Once we arrived at the bottom of the mountain in the overflow parking lots, we were bussed up to the top of the hill. The weather was absolutely perfect at mid 50's - enough sun to warm you up after the water obstacles, but cool enough to not overheat.
See what I mean?
So for those who don't know, Tough Mudder has a costume theme to it. People dress up with their teams or individually to potentially win most badass costume, most dumbass costume, and most ass costume (least clothing.) We didn't really think any of those would be within grasp, but my pre-race email trash talk inspired an awesome t-shirt idea. At first glance, the front side is rude and possibly offensive: Don't be a pussy...
Granted we didn't use the same cat as the trash talk, but it was too small to show up clearly on a t-shirt.
Now that we were all registered, we were ready to rock. One final picture of us before the race began. We did sign a death waiver, so technically, this could have been the last picture ever taken of Jamie and myself.
This was the "warm-up" of the race. Mistakenly, Jamie and I ran up this first ski slope, thinking there would only be 2 of them in the course. Boy were we wrong. We moved from the absolute back to at least the top 100 of our roughly 500 person 11:40 AM start wave. I would bet that we ended up finishing in the top 100 or better of our group
Obstacle 2 - Berlin Walls #1
These walls were between 10 and 12 feet high - I think there were 3 of them in a row about 20 yards apart. They had a 1 foot long 2x4 about 3 feet up to act as a "step" to help you reach the top and climb up. We powered through these no problem. After we were over these, we began the back side descent of the Braveheart Charge that took us up the first ski slope. The downhills in this race were actually some of the more punishing parts of the course - they made you constantly flex both your calves and quads, so they contributed to fatigue greatly.
Obstacle 3 - Hay Bale Hurdles
When we finally got to the bottom of the slope, we did a 180 and began climbing over enormous round hay bales. There were 5 of these consecutively, and this area of the course was being sprayed with what I think were the ski resort's snow-makers. There was only water coming out, but it was like it was raining on the hay, so it was extremely muddy on the ground and soggy on the hay.
Obstacle 4 - Death March
As soon as we got over the hay bales, the fatigue from the uphill and subsequent downhill jogs started to kick in - I had serious oxygen debt from not stopping on the uphill run, and this is where the first walking began. You know that feeling when you haven't run in a long time and you suddenly do a lot of sprinting in cold weather? Me too - it's a feeling called nauseous, and that's what I was. We started walking up the hill right next to where we had just jogged down, and then Jamie's first smartass comment of the day came - "I thought we only had to do one of these, Tom."
Obstacle 5 - Devil's Beard
So after what seemed like a mile (probably was somewhere between a quarter and half mile,) we reached the Devil's Beard. It was a long cargo net that was strapped to the ground on all sides, and had to be navigated under. The problem is it was still a very steep uphill. To get through it was simple - just keep your head down and let the rope slide over your back. The execution was hard - our already burning legs were put under the stress of my bent-over mountain climbing position. At the end of this obstacle, I honestly didn't think I was going to finish. I was *slightly* muddy, soaking wet, pretty nauseous, and extremely tired.
I know how much you are cheering for me to fail, but I didn't. I will post the remaining obstacles over the next couple of days just to prove it. Don't forget to subscribe to the blog via email, follow us on twitter, and SEND US CHALLENGES!
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