Tough Mudder Virginia 2015

About a year ago I did my first Tough Mudder in Georgia and had a blast. I had to go back for more, and opportunity presented itself to run the Virginia TM last weekend! I was so there.

This was at the Meadow Event Park, about 1.5 hours from my parents house. I came down the night before and crashed with them, then it was out the door at 6am. By the time I got there it was already hot. Like 85 degrees at 8:30 am hot. I was actually very nervous about it. We all know I don't do well in hot weather. Got into the warm up area (this was new) did the warm up thing and then it was into the start corral. Announcer was great just like last year, funny and encouraging. My stomach felt like an ocean was tumbling around inside it, I was already drenched in sweat and hadn't even done anything yet. My original goal was to finish in about 2:30 but I had to write that off. I told myself it was ok to walk, just do whatever I needed to do to survive in the heat.

By the time I got through the warm up stuff it was 9:30, and off we went into the hot sun. Ran past my mom and waved, then it wasn't long until we encountered the inverted wall. There wasn't anything to grab onto so I had to get a boost from someone. Within the first mile I was already taking walk breaks. It was insultingly hot. Luckily TM was on top of their game and added extra water stations, and there was the first one. Right after it was a log carry where you had to navigate 2 walls and not set the log down. Joined a team of 3 gentlemen to carry this tree trunk of a log. A shoulder killer for sure. Up next - Birth Canal. This was an obstacle where you had to crawl underneath a plastic sheet with water on top - so the water was bearing down on you while you were in there. Loved the fact that the water was red, given the name of the obstacle. It was no big thing until someone entered the obstacle behind me and the weight shifted all to the left. It was pretty much crushing me and it took a good bit of strength to move through it. Definitely one of those obstacles not good for people with fear of tight spaces.

I passed my mom again and gave her an update - it was way too damn hot to finish in 2.5 hours. She said Ok, They had this water mister you could run through and I hung out in there while I talked to her. Through a tunnel to the other side of the park grounds, to find "Balls Out", a slanted wall you traversed sideways with ropes to grab onto. This obstacle was all about momentum. Did one similar to it at Battlefrog and had no problems, but this one the ropes were super far apart and I did not get very far before I just started falling off. Oh well! That's what I love about TM, you try your best but no big deal if you can't do something.

Next up, probably the most fun Tough Mudder obstacle. The Mud Mile. It's a series of mud pits followed by hills to get over. There is absolutely nothing to grab onto so you need help to get over. This year they did like 6 or 7 of these in a row and it was a blast. And the cool muddy water felt great too. Almost immediately after was the Beached Whale. Basically a giant inflatable blob with nothing to grab onto except a rope at the top, so once again nearly impossible to get over without help. I got a boost and then somehow got stuck underneath 2 people at the top who were helping others over. It took a bit of yelling at them but eventually they moved and I was no longer pinned.

At this point the course did alot of zig zagging. There was absolutely no shade to be found. Just us running back and forth in the hot sun. Another water station greeted us and then we were at Cry Baby. This is a new obstacle where you crawl through a box filled with tear gas. My strategy for this was to keep moving and only breathe when necessary. It was like the air had suddenly turned into Vicks Vapor Rub. A cooling menthol breeze filled my lungs. This is definitely one of those obstacles where you just shut off your brain and keep your body moving. Because my brain was thoroughly confused. At the end of the chamber there was suddenly a wall. Uh, how do I get out? Help? There was no space big enough to crawl under. Then someone opened a hatch from above and I could climb out. Really should have put an arrow or something in there so people know what to do. This thing cleared out my sinuses. Made the corners of my eyes water just a bit, and my skin did not itch at all. I talked about it with my husband and he says it's definitely a milder form of the gas, I think cause they want to keep everybody moving and not render them unable to continue the course. The kind they use in Army basic training has the potential to mess you up for a little bit. But I say, this was not bad. Next!

