Just over a week ago (August 4) I took part in the Tough Mudder Western NY Race. All I can say is – I’M HOOKED! Not gonna lie, this wasn’t my idea. I got a text message from a friend back at the beginning of the year asking myself and a few other running friends who would be interested. I’m always game for trying something new, especially a challenge, and an Obstacle Course Race has always been an interest of mine, so why not!?!
The offerings for the race were a 5k, 5-mile, and 10-mile course. We signed up for the 5k version. Having never done an OCR before I had absolutely no idea how to start training for this race, but knowing that most OCR’s have obstacles that require upper body strength, I went down to my basement where my pull up bar is and gauged my upper body strength. It was slightly depressing really. I certainly couldn’t pull myself up, and hanging there for 5-10 seconds was more discomfort than I would have liked. Well I knew where I stood, and I also knew how to work on it! I made a conscious effort to add something like this into my regular training. I would hang from the bar for as long as I could stand it…pushing past that comfort zone. As my strength (aka tolerance) increased I would move on to swinging side to side, mimicking the movement of my body on something like monkey bars. I even hit up the local monkey bars as often as possible and worked my way across them as far as I could. The first time it wasn’t pretty. I didn’t want to even let go and swing! The second time I made it maybe 3 or 4 bars of the 20 on the playground. I eventually made it up to halfway across, and that right there is a victory in itself. This is something I highly recommend to anyone preparing themselves for an OCR. It’s a great workout, but allows you to set goals and really see how far you are making it. In terms of the running, I’ll be honest, this wasn’t a concern for me at all. I’ve always been a natural long distance runner, and where as a 5k used to be a bit intimidating it’s not anymore.
Any concerns I had about how crazy I was for signing up for this race were put to rest right at the Start Line. Don’t get me wrong I’m sure I was crazy, I mean I absolutely was considering I was at that Start Line on just shy of 4 hours of sleep, and having driven over 2 hours to get there. But, the gentleman at the Start Line that hyped everyone up did an amazing job. He let everyone know right from that point that you may have come there as an individual, or as a group of friends making up a team, but ultimately EVERY SINGLE ONE of us was on the same team, working together to complete the course, and that at the end of the day as long as you gave it your very best, that was all that mattered.
The race started out just as any trail race would, going from grass covered to mud and back again. I will say I have NEVER known mud to be so slippery! Within the first half mile I was absolutely covered in mud. I slipped on part of the trail, covering my entire right side, then slipped further down covering my left side. Since that wasn’t enough I slipped once again further on down the trail in which I slid on my back side into a little gully of the trail making sure to cover my entire backside up to my neck in mud. My reaction? I laughed. I laughed so hard at myself, as well as at my friends who were also slipping and sliding around. I can’t remember the last time I had laughed that much and that hard at myself. It was absolute FUN and I wasn’t even to the first obstacle yet!
Obstacle 1: Pitfall
This was a great start to a race properly called the Tough Mudder. If you’re concerned about just how muddy you’re going to get, well Pitfall gives you a great taste as you wade through waist deep (or higher) muddy water. My other two teammates and I interlocked arms to help keep us upright, which was quite comical since the one on the left managed to stay about knee level since it wasn’t so deep on her side, and our friend in the middle who was the tallest must have found a serious drop in the mud because she ended up slipping pretty far down before we caught her.
Out of that obstacle you had to get used to the feeling of gravel/stones in your shoes because it was going to be a constant from that point on.
Obstacle 2: Devil’s Beard
This might very well have been the easiest obstacle for me because I’m short. This one is set up with a net that you’re ultimately supposed to crawl under, but with so many under the net hunched over with it resting on their backs it raised it enough so there wasn’t too much that I needed to do except keep moving forward. I guess being short has it’s perks at times!
Obstacle 3: Mud Mile 2.0
This was a fun one, even though it slightly seemed never ending. I guess I just didn’t see where the “end” of it was before dropping in. You literally drop in to a pit of mud/water that’s maybe 10-15ft wide, wade through it to the other side and climb out with the help of others. You do this about 5 times. This was the one I got the biggest bruise from as I went to jump out as I held on to someone’s hand to help hoist me and I smashed the top of my knee into a boulder I couldn’t see that was sticking out of the mud wall. It was enough that I dropped back in and had to regain my composure before being able to successfully climb out. ( a week later and the bruise is still all sorts of yellow/blue/purple)
Obstacle 4: Kiss of Mud 2.0
Welp, the one thing I wasn’t looking forward to (except for the electroshock which I was thankful wasn’t part of our course) was crawling through the mud/water. This Obstacle got that right out of the way as you crawled on your belly through the mud, making sure to keep your head low enough to not get caught by the barbed wire strung over top, but also making sure to keep your mouth shut. (no parasites please!) The added bonus was climbing over top of the hay bails in the middle of this one, once again making sure to keep your head down!
Obstacle 5: Hero Carry
I would say this was the one Obstacle we as a group weren’t necessarily prepared for. This is meant for you to carry one of your teammates a distance, and then halfway down the path, switch off. For a group of three people it makes it a little awkward. My teammates carried me about 15ft or so and then we just sort of gave up and ran the rest of the distance cheering on other teams as they were completing it.
