It was 8am and my bag had been packed since the night before. My protein bars, powder, gatorade and water were already in the cooler and I was anxious to head up to Frederick MD for my first Tough Mudder. My team and I had been training for roughly 7 months. Each of us had our share of injuries from training, increasing our running mileage in a short period of time and just plain getting old. But we were going to complete the Tough Mudder. We had to. Little did we know that the hardest part of the event would be getting there.......
Getting to this event was absolute madness. The week prior to the event Tough Mudder Headquarters was very specific on the proper way to get to the event and park. They advised you to leave early and aim to arrive 2 hours before your heat time. They sent specific directions with what streets to turn on to get to the event. So we were certainly surprised when friends of ours running in the early heats called us letting us know that traffic was so bad that they had parked on the side of the main road and began WALKING to the event. To be clear, Tough Mudder was adamant that this was a bad idea, but hundreds of people were doing it. Parking on the street and walking 3 miles to the 11 mile obstacle course seems insane, but people really had no choice. Part of the problem was that the very roads Tough Mudder told us to take were being blocked off by the local authorities. This led to chaos on the roads. Luckily we left ourselves plenty of time to get to the event and after a 2.5 hour drive that should have taken an hour, we finally parked.
For us, parking was easy. We were in an open field and there were still plenty of open spots. The issue was that most people couldn't figure out how to get there through no fault of their own. We walked about a half mile to check in, which was divided alphabetically by last name. It did not take very long and we were provided with our race bib, 4 pins, drink bracelet, bag drop bracelet, and tough mudder participant bracelet. The traffic parking fiasco caused some of our team members to arrive late and we ended up missing our wave time. Tough Mudder was aware of all these issues so we were able to just run in the next wave. As we lined up in the warm up section TM workers led functional stretches for participants before we funneled into the starting line. It was at this point that the weather went from nice to horrendous.
As the TM hype man hyped us up the skies opened and the rain began to fall. Before we started they announced that the water obstacles were being shut down due to thunder and lightning for our safety. Obviously this was not their fault, but it is definately a buzz kill when the first obstacle at an obstacle course is shut down. We waited a few more minutes, the hype man yelled through the megaphone and the event began. At that moment we forgot about the rain and the traffic, and the 7 months of pent up anxiety, excitement and energy began to flow. We were off and nothing was going to stop us...
The camraderie at this event is unmatched. I have been a member of sports teams from the middle school level to the college level and nothing I have experienced compares to the sheer number of complete strangers helping one another through obstacles. The first obstacle we encountered was a series of ditches dug into the ground filled wth mud. At some points it was up to your thighs and at its worst your mid torso. It wasn't impossible to climb out of the mud ditch, but without the right grip it was absolutely a challenge. The worst part was the rocks in the mud scraping your legs as you pulled yourself out. Even the most physically fit jacked beasts needed help, which actually made me feel pretty good about myself when I lent a helping hand. We crawled through mud under barbed wire, walked a mile holding a log of our choice and scaled a hay bale structure all by mile 3. We trekked through the mud bordering the side of the highway as motorists honked and waved and we arrived at one of my favorite obstacles of the day: The Berlin Walls. The walls were approximately 7-8 feet tall and were wet and covered in mud. Without the weather creating extremely muddy terrain it would be possible to scale this wall on your own, but at this point in time it was not. Our team members scaled the wall and stayed straddled on top of the wall to lend a helping hand. Once we all were over we turned around and there was another wall... This time it was 9-10 feet but we all made it.
In all honesty the biggest obstacle at this race was the weather. The storm turned any dry spots on the course to mud, which made the mileage extremely challenging. As we were driving to the course earlier in the morning before the storm we saw many participants running on dry ground. Our team had no such luxury and the result was tired legs. Every foot placement and push off had to be cautious as well as planned out or you risked pulling or twisting something. In fact, a number of participants were pulling up lame with hurt knees, ankles and legs. The course got harder as the day went on as the path itself became one long mud pit.
We labored on and on and on.... We reached mile 10 and we made it to the the final 3 three obstacles: Funky Monkey, Everest, and Electroshock Therapy. We had all been training very hard for the monkey bars with pull up after pull up. These monkey bars are set roughly 12 inches apart but start on an incline. At the peak there is about an 18 inch gap to the next bar which begins a descent to the end of the obstacle. Most people fell to the water and unfortunately with 3 bars to go my fate was the same. Technique is important on this obstacle as well as momentum. Locking your arms out and creating momentum with your legs makes this obstacle easier to complete, but you wouldn't really know this until you try it. Next time I will not fail.
Everest. Everest.......Everest. Right, Everest. What can I say, the mud absolutely made this almost impossible. It was so muddy before the half pipe started that people could barely run without slipping BEFORE they even reached the obstacle!!! It was so bad we ended up doing a human ladder in which people layed down at the base and the next person layed down above them with their legs on the others shoulders. This allowed us to scale the wall somewhat so we could reach the outstretched hands of those at the top of the half pipe. Once we made it up we stayed to try and get every member of our team as well as the other teams in our human ladder up. This was completely taxing on the upper body as some folks were 100% dead weight. It certainly wasn't pretty, but we made it.
The event culminated in electroshock therapy. An obstacle where you sprint through a field of live wires (some wires carry up to 10,000 volts of electric shock) to the finish line. To describe the feeling of these wires, it is like having a giant hammer drill slamming into your quads as you run, sometimes more than once. Depending on your path through the wires you may get shocked multiple times or possibly not at all. Our entire team made it through and we approached the finish line. This was a great feeling. We were finally done. We were cut, bruised, tired and aching but we were officially Tough Mudders. We got our headbands and shirts and claimed our delicious free Dos Equis beer. We did our best to rinse off in the hose showers but they were quickly running out of water. The storm scared away the band and the after party that was supposed to be waiting for us, but it didn't matter. We had done what we set out to do.
This was my first mud run and I must say it was an incredible experience. There were certainly some technical difficulties in getting to the event, but at the end all was forgotten and forgiven. My memories of this day begin well before September 8th when I met some new friends through our weekly group training sessions. I never really enjoyed running, and I still don't, but running on off road terrain changed things for me. It is fun and functionally challenging and I would do it again and again. In fact, we are signed up for Mid Atlantic 2013!!! Mudder Faulkers! Fall in!
When searching the web regarding "what to wear" to a Tough Mudder or Mud Run obstacle course, the debate of whether to wear gloves is usually front and center. It is actually quite funny because much like politics people are very opinionated on this matter and there is very little middle ground. At this point in time I have run two mud races. One with gloves and one without. In my 'opinion,' it really depends on a few factors.
There is no right or wrong answer as it is all personal preference. I can say from experience that when I did not wear gloves my hands were more cut up then when I did. The Mad Grips with the fingers cut provided me with grip for 95% of the Tough Mudder Mid Atlantic race (The other 5% was so muddy that it doesn't matter if you are bare handed or gloved there will be no grip regardless). So make your decision after doing a monkey bars at a local playground in the rain with and without gloves. Get your hands muddy and see what you prefer. I will say that if you have gloves on the course and feel you do not need them you can simply throw them away. If you have no gloves and find yourself wishing you had them, well good luck with that.
