Tough Mudder – Our Experience

We left our house at 5:15 AM and drove to Tough Mudder with two kids and two dogs. Jonathan drove. I slept and read. I was the lucky one here.

When we arrived, we didn’t have to pay the $10 for parking because there were four of us. The event is very well organized. There were police controlling traffic. Parking lot attendances parked the vehicles in nice straight lines cramming as many vehicles as they could into the fields near the motor-cross track we would be running on. There were three different lines: Participant lines, Military lines, and Spectator lines. Jonathan is well organized as well, so he had our signed “death” waivers, ID’s, and his DD-214 all ready to go. This also meant we had to go through 3 different lines, but the lines were fairly short and easy to get through.

When we arrived, there were only about a thousand people there. We walked right up and bought our swag to remember this day with. The port-a-potties were already nasty and out of toilet paper though. I know they tried, but they failed in this area. We failed in several areas. We had too many different bags instead of our normal one bag and cooler, so things got left in the truck we needed. Our son had to make his way back for my protein shot. It was a long hike, but I’m so thankful he went and got it for me. In my mind it helped get me through this entire experience.

I suffer from adrenal failure and had to stack my medicine for this event, so about 30 minutes prior to race time I had to take another pill. I wasn’t sure how I would do in this long of a race requiring so many calories and energy. I can honestly say this stacked pill was an excellent call by my doctor. I needed the extra boost to get me through. I think Jonathan wished he could have taken my special pill too. 🙂

We threatened our children to guard our bag as it had all our money, phones, the keys, my wedding ring, and our clean shoes and clothes in it. We handed them a map, the camera, an outside blanket, and the bag. We asked them to take as many pictures as they could in the beginning and then to get some at the finish line. We also made one horrible mistake as parents. We didn’t tell our children a specific place to meet us at, so we would be able to find them once we crossed the finished line. This would come back to haunt us!

When we started, we had to hold our hands up and show off our green wrist bands. You better make sure you have yours on if you plan on running this event. They will send you back to get yours. The event begins with a wall obstacle before you even cross over the START line. Then, all 500 of us huddle together squatting down on the ground as the “Ring Leader” reminds of us why we are doing this. This event is to raise money for The Wounded Warrior Charity. He tells us about a runner who’s gone before us who’s running on one leg. He makes it clear that this is not a race. He makes sure everyone knows that we will need the help or will have to help those around us. We even shake hands and speak to those around us. There is laughter and pride and excitement.

The National Anthem rings across the group as we stand in perfect silence. The pride I feel for my country is overwhelming. Knowing that those I’m running for have suffered much more than I will on this day is sobering. I think of Marcus Luttrell’s story in his autobiography, The Lone Survivor, I read this summer and know it could always be so much worse.

Then we are off at a very slow jog. Everyone there knows this is just the beginning of a very long run.

I’ll stop here and say there is absolutely NO way I can put this experience into words! The only way you can truly understand Tough Mudder is to go and run it yourself. My words will NOT do this experience justice in any way!

My experience and Jonathan’s experience were somewhat the same yet very different. We had different personal obstacles to overcome. We have different fears and different medical issues and suffered from different injuries along the way. I’ll try to include some of his experiences into my own, but most of this will be about my own personal experience.

The 12 mile run wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I get bored running. In fact, I hate to run and run without a real good reason for running. This is one reason why I avoided running as a form of exercise. I could never run a track that just goes around in circles where I would always know exactly how far I had run. I like to run new routes all the time. Having all the obstacles to break up all the running parts was wonderful for me mentally.

Physically this destroyed me especially my hip. I’ve suffered with hip flexor problems since I started running in February of this year. My right hip has always hurt the worse. I finally got it stronger, or maybe I just shifted the load to my left hip. Although my right hip is sore today, the pain in my left hip is unbelievable! Lifting it to walk is a struggle. Using my hip flexor in that leg to go up the stairs or get into the Jeep or Truck is next to impossible and makes me cry out in pain.

Twelve miles is a long ways. That’s a lot of pounding on your feet and legs. Jonathan’s legs were swollen after the race. I didn’t have that problem. Jonathan also suffered from cramping, but I didn’t have that issue either. We did have wet, nasty shoes that our feet spent about 11.5 miles in. That resulted in a shift in how our weight was distributed as we ran. It wasn’t comfortable. I wanted to stop along the way and take my shoes and socks off, dry them off, and put new shoes and socks on. This is not possible! There was a time when I did sit down and take off my shoes and removed all the packed mud that was inside. It was worth it to me to at this point when I was standing around waiting on an obstacle. I didn’t have another chance, so I’m thankful I did it when I did. I don’t know if it really changed anything for me really, but mentally it was a good thing for me. There was a time when I stopped and thought about all our soldiers who walk in nasty boots all the time. I could suffer through a few miles without comfort and without whining. But when it was all over and I took my shoes and socks off, they looked like prunes. I have several blisters, but they aren’t as horrible as they looked when I first took my shoes off. I do have tiny cuts all over the soles of my feet, and they are very sore and tired today. I really don’t want to walk much.

