Tough Mudder – Minnesota
I competed in a Tough Mudder race on Saturday to celebrate
my brother’s 40th birthday. I
was finishing up some pretty serious training with a marathon 4 weeks prior and
a HM 2 weeks before so I was looking forward to something different. But, I’ll be honest, I was really unsure
about how my lack of strength training would hurt me during the race. I was banking on my distance running and
mental strength to get me through.
For those who don’t know, Tough Mudder is a mud obstacle
race that is 11.5 miles long with 28 obstacles.
There is no timing system, the focus is on team work, not just helping
your own team but others that need it along the way too. Proceeds go to support Wounded Warrior
Foundation. I checked out the map on the
website and was greeted by names like Arctic Enema, Spider Web and Berlin
Wall. Gulp.
My parents and I drove the 10 hours to Minneapolis on
Friday. I did some carb loading on the
way up there and we went to a nice dinner that night. I did not sleep well on Friday night (nerves,
hotel room). Up about 6:00 and headed to
Josh’s house with him and teammate Chris and Lauren. We
drove about an hour to an amphitheater in Wisconsin that boarder a farm, which
is where the race would be held. Got
parked without a problem ($10 parking) and got up to the registration area to
get our bibs. My parents came along to
cheer and take pictures ($20 per person spectator fee on-line, $40 at the gate).
I’m wearing a black CrossFitMN s/s tech shirt and short,
booty style shorts (figured they might help me get a boost if I needed
it). Trail running shoes too. Weather is hot, 80* at the start.
We got our bibs (pinned on to our backs so they wouldn’t rib
off during the race), had our bib numbers marked onto our arms and found our
other two team mates who we hadn’t met before.
They signed up with the Cross-fit gym and joined our team. Here is a
team pic about ½ mile into the race, see how clean and happy we are? Our team
consists of these people, left to right:
John: 5’ 6” Cross-fitter, played college football, hasn’t
ever competed or ran in any race before, not a runner, has never gone more then
5k
Jeff: 5’ 9” Cross-fitter, has run up to 7 miles before,
first competition/race of any kind
Chris: 6’3”, ex-Army, marathoner, long distance bike rider
but has a titanium shoulder therefore no shoulder strength
Me: 5’ 0”, marathon runner, trail runner, small
Lauren: 5’4”, runner training for her first marathon,
average 10:30 min miles
Josh: 6’, brother, Cross-fitter with some shorter distance
running experience
We start off by taking the TM oath, scaled an 8’ wall to
enter the starting corral and took off.
We would run about ¾ mile around rolling hills to our first obstacle,
named Arctic Enema. I was first in line
so I climbed the ladder and looked down into a 4’ deep pool of neon pink ice
water, being kept near freezing by a huge refrigerator trailer next to it. I jump in and am instantly shrieking in
shock. I wade about 5’ to a wood wall
with arrows pointing down so I’m forced to completely submerge to get under
it. DA@N that’s cold water!! My body is now instinctually running the
next 5 feet to the ladder to pull myself out.
Ok, that will wake you up. One
down, 27 to go. Here’s a pic from
Brightroom, not of me (Brightroom posted 200 pics of random people on the TM FB
page so lots of these pics aren’t of me but just the obstacle).
Next up was hay bales; my dad was here to capture the
moment. These weren’t too hard. John, having the best upper body strength
volunteered to go first and help everyone else up. I took a running start and leapt for his
hand. Then I climbed over the bales and
slide down the other side. Not too bad!
Kiss of Mud was next.
This was probably 25 yards of foot deep, muddy water with barbed wire
about 8 inches over the surface. I did
very well with this one as I’m small enough to easily slide under the
wires. And it was funny to get muddy
too. My mom did see a guy get a 2” long
cut on his bald head. The mud was a
blessing, it kept us very cool and comfortable in the heat.
The terrain was hilly but not ski mountain hilly. But my trail running strength really came
through with this. I wasn’t having any
problem tackling the endless hills. But
I’d wait at the top for the rest of my team.
