Tough Mudder aka...Hah! We fooled you!

Jason and my Tough Mudder experience started last August when he heard about the race. He showed me the videos and pictures as a joke and I thought that it would be fun to do. Fast forward till today and all of the excitement came to fruition.

We left our place way too early and made it to the raceway while it was still dark. We had an hour or so to roam the main area, stretched and admired everyone's costumes. The race started out mild enough, we had a short run and then we had to go into a pond and duck our heads under the barrels that were floating. The obstacle itself wasn't bad because the water wasn't as cold as I thought and I'm a good swimmer. The only issue was that there was someone in front of me that wasn't going under so Jason and I ended up treading water for awhile. There were a whole bunch of obstacles and we got to the point that Jason and I lost track of them.

The easier obstacles were in the beginning of the race and they got harder as we went on. However, everybody helped everyone else and it was actually quite fun. I wasn't expecting so much mud though. I know that it was a mud run, but it seemed like once the mud was drying off, they made us go into some ore mud. My shoes were not up to par, which made it harder and I ended up getting rocks un my shoes every time there was mud and then I slipped and slid for at least 100 yards afterwards. I was actually having lots of fun!

However, towards the middle of the race, my legs started cramping up. I would occasionally stop to stretch and be good to go. Jason and I actually brought a camelbak and some larabars for snacks and they were very helpful. Unfortunately, around mile 8 or 9, my legs cramped up majorly and I almost thought that I was going to have to give up. I did appreciate how everyone that passed me asked if I was ok and volunteered to get the medics. Jason helped me work through the pain and we moved on, albeit a lot slower. I also decided to sit some obstacles out so that I could finish the race. I ended up sitting out the most physically draining obstacles. As much as I would have loved to do all the obstacles, I didn't want my legs seizing up and having to quit. Plus, the electric eel (crawling through mud while trying not to get electrocuted) looked scary and Jason got zapped 5 times. In the end, I finished the race and was even able to go through the last obstacle which was running through live wire. I actually army crawled under the wires and was able to not get zapped. However, according to Jason, I had a wire tough my bun but it didn't zap me. Thank God!

My favorite obstacle was probably the mud mile where they had hills of mud that you climbed up and then slid into ponds. It was actually lots of fun!

My proudest moments were when I went through the two sets of tunnels. I'm claustrophobic so that was definitely my most mentally challenging obstacles. One set even had water halfway up the tunnel and I had to try to not freak out.

My scariest moment was during the arctic enema. It was pretty much a huge dumpster filled with ice water. There was a board in the middle that you had to go under. I wanted to just go in and get in done quickly, however, the board went down much lower than I thought and ended up getting caught up on the board because I had a backpack on. For a split second, I thought I was going to drown, but was able to gather myself and dove deeper to make it to the other side. I quickly got out and froze for awhile. Jason now calls me Casper.

The most painful obstacle was actually this huge mud hill that you had to climb up. And what goes up must come down, so we had this steep mud hill to slid down. Which wouldn't be so bad except for the embedded rocks in the hill. Jason and my backside is still sore!

I was most pleasantly surprised by how easily I was able to do the strength obstacles. All my training definitely helped and I was able to do some upper body obstacles with ease.  I was also pleasantly surprised at the fact that most of the water events were quite warm. It was nice to not get cold. In fact, the weather was wonderful and it was the perfect weather to do the race. Not too hot and not too cold and when we did get hot, the water events cooled us off nicely.

I was most unpleasantly surprised by the fact that it was a 12 mile race and not a 10 mile race. Not only was the even 20% longer, there were a lot more obstacles to conquer. The obstacles weren't so bad but the extra 2 miles definitely was a killjoy at the end of the race when I was barely putting one foot in front of the other. Although I made it to the end and Jason didn't have to carry me!

While I wasn't expecting so much mud, I enjoyed using it as a natural sunblock and now my hair is actually really soft! In fact lots of people used it as sunblock and I ended up smearing a big burly dude in a kilt with mud because he was getting red.

I'm really happy that Jason and I ran Tough Mudder today. It was a great bonding experience for us since it was our kind of fun. But it was also a great test of my dependence on God. Towards the end, I was really suffering but Jason and I prayed and I was able to rely on God's strength to finish the race. It was a great humbling experience because I couldn't do it without people helping me and I definitely wouldn't be able to do it without God's strength carrying me through.

All in all, I would definitely do it again but I would train more for it. Although I'm not sure that I would do it next year, but then again, I'm still sore!  I would also get some Vibrim 5fingers for shoes since Jason did much better with those shoes. And I would bring the camelbak and snacks again. There were hydration stations and snacks along the way, but it was good to have a snack and water on hand for when I needed it. Plus, it helped us float for the water obstacles!

P.S. Jason was great and he helped me through the race and supported me the whole time. He even spent over 5 minutes stretching my calves out so that I could keep going. He completed all the obstacles and even made some very hard ones seem like a cake walk. He is a rock star!