Tough mudder recap

So, I'm officially a Tough Mudder finisher. I am sore beyond belief but I managed to try every obstacle (and complete almost all of them) and cross the finish line with a smile.

Overall, the course was HARD. Walking (not running, no one was running) up a ski slope is brutal. Sliding down a ski slope and trying to keep your balance in the mud is also brutal. It took us over 5 hours to complete the whole course because the going was so slow. Every step up the hill was like doing lunges rather than walking. There were people who just pulled over to the side and sat down. A bunch of us tried turning around and baby stepping up the hill backwards to give our calves a break. I tried stepping up it sideways. Nothing doing. Total elevation was almost 3,500 feet. Which sort of means nothing to me because I don't know elevation but trust me, it was a lot of steep hills.

The course was also LONG. I mean, duh, yes, it is 10+ miles, but at one point I figured we were at mile 5 or 6 and we hadn't even hit mile 3 yet. And then 800 years later we hit mile 5. Not even halfway there. Ouch.

Thankfully the weather was perfect. 60 and a mix of sun and clouds. No rain!

Also want to take a quick moment to shout out to my support team - Jansky, who ran it with me and helped me over pretty much all the hard obstacles, and our significant others, Jay and Jackie who cheered their hearts out for us, ran through mud, got lost in the woods, and fought a bear to get to the obstacles on time. One of those things is not true. <3

Obstacles I'm most proud of:

1. Monkey bars

I quote from my last post: "Also, my dream goal was to rock the monkey bars and that is definitely not happening." As we made our way up to the monkey bars, I thought, why I am even trying this; I'm just going to fall immediately into the water. But I figured, I might as well at least pretend to try, right? So I reach up to the first bar, and hang, and I'm like, alright, I GUESS I'll make an effort. So I make a grab at the second bar, and make it. And then the third bar, and make it. And then the fourth bar. And then the fifth bar. I'm almost halfway and I look over to my right and yell over to Jay, "OH MY GOD I'M DOING IT!!!" and then of course right at that moment I lose all of my rhythm. I make the mistake of looking down. And I'm reeeeeeally high up. At that point my choices were either drop, or drop. But I really didn't want to drop.

I'm in white. Contemplating just chilling here for the rest of my life because dropping isn't an option.

So I hung there like a moron for about 15 seconds, and thankfully there was no one behind me that I was holding up, and finally dropped. Once I was in the water, it was all about dodging the people above me to make sure I wasn't doing to get crushed by other falling humans. But I made it out and was SO psyched I had made it as far as I did!

2. Walk the plank

I knew this obstacle would suck because I'm not a fan of heights and I hate the feeling of dropping. But I had no idea it would be so.... traumatic. Sounds dramatic but it's true. I climb my way up to the top, and then it's my turn to jump, and I take one look down and there is NO way I am jumping off this plank. I'm LITERALLY a MILLION feet in the air. And the woman keeps counting down "3, 2 1!" and everyone in the lines next to me jumps except for me. And then again "3, 2, 1!" and I'm definitely not jumping.

Holding onto both bars, as far away from the edge as possible. The volunteer lady in orange was really nice. Thanks, volunteer lady!

I'm almost in tears (yeah, it was bad) and everyone behind me is being super helpful and I keep apologizing to them. The woman up there volunteering was really nice too, and everyone is cheering for me (like, the entire crowd of spectators, it was pretty awesome in retrospect), but I'm pretty certain there is no way I'll be able to jump. But I know I'm going to be really ticked off if I skip it.

Sitting down, trying to become one with the water below me. Sitting down takes about 2 feet off how far up it looks; totally logical.

Then the official at the bottom is screaming up at me "LAST CHANCE" because I'm definitely holding up the line, so.... I jumped. And the entire crowd just erupts in cheers. Glad I managed to do that one, but dang it was hard.

Out of the water, alive. You can kind of see behind me how high the jump is. It doesn't look high but I promise you it was ONE MILLION FEET

Other mentionable obstacles:

1. The electroshocks....

...weren't bad at all. The announcer told us at the beginning that the zaps were primed to be really bad, and to expect some faceplants. So I was scared beyond scared going through, but it was the last obstacle standing between me and an orange headband, so off we went.

Maybe I didn't get hit by the worst of them but it felt like a really big rubber band snapped at you and that was it. I had originally envisioned getting the wires wrapped around me and just shaking uncontrollably until I fell in an unconscious heap on the ground. Definitely not like that. Really the zaps were just a millisecond long.

2. Ice bath

The ice bath also wasn't so bad. I know, I know, I said I wouldn't do it. I really shouldn't have but I got caught up in the moment. Stupid, maybe, but there wasn't even floating ice in there. It was a lot warmer than it could have been. I hopped in and popped over the edge to yell to Jay "It's not that bad!!!" and the guy next to me just mutters "shut up," so maybe it was pretty cold. Either way, I ended up being fine, which was good.

Refreshing!

3. Rope wall and berlin walls

The rope wall was definitely one I wanted to do, and I got up and over, but not without help. The footholds were so tiny and were so muddy that I couldn't get a good grip with my feet and had to rely pretty much all on my arms. I was happy to have a hand at the top to get me up it.

The berlin walls, despite being ridiculously tall, were pretty easy since I had three strong men hoisting me over each one and two more men helping me down on the other side. Thanks, dudes!

4. Pyramid scheme

Lots of fun and lots of teamwork. More dudes helping me on this one. There was no way you could get up this one by yourself, so teamwork was required.

Almost to the top! Reach! Hold!

We stopped and helped some other people behind us up too, which was fun.

Afterwards

After the electroshock, they added insult to injury by making you take a sharp right to go UP another hill, and then turn right back around and go back down it to the finish. Oy. But once we crossed the finish line, I was so. so. happy. I actually got wicked emotional at the end because it hit me that I had actually finished and had that dang orange headband. AND I had done pretty much every obstacle that I could. I was so proud of myself.

In the two days after my entire body was one big ball of sore. Owwww. Advil and light stretching and hobbling around were my three best friends. 

Will I do it again? Yes, because we all signed up afterwards for a discounted voucher for a 2015 race. And you better believe I will finish those monkey bars.