Earning My Orange Headband
Finishing my first Classic Tough Mudder.
I finally ran my first obstacle course race of the season yesterday. Somehow, I managed to fast talk two of my friends into coming along for the ride. Still not sure how I managed that one, but neither backed out, so we had our adventure.
They kept numbers of runners low this year, for obvious reasons. It made for a different experience from my last run. We had a cloudy, cold day for our run which made for quite a few miserable moments, but the sun came out for part of the day, so we could warm up a bit here and there.
Right off the bat, after a decent trek, we got muddy with the Kiss of Mud obstacle. Crawling under barbed wire in mud with a slide into a pit of muddy water made for some cold and dirty people. After that, we were back in the mud with a slide into Quagmire and thus started our teamwork of helping each other back out of the mud.
Devil’s Beard didn’t give us much trouble if you stuck with the group, otherwise getting under the cargo net was rough because it’s heavy. Berlin Walls were the first obstacle that the majority of my team didn’t complete. Only Cory made it over the nine foot wall.
We finally met up with our pit crew at the Mud Mile, which quickly became my favorite obstacle of the day. It’s just a long muddy pit with huge piles of mud to climb over. There was no way to avoid splashing each other as we all acted as climbing aids to get to the top of the mounds.
Lumberjacked had us vaulting over (or in my case, using Cory to help me over) suspended logs. Ladder to Hell was our first test of the fact that no one in the group was good with heights. I almost noped out of it when my first foot slipped on the beams, but I made it over.
The Gauntlet quickly bucked us off as all the grips were too muddy and wet to hang onto, even for our resident Golden Child. Head over Heels killed my hands by walking on them in a wheelbarrow walk. Electric Eel didn’t zap any of us because we army crawled below the wires.
The inverted walls of Skidmarked stopped all but Cory in their tracks. But even he was no match for the Funky Monkey, which we all failed (some of us much sooner than others).
I need more upper body strength.
Hold Your Wood was a quick log carry made easy by all three of us working together. We zipped through Cage Crawl with only a little water getting inhaled by yours truly. Castaway flipped us girls off the tube because we couldn’t find a good rhythm and balance.
Back into muddy water with Pitfall where you couldn’t see sudden peaks and valleys under the water. Bale Bonds reminded me of my childhood climbing over hay bales.
Artic Enema froze us even though we got through it as quick as possible. I fell as I tried to stand and got dunked under the icy water a second time. We took a long group huddle afterwards to warm back up.
Rope a Dope tore up my hands as I missed the knot and went sliding down a wet rope. Shawshanked tossed us back in the water after a climb on our back through a pipe with a cargo net strung across the top. Texas Hold ’Em bucked us all off with our shoes being too slippery to stick the grip.
And then came the crowning glory of the entire run: Mudderhorn. Remember how I said no one in the group was good with heights. Yeah, we still climbed up the three story structure mostly made of cargo net with many group hugs after we finished.
Blockness Monster was a little harder with fewer people to get the blocks turning. Electroshock Therapy didn’t hit me, but I’m sure I’m due for it next year.
We had a few extras for the day. Climbing down every slope and back up again with little creeks to get your feet wet and threaten to make you lose your footing. Much dignity was lost in the mud as we all wiped out on stuff that wasn’t actual obstacles.
Creek Crossing wasn’t on the map and lied about the depth of the water. It was deeper than five feet and required us to swim (we had a not so good swimmer on our team, but they managed it like a champ).
My only complaints for the day were how very little of our run our spectators could actually see, the volunteer who lied about how far we were into the course (by a whole mile), and the dudes who almost ran into us and joked they couldn’t see us because our shirts said ninja on them. I also forgot to pick up my headband for finishing my second Tough Mudder, but I was stupid tired when we got there.
We had fun, made some memories, and definitely slept well that night. I got to test out how well my training has been and find the gaps I need to fill in before the next race.
I’m ready for next year!
