Marine Mud Challenge

It's Sunday morning. And I hurt alot, thanks to the Marine Mud Challenge!

This was a local obstacle course race on Fort Gordon. I wanted to do this last year but did not have a team (teams are required). Fortunately this year some people from my husband's platoon got together and signed up this year!

Behold! The Blackguard platoon team shirts! My team name was "Blackguard 2" and my nickname was "War Turtle" Yes. Other names included Starfox, Pickle, Swamp Donkey, and Mammilton. Can't remember the rest.

I loved the shirts. They were fun and made it really easy to identify everybody on the course, since I don't know the majority of the guys/girls in my husband's platoon. We had 3 teams of 3-4 people and we all stuck together through the entire course.

We set off on our 5 mile, 30 obstacle adventure. And let me tell you, this race did not disappoint! We were clean for about 20 seconds and then we hit the first obstacle - a mud pit, crawl through a concrete pipe, then a rope climb up a wall. The mud had tons of sharp rocks and stuff in it, my wrist was already cut up and bleeding and I saw that some of the guys had cuts on their legs too. The wall was actually pretty hard because the foothold was small and covered in mud. But we all got over ok and moved on into the woods.

We waded through a pond, ran some more and then came up to this

Marine Mud official photo

It's a water crossing using 2 ropes. I have no clue how this guy managed to get all tangled up in it but it's freaking hilarious. This is actually pretty easy. The trick is to lean forward so your own body weight stabilizes the ropes. We all made it across and ran onward. We ran for quite some time before reaching the next obstacle. A series of 5 log hurdles. You have to push yourself up with your arms and roll over the log. Problem was, everybody was covered in mud which made for super slippery logs. I got over the first one. The second one took a few tries but I made it. The third one was a little taller so a guy boosted me up. I was on top of the log and making my way down the other side... when I rolled right off of it. Fell right on my bad hip. It hurt like hell but no broken bones. Luckily I landed on my butt/hip and avoided hitting the bones in my lower back. I soldiered on and crossed the last 2 logs (with some help) I wasn't the only one to fall either, one of our guys fell and some other random guy did too. Once all of us were across and done with falling, off we went. Next up was a giant mud pool. Felt great and cleaned us off a bit! We had a tractor tire climb, followed by a vertical tire climb, where the only way to get up was to find a tiny ledge in the stacks of tires.

The next parts are kind of a blur. Alot of running and trying to keep up with the early 20's guys in the platoon. I was always in the middle or towards the back cause I'm not as fast as them. I took a couple walk breaks with my friend who is a smoker, that way she wouldn't be left out and plus I got a break too! The guys up front would stop every now and then to make sure we were all there. I think the next obstacle was the 15 foot wall. It's basically a ladder, so not too bad unless you don't like heights. Then I believe we did the cargo net climb, completely vertical and probably about 15 feet high as well. Next we crossed through a creek, complete with yelling "Splish splash I was takin' a bath!!" at the top of our lungs. Once we got out of the creek we started climbing up this huge, neverending hill. And at the top of the hill was an 8 foot wall. So you're at a height disadvantage because you're on a slope, and you're tired from climbing the hill. The placement of this wall was truly evil. Some of our guys stacked on top of each other to help people up. I climbed on a guy's shoulder and then another guy helped boost my foot as I pushed up. We all made it in one piece. I saw some other teams skip this obstacle all together! Immediately after the trail turned to the left where they made us climb up and down a steep hill 3 times. 

