Last weekend I ran and finished the Colorado Tough Mudder! For those of you that don’t know, the Colorado Tough Mudder is a 11.6 mile race with 20 obstacles. If that wasn’t hard enough, you start at 9,000 feet above sea level and rise another 2,600 feet along the course. Needless to say, it was a hard hard race. I’ve heard of obstacle races but never done one. So like usual if I’m going to bother, I might as well start with one of the hardest right? 
My friend Blanche approached me about running it a few months ago. I’ve known Blanche for several months now and we work out together sometimes at TOS Boxing Gym. She is simply the sweetest and nicest person I think I’ve ever met. When she first asked me, other than it being a messy obstacle race, I didn’t know much about it. Being the moron I am, I agreed to do it before knowing much about it. No one would have EVER approached me about running a race like the TM 3 years ago. Not even 2 years ago. 1 year ago I’m not sure I could have finished. Thank goodness I felt obligated to fill one of the spots on Blanche’s team after I’d agreed or I might have missed out on one crazy and incredible weekend.
When I finally looked up the race, I couldn’t believe what I’d just signed myself up to do. The Tough Mudder is an expensive race, plus it was a three hour drive to the mountains and required a hotel night stay. I was already worried about how much money it would cost. So I spread the registration, parking pass and hotel night over a few pay periods. Eventually I saw on the Tough Mudder site that you could volunteer the second day of the race and get a reimbursement for your registration. Um…..run the race for free if I volunteer? Sign me up! More on that later….
So we arrived in Snowmass Village, Colorado on Saturday Morning. We got up pretty early to leave the city and make it in time for my start wave. We made it with over an hour to spare, which I was thankful for. At this point, I still didn’t really know what to expect. I had looked up the race course and saw it was 11.6 miles and not the 10 miles I had been told. I saw where the obstacles were and how far the running distance was between but I didn’t look up the obstacles or how to do them. I have been going to obstacle course training once a week for about a month. So I knew there wouldn’t be anything that I didn’t know how to approach or have the ability to do safely. I set out to run the course with two objectives in mind: finish and don’t get hurt.
Blanche told me to start without them because she knew the group would slow me down. What she didn’t know what I wasn’t running for time. I was running for the experience. The only reason I had trained was so I had confidence about my abilities and knew what I could do. I of course waited for the team and we all started together. At the start line is Sean Corvelle. He is known as “The Voice of the Mudder”. He gave an incredibly motivating speech filled with “Hoo-rahs” and shouting. He informed us of the Mudder Motto: No Mudder Left Behind. So when you finish and obstacle, you turn around to see who might need help behind you.
I was thankful that I had not looked up the obstacles. There were a few that I might not have tried if I knew exactly what I was doing. Some were freezing cold, some were wet, some were waist high mud and some were physical. Of course I loved the physical obstacles the best. When I got to the “Berlin Wall” I knew exactly how to get up and over by myself without getting hurt. This is why I went to training. Here’s a perfect ‘cat hang dismount’ over the wall!
One of my favorite moments of the race was at this obstacle: Balls to the Wall.
Once again I made it up and over with no problem. My teammates were aghast at my ‘monkey’ capabilities. But once again….training! When I got down, I waited for my teammates and looked for anyone that needed help. Once all four of us were over the wall, I saw the crowd was cheering someone on. At the top of the wall, a girl was stuck. She was heavier than expected for the physical requirements of this race. I saw myself in her immediately. Everyone was encouraging her but no one was up there with her. I looked around and said, “Is anyone going to get up there?” And then I realized I was probably the best person to do it. I was NOT going to let this girl fail. So I climbed the obstacle once again and talked her over the top. She was frozen and terrified of falling. BUT with my help, she was able to muster enough courage to get over the wall herself and down safely. I’ll never forget the smile on her face when she accomplished it. I don’t know if that girl finished the race. I know I’ll never see her again, but that moment was special to me. I saw so much of myself in her and it felt awesome to help her!
The hardest part of the race wasn’t the distance or the grossness or the altitude or the obstacles. The hardest part of the race was how long it took to do it. My team crossed the finish line in just over 5 hours. During the last hour I was really bored. I was tired of the race, tired of being muddy, tired of running, just…….tired! I knew I could keep going and I never thought of stopping. 5 hours is a long time for my brain to focus on any one task. I do 50 million things all day everyday and to take that big of a chunk of time was hard for me! I think I could have finished in 4 hours but it was worth the extra hour to have the company!
On Sunday, Dan and I volunteered at the check-in table. It was so fun to wish the runner’s good luck and answer questions they had about the course. Later, after people couldn’t check in anymore, we got to go to the finish line and put people’s headbands on when they crossed the finish line! That was even better! We could watch them go through the last obstacle, Electroshock Therapy, and then cheer them into the finish. Electroshock was no joke. It dropped me to the ground!
Here’s what I knew about running the Tough Mudder:
- It would be hard and gross. It would be long.
- Wear clothes that I don’t care about! (Which I did end up crossing the finish line with less than I started with but I kept and cleaned everything else)
- I’m going to need a serious nap afterwards.
- I could do it.
Here’s what I didn’t know about the Tough Mudder:
- What I was really getting myself into.
- When running the TM there’s a huge sense of camaraderie. Everyone is one big team; at least until mile 9 or so. There were 7,500 runners the day I ran.
- HOW Hard, HOW Gross, and HOW Long it would actually be.
- That I could get though it without breaking down mentally.
- I wouldn’t be able to take a nap for sometime but Free Pumpkin Beer kinda helps 🙂
- How proud I would be to finish.
Things to remember for next year:
- Spray sunscreen is really convenient for your hairline which will be nearly purple by the time you finish if you do nothing. See above shot of Electroshock Therapy.
- Wear a bright color so you can find yourself in the photos as your # is likely to be destroyed.
- Bringing a backpack or bag is not as much of an inconvenience as I expected, like one of the members of our team did.
- Bring a better marker because a Sharpie will wash off in the first obstacle.
The Tough Mudder is another thing on the very long list of accomplishments this year. It’s something I could have NEVER done before. It’s something I couldn’t have even dreamed about doing. And now I’m a Tough Mudder! Hoo-RAH!