{"id":1008,"date":"2015-09-20T19:46:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T01:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yogapantsdiary.com\/?p=1008"},"modified":"2017-07-12T14:40:01","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T20:40:01","slug":"im-a-tough-mudder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogapantsdiary.com\/?p=1008","title":{"rendered":"I’m a Tough Mudder"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 If that wasn’t hard enough, you start at 9,000 feet above sea level and rise another 2,600 feet along the course.\u00a0 Needless to say, it was a hard hard race. I’ve heard of obstacle races but never done one.\u00a0 So like usual if I’m going to bother, I might as well start with one of the hardest right? \"12038341_10102940125571889_6562355846442917289_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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My friend Blanche approached me about running it a few months ago.\u00a0 I’ve known Blanche for several months now and we work out together sometimes at TOS Boxing Gym.\u00a0 She is simply the sweetest and nicest person I think I’ve ever met.\u00a0 When she first asked me, other than it being a messy obstacle race, I didn’t know much about it.\u00a0 Being the moron I am, I agreed to do it before knowing much about it.\u00a0 No one would have EVER approached me about running a race like the TM 3 years ago.\u00a0 Not even 2 years ago.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

When I finally looked up the race, I couldn’t believe what I’d just signed myself up to do.\u00a0 The Tough Mudder is an expensive race, plus it was a three hour drive to the mountains and required a hotel night stay.\u00a0 I was already worried about how much money it would cost.\u00a0 So I spread the registration, parking pass and hotel night over a few pay periods.\u00a0 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….<\/p>\n

So we arrived in Snowmass Village, Colorado on Saturday Morning.\u00a0 We got up pretty early to leave the city and make it in time for my start wave.\u00a0 We made it with over an hour to spare, which I was thankful for.\u00a0 At this point, I still didn’t really know what to expect.\u00a0 I had looked up the race course and saw it was 11.6 miles and not the 10 miles I had been told.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I have been going to obstacle course training once a week for about a month.\u00a0 So I knew there wouldn’t be anything that I didn’t know how to approach or have the ability to do safely.\u00a0 I set out to run the course with two objectives in mind: finish and don’t get hurt.<\/p>\n

\"11990557_10102931922171569_8121776386348160277_n\"<\/a>Blanche told me to start without them because she knew the group would slow me down.\u00a0 What she didn’t know what I wasn’t running for time.\u00a0 I was running for the experience.\u00a0 The only reason I had trained was so I had confidence about my abilities and knew what I could do.\u00a0 I of course waited for the team and we all started together.\u00a0 At the start line is Sean Corvelle.\u00a0 He is known as “The Voice of the Mudder”.\u00a0 He gave an incredibly motivating speech filled with “Hoo-rahs” and shouting.\u00a0 He informed us of the Mudder Motto: No Mudder Left Behind.\u00a0 So when you finish and obstacle, you turn around to see who might need help behind you.<\/p>\n

I was thankful that I had not looked up the obstacles.\u00a0 There were a few that I might not have tried if I knew exactly what I was doing.\u00a0 Some were freezing cold, some were wet, some were waist high mud and some were physical.\u00a0 Of course I loved the physical obstacles the best.\u00a0 When I got to the “Berlin Wall” I knew exactly how to get up and over by myself without getting hurt.\u00a0 This is why I went to training.\u00a0 Here’s a perfect ‘cat hang dismount’ over the wall!<\/p>\n

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One of my favorite moments of the race was at this obstacle: Balls to the Wall.<\/p>\n

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Once again I made it up and over with no problem.\u00a0 My teammates were aghast at my ‘monkey’ capabilities. But once again….training!\u00a0 When I got down, I waited for my teammates and looked for anyone that needed help.\u00a0 Once all four of us were over the wall, I saw the crowd was cheering someone on.\u00a0 At the top of the wall, a girl was stuck.\u00a0 She was heavier than expected for the physical requirements of this race.\u00a0 I saw myself in her immediately.\u00a0 Everyone was encouraging her but no one was up there with her.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 So I climbed the obstacle once again and talked her over the top.\u00a0 She was frozen and terrified of falling.\u00a0 BUT with my help, she was able to muster enough courage to get over the wall herself and down safely.\u00a0 I’ll never forget the smile on her face when she accomplished it.\u00a0 I don’t know if that girl finished the race.\u00a0 I know I’ll never see her again, but that moment was special to me.\u00a0 I saw so much of myself in her and it felt awesome to help her!<\/p>\n

The hardest part of the race wasn’t the distance or the grossness or the altitude or the obstacles.\u00a0 The hardest part of the race was how long it took to do it.\u00a0 My team crossed the finish line in just over 5 hours.\u00a0 During the last hour I was really bored.\u00a0 I was tired of the race, tired of being muddy, tired of running, just…….tired!\u00a0 I knew I could keep going and I never thought of stopping.\u00a0 5 hours is a long time for my brain to focus on any one task.\u00a0 I do 50 million things all day everyday and to take that big of a chunk of time was hard for me!\u00a0 I think I could have finished in 4 hours but it was worth the extra hour to have the company!<\/p>\n

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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.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 That was even better!\u00a0 We could watch them go through the last obstacle, Electroshock Therapy, and then cheer them into the finish.\u00a0 Electroshock was no joke.\u00a0 It dropped me to the ground!<\/p>\n

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Here’s what I knew about running the Tough Mudder:<\/p>\n