Warrior Carry. A gent carried me through this - well most of it. I'm a heavy girl and perhaps he underestimated me. I'm sure the picture is just my pink and purple butt in the air cause he carried me over his shoulder. More zig zagging through a field. Came to find "The Liberator" which is a steep incline wall where you climb up using pegs. The pegs were already fixated into the wall so it was just a matter of finding footing to get you to the next place. Coming up to this obstacle all I heard was "Hey, it's pink tie dye shorts girl!" It was 3 guys who I kept running into. I said "You know what, why don't I just run with yall?" And so it was. I joined Brian, Matt, and .. Greg? Now, they kept me ON POINT!!! I would have done SO much more walking if not for them, just for not wanting to over exert myself in this heat. But after every obstacle we jogged to the next one. They were struggling in the heat as well but we did very little walking.

Arctic Enema! Yes! I seriously needed about 4 more of these on this course. You know it's too damn hot when you approach this obstacle and it's dead silent!!! Usually you hear screams of absolute terror as people plunge into the ice bath. It felt amazing. And Matt's wife was spectating and grabbed a picture of us after we got out. My feet were a little chilly as we stood there but that went away soon as we headed back out into the hot sunny field. Next we found 10 foot walls followed by a ladder wall. Nothing too crazy.

At the top of the ladder (on the left)

We toiled on under the hot sun, to be refreshingly greeted by "King of the Swingers" A new obstacle where you jump off a platform to a bar hanging in mid air, the bar swings forward, you let go and try to ring a bell, and fall 15 feet into water below. The line for this was long, some folks started to chicken out but we all cheered them on until they overcame the fear and did it. The bell in my lane was broken so I just tried to jump out and reach the bar (I did!) and just let myself fall since there was no bell to ring. It was really fun! The water felt great too. This was followed by some more things like a big hay bale stack to climb, a pipe to crawl through, and FINALLY we retreated into the woods for a mile or so. SHADE! I was so happy. There was mud to trudge through, then we came to a clearing to face Funky Monkey. I was apprehensive about the changes, because historically I don't do well with transitions. But here goes. Made the monkey bar climb. Made the switch to the trapeze bar (which moves by the way), Made the switch to the pipe, then once I went to put my left hand on the pipe my right hand slipped and I fell. But I did pretty good to get so far I think. Unfortunately, tore my hand open in 3 places from that fall. It made doing Dead Ringer impossible. But I conquered Everest the half pipe sprint on the first try, even though I needed some help to get over the edge. Skipped Electric Shock Therapy once again, I have an irregular heart beat and don't feel like some silly obstacle is worth the potential risk.

And then it was across the finish line with the group! I picked up my orange headband, and my brand new green headband for completing my second Tough Mudder!
Never saw them after that, but 2 of them did friend me on Facebook so I could see all the pics. I found my mom, rinsed off, enjoyed a beer, then headed home.

Also picked up this shirt

This is so perfect. Gotta represent the state I'm from :)

So - my thoughts on this race. It didn't "wow" me as much as Georgia did last year. The course was kinda "meh", even aside from the heat factor. It was pretty uninteresting, just lots of running through fields and zig zagging through the same areas. The wooded trail towards the end was nice but very brief. Definitely needed some pizzazz in their course design.
Finisher shirts and merch are not as nice - what happened to the Under Armor gear? For the price of this race I would have appreciated the tech shirt like we got last year, and also the good merch for sale.
Free samples were very good, tons of preworkout, hydration, protein, gummies, and even beef jerky to munch on. Water stations were plentiful.
Loved the new obstacles, they do a good job of keeping it fresh every year. They were a good mix of challenging and fun. Great teamwork and camraderie as always.
Photos - what the hell? I waited a whole week before publishing this post, thinking I'd get some action shots of myself. None to be found. I know they took pictures of me, but I guess now TM only takes the liberty of posting the ones they like. Half of them were of their sponsors' products. Booo.