The obstacles were just that – obstacles. They slowed us down. They made us overcome both physical and mental fears. We loved some! We hated some! We laughed through some of them, and I cried after two of them. They were testing, painful, and brutal. I said to Jonathan, “this is the most painful fun I’ve ever had” somewhere along the way, and that honestly sums it all up. You can’t come to Tough Mudder and think you will walk away unfazed. You will get scratches, cuts, bruises, and be sore. Our feet, chins, knees, and ankles are bruised, scratched and cut. Jonathan twisted his knee. I had to step all over him to get over walls, so my footprints are all over his back, neck and shoulders. I made the race much harder on him, and in turn, he sacrificed himself for an easier race for me. I’m very thankful for that. I can honestly say he’s done a lot of that lately in our own lives. He’s sacrificed much for me and I love him more and more for it! Tough Mudder is a great thing for couples and no matter how tough it is, I’d recommend it to all couples! You’ll become stronger and closer for it. I know just how much I need Jonathan, and how much I depend on him for so much in our lives. I needed this experience!

This event brings out your weaknesses. I hate to be cold! The Arctic Enema was misery for me! Jonathan said my eyes said, “I’m done!” as my head came up out of the water after having to go under the water to clear the obstacle. I don’t know that I ever allowed myself to think about quitting because I went in with the understanding that I would conquer everything no matter how tough it was, but I know for a fact that I hated that obstacle with a passion! Going through the Boa Constrictor also revealed one of my weaknesses. I didn’t like feeling stranded alone without any help inside of a tunnel. I felt panic and fear raced through my body and all reasoning left! I let “I can’t!” escape my mouth. It was the help of a calm, older man and Jonathan that even got me out of that tube. This was a weaknesses I’d never admitted I had. I know now that I don’t like to feel abandoned. I do panic and my reasoning goes out the window. I will have to work on this!

Electricity will get its own paragraph. I HATED being shocked! It was painful! I felt like I became that cartoon character on TV that goes from a normal body to the picture of an X-Ray every time I got hit! I cried in front of thousands of people. I am not a pretty person when I cry! Thankfully, I don’t have to be shocked daily! I understand how torturous this is though! I also understood the need for my medicine and realized that it really does work. I’ve really struggled with taking my medicine and have wondered if it was even needed until this event. Now, I know exactly what its purpose is and why I have to be on it. Electric Obstacles were a huge fear going into Tough Mudder, and it turned out to be worth every second I fretted over it. It was horrible! Jonathan didn’t get to do these obstacles because he has a pacemaker and ICD. They made it very clear that he had to bypass these obstacles because they would shut off his devices. That’s a risk that just isn’t worth taking. I felt horrible for him because there is nothing worse than having to bypass an obstacle in our minds. I knew it took a toll on him to have to watch me suffer and know there was absolutely nothing he could do about it, nor could he even experience the pain with me. I know that sounds stupid, but for a man and a husband this was a huge mental obstacle for him. I also hated that electricity is how this event ends. It meant I finished crying and he had to bypass the last obstacle. It leaves you ending the event on an emotional low. This wasn’t anything like how I expected to feel at the finish line!

Tough Mudder isn’t kidding when they tell you at the starting line that you will need the help of those around you and they will need you. This is not a race – it’s a challenge! These total strangers became friends for the day. There was a team of 20 from Mexico we met at Cliff Hanger as we waited for an hour to do this obstacle. They wore red shirts with funny names on the back. Some of them had head cams and some others had chest cams. They had trained together and plan on making a YouTube video of their adventure once they get back to Mexico. They are the reason I got up Cliff Hanger and again up Everest. We passed them and they passed us along the way, and by the time it was over you felt comfort in seeing someone you “knew”.

The Wounded Warrior Team was comprised of about 20 men and women. A young man that looked to be all of 19 or 20 years old with one prosthetic leg was a member of their team. He climbed up Cliff Hanger all by himself as the crowd of nearly a thousand competitors chanted, “USA! USA!” as he made his way all the way to the top. My eyes swelled up in tears. I felt pride! I felt sorrow. I felt lucky to be born an American! As if it wasn’t enough that he climbed that obstacle all by himself, he also stayed and helped the other members of his team get up the obstacle. That said it all – this is what it was all about – conquering our fears and lending a helping hand whenever and wherever we could! Members of this team would get me down from The Berlin Wall #2.

