winter series.
The Moa Zealand Tough Guy and Gal Championship will be held as part of the second Rotorua event on Saturday, starting at 10.20am.