Next we had Devil’s Beard, which was just a long, long net
that people held up as we walked under it.
I attempted to help but since my vertical reach isn’t much, I just
walked through. We also had black plastic
tunnels that were about 24” in diameter to crawl through, again, no issue for
little ol’ me but it did slow our bigger guys down. More hills.
Next was Spider Web, a cargo net climb.
Men were already holding the bottom of the opposite side to secure the
next so John and Josh climbed over and relieved two of them so I could climb
over. Jeff and Chris also took turns
until the team behind us had enough people over to relieve them. I cut up my knees a little here but got fist
pumps for being the first to bleed. Josh
did get mud dropped into his eye which he struggled with for the rest of the
race.
Berlin Wall #1 was next.
12’ walls with no foot holds of any kind. John got a boost from Josh and Jeff and
pulled himself up and straddled the wall.
Then Josh got up. I was next so
Jeff boosted me up and I was easily pulled over by John and Josh. Chris, with the bum shoulder, walked around
the wall and helped me down. Lauren was
next, she was convinced that she couldn’t do it but she was able to. Jeff got a boost from a stranger and got over
as well. Josh stayed up to help up the
next team’s first person and then we were on our way.
Next up was the most difficult one that we had, the Mud
Mile. Nine 10’ mounds of the slickest
mud on the planet, with water between the mounds. Our team got split up some in the chaos of
trying to find footholds and such. The
first mound wasn’t hard, there were several footholds to use but the rest of
them, none. Just slick, slick mud. I did climb on the side of a few where it was
more dirt then mud but couldn’t keep my balance and fell. If you were able to get a boost from someone,
then you would stretch up to whoever was straddling the mound and they would
try to pull you over where you would slide on your back or butt down into the
water for the next one. Try because the
people on top were slick and you were slick so many times I just slid right out
of their grasps. It was exhausting but
we finally finished. We all agreed that
it was by far the most difficult.
I don’t remember exactly what ones were next but we each
carried a log down and up a hill, crawled through another muddy water stretch
with barbed wire but this time there were live wires with 10K volts of
electricity flowing through them (again, smallness won out as I didn’t get
shocked, two of our team mates did and said they were numb for 20
minutes). There was a stretch of about
1.5 miles of “trail” like this (I think they couldn’t get some obstacles set up
or something because the map showed 4 that we didn’t do at all). It wasn’t safe to run most of this part so we
would run and walk it. John got a bad
calf cramp about this point too that bothered him to the end. It’s very dusty as we’re winding our way
around an unplowed cornfield and the wind is blowing. We are all struggling with dust in our eyes
and throats.
I thought it was strange that we had such a long time
between obstacles and then it hit me that they must want our upper bodies to
recover for the next challenges. I was
right. We hit the hanging rings
next. I was really worried about this as
I don’t have much upper body strength and it was an individual challenge. I grabbed the first ring and swung to the next
one. Then my lower body swung me forward
so I could grab the next. Continue to
the end and yes, I did it!!! I had such
a sense of accomplishment after that one.
I think 4 of our members made it.
Next up was the Boa Constrictor, another set of black tubes,
one descending into a pool of muddy water and one going out of it. No problem again for me. Then
Berlin Walls #2, this time they were 15’ high but we used the same strategy to
get over these. There were also numerous
pools of mud with pits dug out in them so you’d be walking through and then
drop down. Nice.
We keep trucking along, Chris and I are running ahead as we
both find it easier then walking. My
shoes are filled with sand, mud, tiny rocks that are just cutting the heck out
of my heels. We see several pairs of
shoes along the course from people who figured it would be easier to go on
without shoes. We’re about mile 10 or so
now. We’re starting to see spectators
again. I round a corner and see my mom,
cheering in a group of people. She looks
pretty happy to see us. Then I turn to
look at what our obstacle is. Holy
crap. It’s Mt. Everest, the ¼ pipe
that’s 25 feet high and probably 40 yards wide. The top of it has wall to wall guys catching
and pulling people up. There’s a line at
the bottom so time for us to figure this out.
