Tough Mudder 2013

 

Here’s a list of links to the types of obstacles we encountered:

• Kiss of Mud – Is where you crawl under barbed wire in the mud (easy)
• Glory Blades – Wall climbing (easy)
• Cage Crawl – Was very fun. I moved through it quickly, but I had to be careful that I didn’t splash the mud-water in my eyes.
• Killa Guerrilla – Climbing bushels of hay (easy).
• Walk the Plank – Dropping into the muddy water, was a good time.
• Hold Your Wood – Should have been heavier or larger logs (easy).
• Electric Eel – This one only my partner did, since I have metal in my head.
• Warrior Carry – I did the fireman’s carry, my partner was smaller than me (too easy).
• Funky Monkey – Monkey bars, what can I say (too easy).
• Berlin Walls – You need to get a good jump (moderate).
• Bale Bonds – More hay, really? (still easy). [pullquote]I’ll tell you, I’ve never liked the cold and this is just long enough to freeze you.[/pullquote]
• Just the Tip – I do pull-ups everyday, easy for me (but moderate).
• Balls to the Wall – Would have been better if suspended, no wall support (easy).
• Rail Garden – Common!!! Over rail?  (…easy).
• Arctic Enema – This is definitely named correctly.  I’ll tell you, I’ve never liked the cold and this is just long enough to freeze you.  If it was twice as long I’d give it a hard!!! (Moderate, but I would never look forward to it… excellent!).
• Tired Yet – Jumped over these with little effort (easy).
• Mud Mile – The mud mile was very cool, mud every where and little stability.  If it wasn’t for Kingsley, pulling me up (on the first one only), having no treads on sneakers would have had me stuck there forever, lol (easy, but fun).
• Smoke Chute – OK, here’s where you either have the nerve to do it or you don’t.  You have no idea what’s at the other end, as you look at this extremely vertical slide leading to who knows what.  Do you do it? (It reminded me of the first time I jumped out of a plane). Excellent!!! (Hard)
• Army Crawl – For an army guy, it is what it is (easy).
• Boa Constrictor – This was a good one! If you have confinement issues or fear of tight spaces, it’ll be hard.  I’m fine with it though (medium).
• Everest – I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it, but on the first try – Good!!!  It’s all about momentum. Even some small people were able to do it, with the right momentum.  Some people just couldn’t get up, as was clear with their face plants (medium).
• Electroshock Therapy –  Only my partner did this one, still due to ‘head metal’.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to electrocute myself on ‘Electric Eel‘ and ‘Electroshock Therapy‘, as I was looking forward to it.  This was recommended from the Tough Mudder staff not to do, with the metal in my head… I took their recommendation… 🙁

Although there were many steep hills to climb, I treated this as a team thing, so I didn’t go full speed.  The course took us a little over 3 hours to complete, but it I was going full speed I would have completed the course around 2 hours.  Unfortunately many of the obstacles were choke points, where you were waiting for groups that left before you.  This is a team building event, because everybody tries to help one another if there is a difficulty at any obstacle, unlike a Spartan Race. Oh, did I mention the official Spartan Race website?

That said I enjoyed this race!

At the end of the Race we ended up enjoying one victory beer. I would have enjoyed it more if it was Gluten-Free, but victory non the less!

Just as we thought the punishment was over, we hit the showers…seriously, no hot water???!!!