Tough Mudder

If you've seen or talked to us in the past 6 months then I'm sure you've heard about Tough Mudder. A little over a year ago I got the (CRAZY) idea that we should sign up for Tough Mudder - an 11 mile obstacle course in the mountains up at Tahoe. I roped Andrew and some work colleagues into signing up and away we went with our training....sort of....we ran quite a bit but perhaps didn't do enough strength training for the 20 obstacles....

 

We left after work on Friday to head up to Tahoe where we met Andrew, the Sacias and Willie at our gorgeous rental house, complete with a hot tub which later became a crucial part of our recovery.

 

We tried to get to bed early since we needed to wake up around 6:20am to get to the mountain, register and make our way to the start line in time for our scheduled 9:20am start. Below is a picture of us (Lincoln, Kate, me and Andrew - courtesy of Tough Mudder) prior to ~4 hours of torture ;)

 

 

We stared the day with Toshi in tow but lost him somehow at the registration tables and didn't see him again until after the race when we wandered into the pub (always a good place to look for Toshi haha)

 

 

The work crew!

 

 

It was amazing to have the Sacia's and Willie drop us off and pick us up at the door. Others had to mess with up to 2 hours of parking and shuttles, which is not what we wanted to be doing before taking on this insane course...

 

 

We stuck with Kate and Lincoln the whole day and were a fierce foursome on the course. The obstacles were honestly tough and verticle climb at the beginning brutal. The most memorable of the 20 obstacles were the:

- Arctic Enema: an ice bath super cooled with a wall you had to go under before clawing your way out of the ice - I've never been so freakin' cold

- Berlin Walls: 12 foot walls with no foot or hand holds - the boys became human ladders

- Electric Eel: a shallow pool of muddy water with electric wires dangling down which shocked you (A LOT) as you army crawled through the pool - the shocks were strong enough to momentarily freeze your muscles. Owww!

- Mud Mile: imagine a bunch of mud moguls with muddy soup between them - super fun :)

- Everest: a huge half pipe which you had to run full speed up and hope that somebody on top could grab your arms to pull you up

- Electroshock Therapy: once again they decided we needed to be shocked while running through the mud - I didn't get shocked as bad on this one but it's honestly a bit disturbing to feel such intense electricity go through your body

 

 

It took us just about 4 hours to complete the course - not a great finishing time but we had a great time with Kate and Lincoln. We gladly accepted new Under Armour shirts, sweatbands and beers before meeting up with the rest of our crew for some munchies.

 

  

 I'm sure you're all wondering - did you honestly pay to torture yourself? And, would you do it again? The answer to both is, Yes. We were all pleasantly surprised by the upbeat community feel of the whole day. Sure there were some crazies who blew through the course but most of the people were there just to have a good time with friends.

 

After having a big BBQ dinner back at the house and relaxing in the hot tub, we all decided that we probably would do it again. Events are held all around the country and the world, so if you're interested check out their website and start training!!