People Watching is part of the experience. These types of events bring out the best, the worse, and the craziness in people. We saw a team of 6-7 guys called “Thong Strong” wearing . . . you guessed it . . . nothing but a thong! Thankfully, their backsides weren’t wide and fat, but my children swear they have been scarred for life! 🙂 I was amazed at the teams with the “F” word in their names. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me as our society has accepted so much crummy language as socially acceptable but still it bothered me. Shaved heads, shaved words in the hair, colored hair and mohawks were all in style at this event. Of course, there were also the tutus and tye died everything. Booty shorts, tights, and sports bras were a plenty. We watched teams of friends, workout groups like CrossFit and different franchise gyms, and running clubs start out together. We saw some creative names and inspirational sayings along the way. We even saw a woman with a shirt with handwritten words stating she was running for her 3 year old son suffering from cancer and teams running in memory of someone who had died.

People brought along some things along the way they should have left behind. I heard a lady panic a few miles in when she realized she still had her wedding ring on. I saw a lady with a belly button ring that had blood pouring out of. We saw hats, sweatbands, socks, shirts, sweatshirts, and tights left along the trail. I heard a couple fighting at the end because of an apparently ruined SMART phone. We saw people running with Camelbacks that probably didn’t need them, but they had things in them they felt like they needed like cameras, phones, and energy bars, jells, chews, energy shots, etc. Some people ran in their oldest pairs of tennis shoes and paid for it later and others ruined brand new shoes. We saw many people suffer through cramps along the way to the point they were having to stop and stretch. One guy even used a log to roll out a cramp. Jonathan cramped up but never so badly he had to stop. We saw people puking along the way. I don’t know if they were dehydrated or had broken the cardinal sin of drinking the night before or if they were undertrained or if they just weren’t use to eating bananas and drinking water along the run, but it was disgusting despite the reason. We saw injury after injury. Lots of people were bleeding from cuts and scratches. I saw a guy wrapping his finger in a shirt that was soaking the shirt with blood as fast as he could wrap it. I saw a guy roll his ankle and watched as it instantly became this swollen lump above his shoe, and he kept walking. We watched the medics run out and the carts go and get people. A helicopters hovered overhead and we wondered if we were being broadcasted on the local news, if they were searching for dead and injured people, or if they were coming in to get someone who had been hurt. Tough Mudder is not for the weak and injury is bound to happen. I’m sure there were ER visits that were a result of this event. I’m just thankful Jon and I didn’t have to make that visit.

The laughter and conversations Jonathan and I shared along the way were priceless moments. We shared smiles and memories that will last a lifetime! No matter how sore I am today, it was all worth it for the memories I share with him. Only a handful of couples in the United States can say they have conquered this journey together, and I’m thankful we are one of them.

At the end as we crossed the finish line, we were showered in “gifts”. The special Orange Headband Prize, bananas, water, PowerBars, Myoplex, BicRazors, and free tech shirts. They even had shirts for both men and women! But then we were met with an unplanned obstacle – Where were our children?

Parent Failure – remember at the beginning when I stated we had failed to create a meeting place for our children? There are now about 10,000 people who mostly look the same at this event. This mommy went into adrenaline overload panic when everywhere we looked our children were not there. So instead of joining all those who crossed the finished line with us at the outdoor showers and changing tents, we went to our truck muddy, wet and cold to see if maybe our children had gotten bored and went there. It’s a good quarter of a mile to our truck from the finish line and these tired, sore bodies struggled to get there, but they weren’t there nor were there any signs that they had been there.

We had to make our way back to the main section of the event. I stayed at the flag marked “meeting place” in the hopes that our children would eventually come looking for us here as K’Lee had pointed it out to us earlier that morning. Jonathan went searching for them in all the places we thought they might be. I can’t even explain the panic and fear I felt. Running the event didn’t even seem to matter at this point. Nor can I tell you excited and relieved I felt when I saw Jonathan walking back to me with our two very sunburned children. They had followed the golden lost rule – “Stay put and let someone else find you!” But their hearts were broken. They had tried to get pictures of us along the way, but only got a couple and then never saw us again. They didn’t get to see us cross the finish line even though they had positioned themselves near the finish line. Mommy and Daddy’s panic and fear came across as disappointment and anger which made them feel worse. Epic Parental Fail!

Instead of showering and changing, we took our children back to the truck and changed clothes there. We decided just to drive back home. Jonathan had been cramping so badly that I felt it best for me to drive home. Muddy and cold but in clean clothes, socks and shoes, we headed back home. We talked all the way about the things we liked and hated and our experiences. We were thankful to be home, to take long, hot showers, and to sleep in our own bed even though sleep was restless and painful.

The day after is a painful event. We are sore, bruised, scratched up, and battered. Yet, it was after the race – that conversation in the truck and the day after that the whole experience of Tough Mudder starts to cause this tremendous feeling of accomplishment and pride in ourselves. Our kids have both told us how proud they are of us and there are no words to describe how proud I am of Jonathan or even of myself for all we’ve overcome and accomplished this year. This event was just one more accomplishment in a life of so many more yet to come.

From this challenge to the next . . . I don’t know what’s next for us, but I’m sure it will be something great! Keep following us and I’ll try to be better at writing posts despite the craziness of life.