Another check off the ole bucket list – complete a Touch Mudder in 2015. I spent an entire year training for this event. Mixing up my workouts between Spin, TRX, Indoor Circuit, yoga, hiking and running. A giant thank you to my instructors and peers at Sprockets Cycle Studio for helping me achieve this goal.
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Tough Mudder New England is held at Mt. Snow which just happens to be a hop skip and a jump from my house. It’s the mountain I grew up skiing on and have spent countless hours weaving my way around its terrain. I have attended numerous festivals and events at the base of this mountain (including my brother’s wedding last year) but never in a million years had I considered hiking UP this monster.
10+ miles with 20 obstacles is the reality of this challenge (with about ½ of those miles uphill). When talking to previousMudder legionnaires’, the best training advice they could give me was to start hiking some mountains. And when I think I’ve hiked enough… hike some more. Lesson learned for next time–start climbing some friggin mountains. What seemed like endless vertical climbing was, by far, the most challenging aspect of this course (for me anyway).
And then there’s the obstacles. Like most OCR’s you will find some of the same obstacles you find on any course. But Tough Mudder is notoriously known for adding a “fear factor” to their obstacles. Obstacles that aren’t necessarily physically challenging but scary as heck. For me, the key to concurring these types of obstacles is to not over think them. Just get up there and go… before you have a chance to realize what the hell your about to do.
Favorite obstacle? Walk the Plank. You climb up a 20 or so foot wall, walk out on a wooden plank, jump into a pool of muddy water 15 ft deep and swim about 20 yards to get out. Easy peasy for me considering jumping off the high dive at the town pool used to be one of my favorite past times.
Least favorite? Arctic Enema… 1000%! Now, I like slides and I love water, but combining the two with about 50 gallons of ice is complete insanity. You slide down a short slide, under a chain linked fence and get completely submerged into a pool of ice water. Then you must climb over a wall, into another pool of ice water, before you can make your way out at the end. Just to get some perspective, take the worst milk shake headache you’ve ever gotten, engulf it around your entire head, and x by 100%. That might come close to the feeling I had when I reached dry land. It literally felt like a vice was crushing my skull and I thought my body was going into shock. Stupidest thing I’ve ever done (well, almost).
Other obstacles worth noting: Cry Baby and Electroshock Therapy. Cry Baby is a chamber of thick, “safe” teargas. I could barely see my own hand in front of me, so I chose to crawl through it blindly rather than keep my eyes open and burn out my retinas. At the exit of the camber I heard some people comparing it to breathing in a ton of Vic’s vapor rub. But for me it felt more like I had smoked an entire pack of menthol cigarettes less than 5 minutes.
Electroshock Therapy: For those of you who aren’t aware, this is the one where you run through a gaggle of hanging live wires, while jumping over bales of hay. Its right at the finish line so there are a gazillion spectators watching and oohing and aweing as people run through and get shocked. This was the only obstacle I was seriously considering skipping (aside from the usual hanging and pulling obstacles that could jeopardize my already delicate shoulder). I had read a lot of reviews about it. About ½ of the people said they never even got shocked. The other ½ said it felt like they got punched in the face or hit with a baseball bat. No regrets, I had to do it. Besides, it’s the last obstacle of the race. Worse case someone could drag me across the finish line.
Did I successfully complete it? Yes, but sure as heck not gracefully. While jumping over a hay bale I got zapped in midair and the next thing I knew I was on the ground. The crowd of random cheering quickly changed to one giant “Oooohh” followed by encouraging words of “get up! get up!” (Yea, no shit, I’m trying!) Back on my feet and charging toward the finish I was zapped 3 more times. Did it hurt? A little, but it was my ego that hurt the worst on that one… kinda embarrassing.
4 ½ hours later I crossed the finish line (we started as a team and ended as a team). Every muscle in my body was tired and achy, but my smile was as big as it gets. Such a euphoric feeling of accomplishment. And then there was beer....
I often hear people say that they could never do something like that. Their wrong. Yes you need physical strength and endurance, but just as equally you need mental focus. The human body is extremely resilient. It’s our minds that will make us quit long before our bodies will. If you can get through the mental challenges and push yourself, you can get through pretty much anything.
