As I said before, Tough Mudder was amazing.
Saturday morning was beautiful - sunny, in the 80s, with low humidity. It stayed this way though our drive (all three hours of it!), our walk to the course, and hanging around the start/finish lines waiting for our teammates. As our teammates arrived (two hours later), the temperature suddenly dropped 10 degrees. I looked up to see a black cloud heading our way, FAST. That was when the wind started.
(Marked up with my number and ready to go)
Luckily, the gusts of wind died down after about 10 minutes and we were able to check our gear and get over to the start line. We started some group warm-ups and were about 5 minutes from starting the race when the driving rain started. We were in for quite the storm.
I comment on the weather not to complain, but to give a background as to why my race experience was a little different from what I expected.
The course map published online is below - a larger version can be found here:
We took off and, after climbing over a quick set of walls, were stopped and told to take a squat while one of the course officials talked us through safety procedures (i.e. how to signal for a medic) and get us pumped up for the race. He then told us that, because of the storm, our first obstacle, the Arctic Enema, was closed. I completely understand how you wouldn't want to have people swimming through a large body of water while there's a threat of lightning and respect their decision, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. Instead, we raced through the Braveheart Charge and went onward to the second obstacle, the Dirty Ballerina.
Before I get started describing the different obstacles, I need to explain that the "easy" part of the race, the run between obstacles, was on what was supposed to be dirt paths. The heavy rain as we started and throughout the race turned these dirt paths in to mud pits. It was thick, slippery, and people were sliding around, falling, and losing shoes all over the place. The mud added an extra degree of difficulty to the race that, while fun, was far different from what I expected. I didn't expect an 11-mile mud pit.
The Dirty Ballerina was an obstacle I was looking forward to - I have pretty long legs and am good at jumping across large puddles, etc, so I figured jumping across a 4-foot ditch would be no problem. And it wasn't... at first. The last ditch was noticeably wider than the rest - I knew I couldn't leap across it and I didn't think I was strong enough to jump in to the ditch and try to pull myself out, so I decided to throw myself at the ground on the opposite side of the ditch and hopefully land with at least my elbows on there so I could use my shoulder and back strength to pull myself up. This was a horrible idea. I ended up landing my left palm on a rather sharp rock, resulting in a deep gash and my subsequent mummy hand. The course medics told me that any bandages they put on my hand would come right off, so I decided to keep on going and deal with the injury after the race. All potential medical issues aside, this meant that I couldn't use my left hand for things without searing pain.
The next obstacle was the Kiss of Mud, which was relatively easy for me. I crawled right on under that barbed wire quickly enough to beat some of my (male) teammates. The guys were impressed and I started feeling good about my ability to tackle the obstacles despite my injury.
It's a good thing I did well on Kiss of Mud because the Berlin Walls were not my finest moment. While some of the guys on my team were able to run, jump, and pull themselves up the wood walls without assistance, I needed a boost. Luckily, so did a lot of other people.
The next obstacle, Bale Bonds, was a lot easier for me. I scaled the mini-mountain of hay quickly, slid down the opposite end, and didn't look back. I never thought I would have a preference between wooden walls and mountains of hay, but I strongly prefer the hay.
After Bale Bonds came Hold Your Wood, which was relatively easy as I chose a "girl sized" piece of wood. Everyone on our team got through there quickly and continued the run to another Kiss of Mud.
I was feeling pretty great about my abilities to crawl on my elbows under obstacles, which was great because Trench Warfare was next. I'm not particularly claustrophobic or scared of the dark, but it was pitch black and eerily quiet in those tunnels. I was more than happy to get out of there.
The next obstacle was hands-down my favorite. Walk the Plank involves climbing up a wood wall (this one had a couple of hand/foot holds) to a platform about 20 feet above the water. As I looked over the edge, my stomach did a couple of flip-flops. I knew I needed to jump soon or I'd start getting too nervous to go. As I had that realization, a guy standing next to me mentioned he was scared of heights. I grabbed his hand and told him we'd jump together - and we did.
The TM website doesn't have a description of our next obstacle, Log Jammin'; it consisted of getting over logs that were 7-10 feet off the ground. I needed a boost on all of them, but the guys on our team were able to get over the first few on their own. Good thing they're tall.
After Log Jammin' came King of the Mountain, which was basically Bale Bonds on steroids. I had a lot of fun with it and stopped for a minute at the top to enjoy the view.
It's a good thing I was enjoying myself because the next obstacle, Electic Eel, wasn't super. Crawling through water under live wires isn't really my cup of tea. I got through there as quickly as possible and tried to forget about it. I knew I would be facing live wires later in the course and didn't want to psych myself out.
After a particularly muddy stretch, we came to Underwater Tunnels. Slogging through the pond and popping under barrels was a nice break from running through the mud, which was starting to get exhausting. This was also around the time the pain in my left hand started to border on unbearable. I was beginning to think my decision to bypass medical attention and continue on with the race was a poor one, and was ready to finish. The steep uphill climb through the mud before the next set of Berlin Walls didn't help my exhaustion and, coupled with everything going on with my hand, caused me to skip this obstacle. While I'm not proud of this decision, I know it was the right one - at this point it was clear that something was wrong with my hand and, every time I used it to pull myself up on something, I felt muscular pain as well as a sharp pain from my cut.
The next obstacle, the Mud Mile, was hilarious to my teammates at first - after all, hadn't we just run 8.5 of those? We quickly discovered it wasn't a joke - we had to climb over large mounds of mud, slide in to the trenches between, and repeat the process. I lost count at around the 7th hill. As there were no places to get a good hand or foot hold, teamwork was necessary. I'm really thankful to everyone that helped me through this obstacle as people were pulling strangers up left and right.
After the Mud Mile we were all coated in mud and I hoped for another water-related obstacle so we could wash off. I sort of got my wish with the Boa Constrictor. We were lucky - the first pipe was on a downhill slope so we could slide through it. The second one was a little more difficult as we had to climb uphill through a slick pipe. This was the only obstacle where taller people were at a disadvantage. I was able to use my knees to get up the pipe while the rest of my teammates (all members of the 6' and up club) were forced to use only their arms and elbows.
There was a fair distance between the Boa Constrictor and the next obstacle, but once we hit it I knew we were in the home stretch. I'd seen the Funky Monkey as we walked to the start line.
As I mentioned above, my upper body strength isn't the best. I was coated in mud and tired, so I ended up dropping down in to the pool of water after about 3 monkey bars. Oh well.
I was looking forward to Twinkle Toes because I knew I would be good at it. I attribute my ability to focus and balance on a beam to years of yoga and gymnastics. Unlike the obstacle before, I managed to stay out of the pool of water.
I saw Everest on my walk to the start line and had been looking forward to completing that obstacle; however, I'd seen that almost everyone needed to jump and be caught with both hands in order to make it to the top of the quarter-pipe. That clearly wasn't going to happen with my injured left hand. The huge crowd waiting to complete this obstacle sealed the deal. I will definitely be coming back for Everest in the future.
As we passed Everest I realized that only a quarter mile and one more obstacle were standing between us and the finish line. Unfortunately, that obstacle was Electroshock Therapy.
For those of you who think it couldn't possibly be that bad, take a closer look at the photo above. Those are live wires dangling over a pit of muddy water. IT HURT. We managed to slog through there and cross the finish line about 3 hours after we started. I don't think I've ever been prouder to complete a race. I now understand what the "big deal" about earning an orange sweatband is and can't wait to earn another one.
(After, with my new favorite sweatband)
But maybe I'll wait until my hand heals.
You're impressive, Kris. I am never going to do something this crazy!
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