Prologue
Four years ago, one of my co-workers told me about an obstacle course race called "Tough Mudder". "It's twelve miles long. You run through mud, climb over walls, jump over fire, swim through ice, and run through live electric wires." "You're crazy," I said. "Let's do it!"I had been working in an office and going to school full-time for about a year. I had been an athlete in highschool, but due to my inactive lifestyle, I was flat out of shape. I had gained around twenty pounds in a year, none of it muscle. I knew I wasn't in any shape to run twelve miles, much less through a course designed by British special forces. We had about four months to prepare, so I started running during my lunch breaks and going to the gym after work a few days a week.
Tough Mudder is a ten- to twelve- mile challenge that involves crawling under barbed wire through mud, jumping into freezing water, jumping over fire, scaling 12-foot walls, running through live electrical wires, and (more recently) enduring tear gas. And it is utterly addicting. I'm no masochist. I just love the feeling of accomplishment and of completing challenges, and I'm passionate about improving myself and pushing my body to its' limits.
Event Day
Fast forward four months. As I leaped into a huge dumpster filled to the brim with ice and freezing water, I momentarily questioned my sanity. As my head submerged under the freezing water of 'Chernobyl Jacuzzi', I had no doubts that I had, in fact, lost my sanity sometime right before I signed up for Mudder.A few hours prior, on the morning of Tough Mudder, my friend had called and told me he was backing out. "My back has been hurting lately," he said, and he didn't want the injury to get worse. That was fine, I'd just run it by myself.
Instead of having everyone run at the same time, the Tough Mudder is split up into different waves, with about two hundred people starting twenty minutes apart. My wave was scheduled for 9 A.M., and by 8:30 the temperature had climbed to a blistering 61 degrees Fahrenheit. The event was in Central Florida, but it was November, and a cold snap had caused the temperature to drop. I had decided to wear only athletic shorts and a pair of old New Balance trail running shoes.
The event started with a safety briefing and a few minutes of getting hyped up by a very motivating Mudder named Sean Corvelle. My adrenaline was rushing, and I was ready and raring to go. After the briefing, we were unleashed amid Guns n Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" and loud cheering from the crowd.
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| Yours truly on Walk the Plank, Tough Mudder 2010 |
Most of the obstacles turned out to be fairly simple: hopping over small walls, crawling through trenches, climbing and sliding down hills, or trudging through rivers and streams. There were, however, several larger (and usually more painful) obstacles that stick out in my memory.
This one was essentially going swimming in the Arctic Ocean. Mudders jumped into a construction dumpster full of ice (with gallons of dye dumped in to simulate a nuclear reactor), swam to the middle, dove under a piece of wood with barbed wire strung along the top, and swam to the other side of the dumpster. Having spent the first years of my life on a Naval base in Iceland, I'm no stranger to cold, but this was still an incredible shock. After dragging myself out the other side, I was soaked in pink, freezing water, and my entire body was numb. Tip: Jump as far as you can at the beginning. It'll save you a few seconds of getting your balls frozen off.
Everest
Essentially ascending and descending monkey bars. I didn't have a problem with this one, but some of the other Mudders did. It does take a good amount of upper body and grip strength.
Electroshock Therapy
The obstacles might seem hard, but the most difficult part for me was running the 11.2 miles. I was pushing myself pretty hard the entire way, and around mile 8, my legs started cramping hard. There were water and banana stations every few miles, but eight miles of running through mud with shoes on takes its' toll. To make matters worse, my shoes were soaked and coated with mud, which added a lot of weight. I made the decision to lose the shoes, and it was probably one of the best decisions I could have made (to this day, every race I've run has been done barefoot). I'll write a blog about barefoot running sometime. As I previously stated, the course was mostly through mud, dirt, and grass, so I wasn't too worried about stepping anything.
The camaraderie of everyone there really impressed me. There was always someone to help out, whether it was over a wall, through Electroshock Therapy, or over Everest. I've run four Tough Mudders to date, (all of them barefoot) and I'm signed up for one later this year, as well as a plethora of other obstacle runs. The obstacles have been improved and many have been added since the first year. One more thing about Tough Mudder: anyone can do it. Ten miles might seem like a lot (and it is), but one thing Tough Mudder makes clear is that it is not a race, but a challenge. Nobody says you have to run or even jog the entire way. People aren't going to judge you for going slow. This last year I had eleven people on my team, most of whom had never run anything like that before and several of whom were over the age of 55. Next blog I'll post about the pros and cons of barefoot running.
Chernobyl Jacuzzi (Now Arctic Enema)
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| The coolest obstacle at Mudder. |
This one was essentially going swimming in the Arctic Ocean. Mudders jumped into a construction dumpster full of ice (with gallons of dye dumped in to simulate a nuclear reactor), swam to the middle, dove under a piece of wood with barbed wire strung along the top, and swam to the other side of the dumpster. Having spent the first years of my life on a Naval base in Iceland, I'm no stranger to cold, but this was still an incredible shock. After dragging myself out the other side, I was soaked in pink, freezing water, and my entire body was numb. Tip: Jump as far as you can at the beginning. It'll save you a few seconds of getting your balls frozen off.
Everest
This was one of the coolest obstacles. It's a fifteen-foot quarterpipe, similar to the one on American Ninja Warrior. I liked this one just because of the camaraderie and teamwork everyone showed. Once someone made it up, they would reach down to help the next person up. It wasn't too bad, but it gets slippery once it gets wet.
Funky Monkey
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Essentially ascending and descending monkey bars. I didn't have a problem with this one, but some of the other Mudders did. It does take a good amount of upper body and grip strength.
Electroshock Therapy
This was easily my least favorite obstacle, just based on how much it sucked running through live wires. Around fifty feet of live wires, some carrying 10,000 volts of raw electricity. The first jolt hurt, and the second nearly knocked me down. The worst part is when you get jolted your muscles all contract, sometimes causing you to faceplant. TIP: Take small, quick steps. If you take long strides, the second you get big hit you'll eat mud. Some people ran through holding hands, but that seemed almost worse in some cases as the shock transferred through the entire group every time one anyone got shocked. I told my friend afterwords I'd rather hit Chernobyl five times instead of doing that one once.
The obstacles might seem hard, but the most difficult part for me was running the 11.2 miles. I was pushing myself pretty hard the entire way, and around mile 8, my legs started cramping hard. There were water and banana stations every few miles, but eight miles of running through mud with shoes on takes its' toll. To make matters worse, my shoes were soaked and coated with mud, which added a lot of weight. I made the decision to lose the shoes, and it was probably one of the best decisions I could have made (to this day, every race I've run has been done barefoot). I'll write a blog about barefoot running sometime. As I previously stated, the course was mostly through mud, dirt, and grass, so I wasn't too worried about stepping anything.
The camaraderie of everyone there really impressed me. There was always someone to help out, whether it was over a wall, through Electroshock Therapy, or over Everest. I've run four Tough Mudders to date, (all of them barefoot) and I'm signed up for one later this year, as well as a plethora of other obstacle runs. The obstacles have been improved and many have been added since the first year. One more thing about Tough Mudder: anyone can do it. Ten miles might seem like a lot (and it is), but one thing Tough Mudder makes clear is that it is not a race, but a challenge. Nobody says you have to run or even jog the entire way. People aren't going to judge you for going slow. This last year I had eleven people on my team, most of whom had never run anything like that before and several of whom were over the age of 55. Next blog I'll post about the pros and cons of barefoot running.
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| Muddy Buddies, 2015 |
