This past Saturday I traveled up to Vermont to run the Tough Mudder. My older sister had signed up with some girls on her rugby team and the week before one of the girls decided not to run so I had planned on taking her place. Long story short, I needed her I.D. to get her bib number and the I.D. didn’t make it up to Vermont. I usually wouldn’t condone “bandit running” i.e.- running without being registered but with the specific set of circumstances I didn’t feel too bad about it. So my first (and last) time bandit running was coincidentally also my first (and last) time doing any race in the Tough Mudder series.
I did the Warrior dash a few months back and I expected the Tough Mudder to be similar just tripled in length. I had looked at the course and obstacles online and thought to myself “the race committee can’t actually shock us with live wires, I’m sure they’re just exaggerating most of these obstacles”. Turns out I was sadly mistaken.
The race started out simply enough. We ran up and down ski trails and through some mud for about 2 miles. We ran through some cargo nets before coming to the first note-worthy obstacle named the boa constrictor (insert panic attack number 1). I entered the boa constrictor; tunnels set up on the ground and began to crawl through the first one. My knees were quickly shredded from the rocks below but my attention was quickly diverted to a different threat. I began to notice some water on the ground. At first it was just a little on my hands and knees but pretty quickly it was up to my chest and inching towards my head. Water is bad enough in a dark, small tube but add to that the fact that the water was 46 degrees. As soon as the water reached my torso it took my breath away- I couldn’t escape it and I couldn’t breathe. Luckily, Courtney (my older sister) was ahead of me and quickly answered my screams for help. She came to my rescue, talked me out of my panic and we both mad it out. After the boa constrictor we ran through tires and up more hills then we came to the ball shrinker (insert panic attack number 2). Using ropes strung through a pond you had to make it from one side to the other while being shot at with water from a fire hose. Again, the water was 46 degrees and was too cold for me to breathe so I panicked and Court and one of her teammates had to save me. Sensing a pattern? I don’t do well in cold and I really don’t do well in cold water.
After the ball shinker my Reynaud’s disease kicked in, my toes all went numb and I was miserable for about 2 hours. We ran through snow, mud, more water, barb wire, carried logs up jagged hills, scaled ice cliffs, etc. It took our group 5 hours to complete the race which was 10 miles and had about 25ish obstacles. There were lots of times when I thought to myself this is ridiculous (like when I saw a guy be carried off the slope with a compound fracture). I considered quitting many times but my ego got in the way and I mustered through with the rest of our team.
The good part of the race was the teamwork. In fact I wouldn’t really classify this as a race more of an event. Most people walked a majority of the course because the terrain wasn’t suitable for running. I don’t even think that there was a timing system in place; the only goal was to finish. There were lots of obstacles that couldn’t be done solo so you had to depend on others to help you get through. Strangers offered to lift and pull you over things and all runners seemed to work together. It was a nice change of pace to be part of a race like this.
I can sum up the Tough Mudder by saying this; this was the first race I’ve ever done where I actually feared for my life- literally, there were times I thought I might die. But, hey, what doesn’t kill us makes only makes us stronger. I’m glad I have this event under my belt to look back on in future races to be reminded of how cold, scared, and generally unpleasant it could be. I'm sure I'll be tired beyond beliefe in Ironman but at least I wont be frozen, bruised and bloody.