I’m Alive: Tough Mudder Recap

And hooray for that!

I’ve been gone for a few days because I had a crazy busy weekend. For the time being, we’ll just chat about the big scary event that I completed on Sunday: the Tough Mudder!

Yes, I was kinda nervous going into the event. I knew it was 10 miles with 4000 feet of elevation gain, topping at at 11,500 feet….but that was it. They tell you the obstacles ahead of time, but you don’t truly grasp what they’re like until you’re there.

The Mudder started with an all-out sprint downhill, and some of these crazies were running so fast that I was concerned they’d break an ankle. We kinda trotted, figuring that we had plenty of running ahead of us….and that was definitely true. We did a lot of uphill running, getting the heart rate up, before we ran into the first set of Berlin Walls.

Poor Craig. Us 4 girls had absolutely no chance of getting over these 12-foot monsters on our own, so we literally stepped all over him in an effort to climb over. Luckily, he is a man beast and doesn’t mind. In fact, I think he liked it!

After that, we did a lot more running…and a lot more uphill. We encountered a lot of obstacles that weren’t too scary…..

Those were all a lot of fun, but until that point, nothing truly, truly scary….but then we hit the underwater tunnels. They describe them pretty clearly on the event website, and none of us had thought anything of them….but of course, that was because we weren’t at 11,000 feet looking at a river full of FREEZING water. And when I say freezing, I literally mean freezing–they told us at the beginning that the water was a whopping 35 degrees.

Granted, not the best picture….pretty sure I was shivering uncontrollably and turning purple, so I wasn’t really looking at the lens of the camera 🙂 Anyway, we crossed the river in one direction, going into the water about waist deep….freezing, definitely, but we made it across and were feeling all sassy and happy…until we hit these tunnels. Not only did we have to go back into the frigid water, but we had to swim under three different sets of tunnels. It’s kinda hard to imagine when you’re sitting comfortable in your home, reading this from your couch….but submerging your head underneath 35 degree water is HARD! Not to mention, doing it three times in a row!!! I stared at the tunnels for a few seconds, totally psyching myself out….I know how cold water effects my asthma, but I also didn’t want to bail out of the obstacle. Finally, we all just said f**k it and went for it and dove on in.

FREEZING!!

I’m pretty sure I sounded like a hooting owl when  came up, gasping for air…and I know I wasn’t the only one! Poor Megan actually had an asthma attack and we had to wrap her in a solar blanket and call a medic over. She toughed it out though, and pulled through. What a champ!

After the water, the course involved, literally, carrying a log up and back down the mountain. Pretty stupid but it sure did help warm the body back up, which I’m sure was the point. After that, we were all able to run for quite awhile because we were so numb–we literally couldn’t feel our bodies so the running was EASY!!

We kept going, encountering some more obstacles…

Finally, near the end of the 10 mile, we encountered 2 of the more intimidating obstacles: the monkey bars and electroshock therapy. Angel went first on the monkey bars, but since she didn’t take off her gloves, she got stuck in the middle and had to fall into the water.

Craig, of course, got across the bars no problem. Meanwhile, Cindy, Megan, and I sat on the opposite side, staring at them, psyching ourselves out once again. Finally, like with the freezing water, I just said screw it! I took off my gloves, stuck them inside my sports bra, and climbed on up….and VICTORY!!!! I made it up the bars to the peak, and then actually made it back down! I was so proud of myself for getting across, and it was even better when Cindy made it across too!

Finally, we encountered the scary of the scary–the electrocution zone! I was too terrified to take any pictures, but this was the singular obstacle that I had been worried about the entire time. Different wires were spiked with 10,000 volts of electricity, and it was literally dropping people to their knees. Craig went first, and I winced as he got shocked and totally got dropped–he compared the pain to being tasered. Angel and Cindy ran through next, and I heard the “pop” as the sparks hit their arms. Luckily, they didn’t get the big voltage, so they didn’t get dropped…but their arms hurt the next day, and the shocks sure did leave some good bruises! Finally, Megan and I ran through, sprinting as fast as we could. We were almost to the end when I heard a loud pop and saw Megan fall over at my side. Like the awesome friend that I am, I totally kept running until I was out of the wires (sorry Megan!) Miraculously, I managed to get through all of them without being shocked, but she hadn’t been so lucky 🙂

In the end, Tough Mudder was awesome. The entire event, while not as scary or tough as I had built it up to be, was a TON of fun. Of course, having said that, I imagine they’ll make it even scarier and harder for next year. After all, we can’t have people thinking the Tough Mudder is actually….easy, right?!