Marine Mud's photo of the inverted wall

I believe the next obstacle was the tower. You climb it and then jump onto a giant cushion. I tried to kick my legs out and land on my butt, thinking it would be better than landing on my feet and potentially twisting an ankle. The impact from the fall kind of jolted my spine. It didn't hurt, but I definitely felt "something". My neck is sore today. I don't know what happened but I'm not seriously hurt and I'm thankful for that. We saw an injured girl at that obstacle. Right after the tower were the inverted walls. A lady on my team offered to boost me up and I gladly accepted. However she is rather small, and I am not a small girl so... she dropped me. I fell, maybe landed on my feet for a split second, but because I wasn't prepared for it I tumbled backwards and hit the ground. And guess where I landed? If you guessed "right hip" you win a giant black and blue bruise! Yep. The exact same freaking spot!!! And this time it hurt alot more. But once again... no bones were affected, so I sucked it up and moved on. Climbed the inverted wall - it was hard because there wasn't really a good place to hold onto on the other side. But I did it and trucked right along.

MM's photo of the low crawl

Here was alot of downhill running, a good chance to goof off and joke around with the team. Our conversations ranged from toenails falling off, to finding "mud eggs" in our pockets, to someone who's BO smelled suspiciously of onions. We reached an uphill and downhill log balance. I kept slipping off of my log, but once I tried a different log I was ok. We ran up and down all kinds of crazy hills, then approached a massive crowd of people waiting in line for the monkey bars. These were Tough Mudder style monkey bars. Our teams voted to skip them because after 5 minutes of waiting the line did not budge. 

Next up we had some more log hurdles, but this time they were dry so I cleared those with ease. However, we were about to get as far away from dry as possible. We approached a series of 2 very muddy low crawls. You had to really get your face down in the mud because there were ropes overhead. Of course my friend had the brilliant idea to go in on her back, which messed up her hairdo and made it pretty hard for her to move! So now that we were all about 40 lbs heavier it was time for more running! And a log balance over a pool of water. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it as I am not the world's best balancer, but I did it without falling in! I may have heard a splash or two from my other teammates though. 

Marine Mud official photo - pole obstacle

Still good and muddy, we approached the next trial. This thing. I don't know what you'd call it, but you basically lift yourself up onto the lower of the 2 bars, then navigate your way over the high bar, and down the other side. I got a boost up, swung my leg over the first bar, did some crazy foot maneuvering and before I knew it I was sitting on the top bar. I used one of the logs on the side to navigate my way around, and dropped down. This was a challenging one!

We were close to the end now. I was pretty worn out but had a little fight left in me for the final onslaught of obstacles. Our next challenge was the mud box. Climb a wall, then jump into a giant box of mud. It was peanut butter thick. You were supposed to crawl under a pole to get your belly all muddy - some people hopped over it, but I went all out and got muddy. Then you had to climb out of the box, which meant another wall. You and the wall are covered in mud, plus you're standing in deep mud. It was hard. People were sliding and falling down all over the place. But we did it! 

There was a Tarzan swing, which we all underestimated and failed miserably at. I think most of us fell into the mud pit. But we all laughed about it.

As we approached the finish line, I saw my husband there in a prime spot to take pictures of us. We crossed some giant dirt mounds, then jumped into this mud/water pit for some low crawling. 

Then it was over the final wall! (I'm the one on the right)

And we sprinted to the finish line!

We all posed for pictures

Then Roy got us all beers!

I had an awesome time! My first ever local OCR, and I have to say it was pretty tough! But of course, it has the word "Marine" in the name - it ain't gonna be your grandma's race! This was definitely the muddiest and most cut up and bruised I've been. Spartan Race is a close second, but I mean look at this...

Running with my husband's platoon was cool. Since I usually do these things alone and just make friends along the way, it was nice to be on a team for a change. I got really really lucky - I fell down a few times and had the potential to seriously injure myself, but luckily no major damage has been done. I think if something was seriously wrong I would have known right away. But I'm just sore and in pain today. I may have to take an extended recovery break, that's all. I think this is just one of the aspects of having a "mom and pop" race as opposed to a national circuit - you're gonna have more risky obstacles. I don't think any of the big league racing series would have put the logs after the mud. But it was a good learning experience for me - it showed me the kinds of things I need to be mindful of in the future.

We did it, and had an kick ass time doing it - Blackguard, and me, the honorary member of Blackguard

Shirt, medal, and a sweet drawstring bag!