Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Tough Mudder Colorado Part 1

Some of you may recall that there was this tiny little event on September 6th called Tough Mudder that I hadn't been very excited about at all, haha! Yeah, right! It was a huge event and something that I had been looking forward to for months. And when that day finally came and it was time to run, I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning!

We left Colorado Springs the Friday night before and made the four hour trip to Aspen, CO where our hotel was. We didn't get there until pretty late, but we got checked into our rooms and tried to get some sleep. I didn't sleep very well. I think it was the nerves and excitement of what the next day had in store. I finally fell asleep and got maybe 6 hours of sleep before I started hearing everyone and their brother running up and down the hotel stairs. It seriously sounded like a heard of elephants was roaming the place. So after many failed attempts to try and fall back asleep, I decided it was time to get up. 

We went and got some breakfast at the hotels little restaurant. Best part about the breakfast is that it was included for free with our stay. And it was bomb! Banana pancakes with scrambled eggs and bacon. I am going to have to try and find a good banana pancake recipe now. After breakfast we headed back to our rooms to start getting ready to head out.

We left the hotel at about 10 am and arrived at the event at around 10:20ish. We got checked in, got our wrist bands, our numbers and all that good stuff and then headed to the warm up area. After a brief and hilarious warm up with Coach T Mud and a hell of a pep talk from the Tough Mudder motivational speaker, it was time to head to the start line.



The before picture.
Coach T Mud
This guy was one hell of a motivational speaker
 Our wave was at 11:40 and right off the bat was a wall that we had to get over just to get to the start line. And I don't remember if I told any of you this, but the walls were the one thing that I was worried about more than anything. I knew they would be taller than me and that I would need a boost, but luckily it wasn't too tall and with a little bit of help from my trainer, I was up and over and we were ready to go. 

The first two miles of the course were all flat and down hill and went by pretty quickly. There was even a sign at one point that stated that we were at the lowest part of the course elevation wise and that it would only be going up from there. I remember when we hit the first mile sign we both looked at each other and were pretty impressed with how quickly the first mile went by.  After about another half mile, we hit our first obstacle, Glory Blades, which were walls. Walls, again! These walls were actually pretty short, but they were at an angle which made it more difficult. But again, a boost from my trainer and I was able to pull myself up and over and we were off running again.

At about two and a half miles we hit our second obstacle. This one was one that I had heard horror stories about. It's called Arctic Enema. And if you can't tell by the name of the obstacle, it is freezing cold. It's essentially a huge dumpster that is lined with plastic and filled with freezing cold water and ice. You have to jump in, swim underneath this small wall in the middle and then swim out to the other side. Here's the kicker, it is so cold that your body kind of goes into shock, so the more you think about it, the better the chance that you won't get through it. So we got to it, didn't think, just jumped and got through it as quickly as possible. They weren't lying when they said it would be cold. It was freezing. I was just glad that it was at the beginning and that we could move on from it quickly! But guess what, we did get through it and that was a feat in itself.

About another quarter mile and we hit Hold Your Wood, which was a log carry. This really wasn't that bad and got your body moving a bit more which helped warm us back up.




Mile 3 came and went and shortly before we hit mile 4 it was time to do the Warrior Carry. As we were approaching this my trainer and I were arguing about who would carry who. I told him I was absolutely fine with carrying him and that I could handle it. He then told me that there was no way in hell that he was going to let me carry him because he weighs more than me. We argued for a bit more about it, but he won and we decided he would carry me. 



These pictures above crack me up because this was about the half way point of the carry when we saw a sign that stated that we had to switch who was carrying who. I laughed. He was a bit nervous. He really was worried that I wasn't going to be able to carry him. I showed him!



And I didn't even drop him. Psshh! Can't carry you my ass! Ha!

Almost all of mile 4 and 5 were running back through these trails. It was awesome. I love trail running, so I was in my comfort zone on this part. And it was absolutely gorgeous back in there. All the trees were starting to change and it was just a really beautiful view. We flew through this part and were surprised again at how quickly we were getting through the course. 

Right after mile 5 we hit an obstacle called Balls to the Wall. This was another one that I was nervous about. 


It's hard to tell from the picture but each side of the wall has a rope hanging down and you have to use the rope and the wall to climb over and lower yourself down. They did have some foot holds which helped, but I was still nervous. But apparently I didn't need to be. I grabbed the rope and used the foot holds and pulled myself up and over the wall and lowered myself down on the other side. The funny part was that my trainer got up and over pretty quickly and was waiting for me on the other side and he was just watching me come down  because he knew that I could do it on my own. But apparently this other guy didn't think I could get down on my own, so he comes over and stands underneath me as I was lowering myself down the other side of the wall. He was trying to be nice and help me, but he kept saying things like "Don't worry sweetie, I'll catch you if you fall" all while my trainer just stood back and was probably laughing at him. Dude?! I was doing just fine. If I needed some help, I would say something. I mean I appreciate the gesture, but I could have done without your comments.

Shortly after Balls to the Wall we got our first taste of mud. Kiss of Mud was just there waiting for us. This obstacle is where you have to crawl on your stomach underneath barb wire through mud and water. And they don't call it Kiss of mud for no reason. You get mud everywhere. All over your hands, arms, legs, feet, boobs, face and lots of other places you would rather it not even be. But you get through it, and with a smile on your mud covered face! Unfortunately they didn't have any pictures of us doing this one. I was bummed because I just remember how muddy we were. It was insane. My trainers beard looked double the size because of how much mud was in it. I just remember looking over at him while we were crawling through and laughing so hard because of how it looked on his beard.


After finishing Kiss of Mud, we were about 5.5 miles in and half way done with the course. We were pretty stoked with how well we were doing at this point. But we knew that it was getting ready to get tougher. But we were ready to charge the mountain and finish strong.

To be continued...




Megan

2 comments:

  1. Damn girl! I've always wanted to do something like this, but I am NOWHERE near ready! I love how invested your trainer is! Can you send him out here when you're done with him? Haha

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  2. HOLY CRAP. I cannot believe you carried that guy! I'm so impressed by all of this. You rock. Also, FUCK YEAH SIZE 6!

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