Tough Mudder Virginia

 

 

Apologies for the late post today, friends. I promise it wasn’t because I’m terrible at remembering things. Okay. Maybe it was. But I have a reason…

On Saturday I did a Tough Mudder and my body is still recovering. Needless to say that Sunday night? I passed out HARD and completely spaced the whole “oh yeah, you did that crazy thing yesterday that you have to blog about” thing. There may also have been tequila. Which may have had something to do with the forgetting important things.

Oops?

Anyways. Lesson learned. Tough Mudder + tequila = dead to the world.

I suck.

Today, however, I’m feeling a little bit more human, although I’m still sore as all get out. My upper body took a beating – those obstacles are no joke. Seriously. I tried to do a pull up this morning and the best I could get was a dead hang. My arms literally could not even.

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5/6 of our team

Anyways. Saturday was an early morning. We were up at 5:00 to hit the road by 5:30 for our 8:00 start. My dude and I were running this TM with my friend Nichole and her hubs, and two of their friends. Saturday morning, the sun was bright and hot, and I was sweating just standing still. Needless to say, I was a little bit less than amped to climb over walls and haul through mud trenches in that heat.

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These are our excited faces. Can you tell?

The course itself was just over 10 miles of running through fields, gravel, trails and pavement, with obstacles spaced out every half mile or so. As a team, we wanted to stay together, because some of the obstacles would definitely require teamwork to complete. The first obstacle we came to was no exception. An inclined wall angled toward us that was roughly 10 feet tall. Nichole and her husband and I are all pretty short, so we knew that to get the whole team over the wall, we would need some help. I got hops, but I’m not Michael Jordan.

Our two tallest guys hauled themselves over first and then it was my turn. I jumped up, grabbed their hands and pulled myself up as far as I could. Then I hiked my leg over the edge of the wall and with my teammate’s help, I was able to push the rest of myself over. It was tough and that was just the beginning!

There were log carries, Army crawls, more walls, crazy American Ninja Warrior-style monkey bars, fireman carries, tear gas (not really, just menthol, but still), electroshock therapy, rope walls, shoulder-deep mud trenches, just to name a few! My favorite obstacle though? Arctic Enema. It was SO hot and jumping into a dumpster full of ice water sounded like the best thing ever.

I wasn’t wrong. It was amazing. So freaking cold. But amazing. As soon as we finished, I told the boy that I wanted to go again. Like, four more times.

As the course went on, it just got hotter and hotter. Running between the obstacles got harder and harder. Fortunately, there was plenty of water along the course, and at most stations, they offered us food of some kind. Energy gummies, protein bars, bananas, jerky… lots of options to stay fueled and hydrated.

By the time we got to Mile 7, we picked things up a bit. Pushing through the run portions and resting a bit while we waited to go through obstacles. These last three or so miles were on trails, which was a nice change from running through grass or on pavement. It was also more shaded, which felt really good, too.

One of the last obstacles was Everest, a quarter-pipe that you have to sprint up and haul yourself over. Teamwork is a definite requirement, because while I was able to run up it with no problem, by the end of that course, my arms were shot to hell.

After we finished, it was time for beer and pictures, because you feel pretty badass once you’re done.

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As absolutely wiped out as we were when we finished, it was pretty much decided that we would be doing another one of these crazy things. It was far too much fun not too, and if I actually trained? Pretty sure I could slay it.

Of course, after we got home, we didn’t want to move. But, in our infinite wisdom, we’d already made plans to go to the ballet. So, we swapped out our sweaty, muddy selves, for the cleaned up, classier versions. Because we’re cool like that.

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Have you ever done a Tough Mudder or another obstacle race? What was your favorite part? How ridiculously sore were you afterward? 

4 thoughts on “Tough Mudder Virginia

  1. I can’t even imagine. I did the Dirty Girl once and decided that obstacle races weren’t for me – I’d rather just run. ‘Cause I’m too lazy to focus on more than one body function at a time. Tough Mudder to ballet? That is pretty cool!

    • It was crazy intense and going into it, I was a little nervous. But, I loved every second of it and diving in the mud felt SO good in the heat. Hahaha. But, it was a really great example of tenacity and teamwork.

  2. Way to go, Kyle. Honestly, my first race ever was a mud run and I got banged up so much that I said “never again”. Until the next summer when a few of my friends were doing Run Amuck and I got peer pressured into doing it and after that I said “NEVER AGAIN FOR REAL THIS TIME” and I’ve stuck to it ever since. This one sounds very intense and I’m not sure that I could handle it but it looks pretty awesome!

    • It was bonkers. But SO FUN. I do look like I got beaten up though, my legs and arms have literally all of the bruises ever.And my arms still literally can’t even.

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