I am not sure where I get these crazy ideas to do things, but somehow they find their way into my head. . . and I usually rope a few good friends into doing the crazy things with me. Luckily my friends love me and forgive me.
I heard about this Tough Mudder Event through Facebook. They tout themselves as the toughest one day endurance event on the planet. I am not sure that I completely believe that, but it was the toughest thing that I have ever done in one day. It's a series of obstacles strategically placed over a 7 mile *hilly* course. The obstacles ranged from running through mud to climbing a wall. Nothing sounded too hard, it all seemed doable, so why no do it? Well, I talked 5 friends into doing it with me. . . and at different points throughout the event, I thought for sure I would have 5 less friends before the day was over.
We rented a cabin and spent the night up there the night before. We were all really glad that we did that because none of us wanted to get up at 4am, drive 3 hours, do an event like this, and drive another 3 hours home! The really nice thing about the cabin is that we rented it for the weekend - none of us were planning on staying all weekend, but it was nice that we were able to come back after the event, shower, change our clothes, have a sandwich and a beer.
The event itself was a ton of fun - even if we didn't always look like we were having fun! The course itself started at 6,600 ft and WE climbed up to 8,500 ft - THREE times! Who climbs a mountain three times in ONE day? We do. On top of the mountain climbing, there were 19 obstacles that we had to complete. You need to take a look at the course map to see exactly what we were up against. The course map isn't exact as some of the obstacles were in a different order, and the photos in the map are not our photos, but photos of previous event. But the TM facebook page is updating the photos from our actual event regularly. I haven't seen myself in any of the photos yet, but I did the mandatory forehead marking so hopefully I will find myself in one eventually.
The Tough Mudder event was a TON of fun, but it was also tough. The strange thing about this event was that the obstacles themselves weren't that hard at all - they were pretty easy, and anyone that is relatively fit could do them all without too much effort. What was the toughest was the mountain climbing in the altitude. I haven't been more than a few hundred feet above sea level in years. And I don't think that I have done anything in altitude in at least a decade. The mountain climbing was rough, but the altitude was though and made it that much more difficult. It was next to impossible for me to breathe at times, and to continue climbing while not being able to breathe took some will power. But there were never any points when I thought I just can't do this anymore. It never became a mind over matter thing, and for that I was grateful. My body was always willing and able to continue.
Besides the altitude and the mountain climbing, some of the obstacles were climbing a wall - SIXTEEN times; carrying a block of wood for 1/2 a mile - or, if you were like E, you carried an entire tree; climbing the "Berlin wall" (different from the other wall we climbed sixteen times); crawling under barbed wire; crawling through a pipe; etc. All of these were fun and easy. The hardest obstacle of all was the water one. The water obstacle was at the top of the mountain and was carried out in the pond that they use to make snow in. Seriously. The water was freezing, and we knew it, but we did it anyway . . . twice. The first time going into the water, you shocked your system and it became difficult to breathe, but you still had to swim in it. You were allowed to get out, but then you had to get right back in again. That was tough. Knowing exactly how cold it was and how freezing you were going to be, but still going in, took some will power. I remember standing at the top of the slide (yes, you had to slide down the second time) and debating whether or not I wanted to complete this obstacle. Because not only did you have to slide into the freezing cold water again, but you had to walk through it - chest deep - around the raft (the raft that is there to pull you out in case you die half-way through). Of course I did it, how could I not? But there was a moment after when I thought I would never be warm again. I think a lot of people felt that way because I heard a lot of the guys talking about their. . . er. . .um. . . balls. I heard the funniest thing on the wall climb after the wood carrying, after the water: One guy said to another while climbing the wall "dude, I can see your nuts" the second guy said "good, because I can't feel them anymore and I wasn't sure they were still there."
Now that the event is over, and I survived, and was still able to get out of bed the next day, I am really glad that we did this. This is something that you have to do with a group of friends. And they can't be just any friends, they have to be the right mix of people. The cool thing about our group was that not everyone was friends with everyone else before we started. I knew everyone, but they didn’t all know each other. Luckily, I have awesome friends, and everyone got along great, and everyone helped each other out, and looked out for each other. And everyone became friends through this event. And we are already talking about NEXT year. . .
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