We decide to continue with the plan that’s worked so far, send John
first and then Josh. It looks like there
are foot holds every 5 feet or so but it’s just the wood overlapping, the ramp
is totally smooth. My dad is on the
sidelines getting amazing pictures.
John gets up, grabs the hand of someone on the top and gets
pulled up. Josh follows and gets up on
his first try. I’m next. My confidence is pretty high after all I’ve done
so far but when there isn’t anything between me and the ¼ pipe, I get a little
nervous. So I sprint the 30 feet to the
bottom of the pipe and reach up. Ah,
yeah, they don’t have Go, Go, Gadget Arms so I quickly slide back down. Ok, that’s just a warm up. Try #2, I sprint again and hear them both
yelling “Keep running, keep running” so I run further and stretch as far as I
can. Nope. Ok, not a problem, 3rd time’s the
charm. This time I sprint and keep running
until my feet literally are climbing the wall and I reach as far up as I
can. Josh grabs my hand and John gets my
other hand. They pull me up and I keep
saying “Don’t let me fall, don’t let me fall” so John hooks my knee and pulls
me over. YES!!! I did it!!!!
Jeff was next and he made it up the first try. Lauren took 4 times but Chris gave her a
boost and that got her there. Then Chris
made it up, even with the busted shoulder.
We were so elated to have conquered Everest as a team.
Funky Monkey was next, monkey bars that rotated in your
hands. I fell after the 3rd
bar and only Jeff made it all the way across.
Twinkle Toes was after that. This
was a balance beam that wasn’t secured so it wobbled in the middle. To add to the fun, it was covered in mud
from everyone’s shoes. I’ve got good
balance so moved quickly across it and was the only teammate to make it without
falling!
A really high jump into really deep water was next. I climbed the ladder and waited my turn. The guy in front of me did a fancy flip off
the board. For some reason, I froze
up. I’m not afraid of water or heights
but I just was really hesitant to go. I
look over and Josh is next to me and he says “Go together?” so we jumped. The water was so deep that I seemed to plunge
down forever and took a long time to break the surface. But I did (lost my headband). The lifeguard asked if I needed help but I
didn’t so I just swam to the end and climbed the cargo net out. Woo-hoo!
Last but not least was Electroshock Therapy. It was a run about 15 feet long with hay
bales every few feet. Wires, some of
them live with 10K volts, were hanging down.
I know this is the last one so I run through first (too fast for my dad
to get a picture). Again, being little
paid off as the wires were spaced about 18” apart and I’m only 12” wide! I make it through without a problem. Several of my teammates were shocked but we
all were cheering at the end. Then we
turn a corner and there’s the finish line!
We charge across it as a team and are crowned with our bright orange
sweat bands. Sweet!! Before this day, I thought it was pretty lame
to get a sweat band instead of a medal for this event. But afterwards, a medal didn’t seem right for
it. But an obnoxious orange terry cloth
band? Yes, that’s the right bling. We also got our finishers shirts and some
XXEquis beer.
So…that’s my RR. It
took us just under 4 hours to complete the 11.5 miles. A 20:52 pace.
LOL. I’m scraped up and bruised,
my shoulders are sore. But I’d do it
again in a second. If you’re considering
doing it, you should. It’s intense but
so fun. They had a Medivac helicopter
doing circles in the sky and I saw it land twice to get people out. An ATV passed me on a trail to get someone
and another passed me with a guy holding his ankle. Another team lost a member to a broken arm
when she fell off the Berlin Wall. So
injuries do happen so I wouldn’t do this race if you’re training for a goal
marathon! Do it with a team though, an
individual cannot do it by themselves.
They would have to get help from other teams (which is freely given,
BTW). I had a blast and am proud to be
a Tough Mudder.