Obstacle 6: 6ft Under
This obstacle was very similar to Mud Mile, except it was just one big water/mud pit that you waded through to the other side. The climb out was a bit more extreme because you are 6ft under ground, but overall it’s not too bad of an element with the help of others.
Obstacle 7: Quagmire
This one here might very well have been the most disgusting Obstacle of them all. I described 6ft Under as being one big water/mud pit, but this was just a sheer thick mud pit that included some manure with it. With the smell that emanated from it, and the thickness of the mud…it was just disgusting. I almost took a header face first into it too but was able to catch myself when my feet came out from under me. We just couldn’t get to the other side of the pit fast enough.
Obstacle 7A: Skidmarked
I marked this one as 7A because I don’t believe it was part of the 5k course. At least it’s not listed as being one of the 5k elements. I’m thinking that we saw a sign with 5k on it, and just headed in that direction, but thinking back, chances are it said 5k No Access – OOPS! This Obstacle required you to jump up and grab the lip of a diagonal wall and hoist yourself over. Except the side that your climbing over, the wall is angled away from you so you’re just sort of dangling freely (unless you use the braces on the side of the walls). I was feeling confident up until the part where I was literally hanging with no strength to pull myself up and over. I was certainly thankful for the push from my teammates below and a guy at the top of the wall helping to pull me over. This was my first reminder that I need to work more on my upper body strength!
Obstacle 8: Everest 2.0
Have you ever watched America Ninja Warrior? Well the easiest way to describe this obstacle is the Warped Wall from that show…or a sort of half pipe for skateboarders/BMX riders, but instead of the top of the wall curling towards you or straight up, it curls away from you. This right here is the one Obstacle that absolutely kicked my butt, so much so that I ended up giving up and going around after two failed attempts. My first attempt I just didn’t get the height necessary to grab on to the Mudders at the top helping people climb up it. My second attempt I did better and grabbed on to someone’s hand, but just couldn’t hold on and slid a LONG ways down.
Obstacle 9: Happy Ending
This Obstacle right here is very much appropriately named. You’re just happy to be at the end of the race. As soon as we got to it, myself and my two teammates just sort of paused. We didn’t have time to really say anything before another team arrived and we heard them say they only had four people and that they wouldn’t be able to get through it with just the four. (Certainly no way we were getting through it with just three of us!) Well we were certainly in luck because we were able to team up with them. The Happy Ending Obstacle is a slippery slanted wall that in order to traverse it the first person needs to stand at the base with their heels locked against a 2×4 piece of wood. The next person climbs up them and stands with their feet on that first person’s shoulders, and so on, making a ladder out of people that you need to climb up to get to the top. Once you are able to get team members to the very top, everyone needs to then hold on to the person’s feet that are on their shoulders as the people on the wall start climbing up, starting with the person on the bottom first. This description certainly does not do it justice of the effort that goes in to completing the obstacle, but I promise you it’s a perfect ending as it is the ultimate team builder and test before the much deserved slide and plunge into water and across the finish line. (FYI remember to plug your nose heading into that final plunge or you will get a nice high pressured sinus rinse. I felt that for hours afterward!)
I am INCREDIBLY thankful that I stepped out of my comfort zone and tackled this course with friends. We are already talking about next year and taking on a longer portion, whether the half (5-mile) or full (10-mile) course. In fact I have another friend talking me into the Finger Lakes Mud Run next month, which I am of course leaning towards an absolute yes!
A few notes/take-aways from the #ToughMudder experience:
– Bring your towels to the race! I made the mistake of leaving them all in my car and I certainly could have used them for the rinse off/changing in the tent.
– Wear Spandex/Tight fitting clothing that is non-cotton. I got the non-cotton right, but definitely wish I had some stuff that was a bit tighter. (and I’m not one to like tight fighting anything) The spandex is important when it comes to shorts. There are a lot of rocks that you find yourself sliding down and they will for sure put a nice tear in your shorts if you’re not careful. That could lead to an even bigger tear during a fall as it did for one of my teammates. Needless to say she was thankful I had spandex on under my shorts because that allowed me to give up my shorts for her to wear since hers were toast!
– Bring sandals for afterward! You can donate your sneakers to charity after the race and they will rinse them out to be able to prepare them for donation, but after being soaking wet from the race and rinsing off and trying to put socks and dry sneakers on is just really difficult. Sandals can make that easier.
– Work with your teammates for someone to bring one big duffel bag and you can all put your individual bags into one big bag to save money. It is $10 to Bag Check, and while it’s the most secure Bag Check I’ve ever seen at any race or event, we weren’t prepared for all of us to fork over $10 each for Bag Check.
– Along those lines – car pool! It’s $10 for parking as well, so you’re going to want to make sure you’re saving money where you can.
– When you’re finally home and it’s time to rinse your clothes before washing – you may want to rinse them outside with a hose a couple of times. My wife wasn’t too happy with the mess that came out of my clothes in the bathtub. Not to mention it took a few rinses in the washer before actually getting to wash the clothes.
As I mentioned, I am incredibly thankful my friend suggested the race. I imagine this to be the first of many!