Overall - TM VA had it's ups and downs, I had a great time but it was not quite as amazing as my experience in GA last year. Still, I'm definitely down to run Tough Mudder #3 next year and upgrade my headband to whatever the next color is!

Tough Mudder Atlanta

I've finally completed Tough Mudder. It was awesome!

Awesome announcer guy!

I had signed up for the 10am heat but they stuck me in the 1:20 heat. Pro tip - Tough Mudder doesn't care what time you run. Because it was a 2 hour drive for me, I wanted to get there as early as possible so I wouldn't get home so late. Also because I'd rather race early than be anxiously waiting all day. I left my house early hoping to get there around 9, but got caught up in road construction in good ole' Conyers - the home of the Georgia Spartan Sprint. They really do need to fix the road there, but why on the day of my Tough Mudder! Between that and the line for parking at the event site, I got into the festival area at 10:36. I wasted no time using the bathroom and checking my bag because I wanted to hop into the 11am heat. I hopped over the wall and into the starting area, and everybody was on one knee. The announcer was awesome - he explained how TM works and what it takes to be a Mudder - help others, never leave them behind, etc. He was very engaging and motivating. We took a moment of silence for fallen veterans and the national anthem was played. After his speech we took off into the field, with 10.6 miles of madness ahead of us!

My goal for this race - to finish and do my best. I was not going for time or speed. Tough Mudder is not timed. You are encouraged to help others complete the obstacles and receive help if you need it. Many obstacles in TM can't be completed without help. So that's exactly what I vowed to do - give help, and receive it if needed.

Pole Dancer!

The first mile was alot of running through the woods and there were plenty of muddy spots. There was a big mud pit with a very slippery mud hill. I dug my nails into the hill as I climbed it and got up successfully. Then I turned back and helped a couple girls make it up. The second obstacle was something I wasn't really prepared for. Warrior Carry! You have to carry your teammate 50 yards, then you switch and they carry you. Problem was I didn't have a teammate. I stood there for a good while trying to find someone I thought I could possibly carry. They were ALL big tall guys. And a 90 lb woman. Perfect, I thought. But she couldn't carry me so she chose a smaller girl. Finally a guy offered to be my carrying partner. He carried me through the whole thing which was awesome and much appreciated. He was not the prettiest guy for this. Middle aged, kinda hillbillyish, bad teeth, and of course he wasn't wearing a shirt so I was hugging his sweaty chest hair the entire time. He was a good guy though, helped me out greatly! Next up was Pole Dancer. I can't really explain this obstacle using words so I snagged one of the official TM pictures (above) You shimmy across the railings using only your arms. I descended easily but had trouble halfway up the ascent. I tried like 3 times but kept falling off, so I decided to climb out of the water and just move on. It was kind of a bummer but I tried my best before giving up.

After Pole Dancer was Glory Blades, aka 2 inverted walls. I had help readily available on this one. Just a little boost so my hands could reach the top, then pushed up, got over, and slid down the other side. After the obstacle was a big ass hill. It must have been 1/4 to 1/2 mile long. Mostly walking was done here. And what goes up must come down - because we descended said big ass hill and met the first water station at the bottom. Energy chew time for me to stay a step ahead of my hypoglycemia. Now we were out in the open fields of the farm and heading back towards the festival.

Straight towards Funky Monkey.
Could I do this one? A year ago I unexpectedly completed the monkey bars at Spartan Race and was pretty astonished. I could never do the monkey bars as a kid. These monkey bars are twice as long as Spartan Race's, and there is an ascent/descent. I gutted up and went for it. Oh man was this hard. I was struggling, but I was moving forward. Crossed the halfway point and was still hanging on. I remember hearing people cheering me on. The last 4 bars were so hard. But I refused to let go. Only when I saw the ground below me did I release my grip and drop down. Holy shit. I just rocked Funky Monkey, one of the hardest obstacles for females. Definitely my bad ass moment of the day!

Funky Monkey took alot out of me so I walked through the field for a good while. Once I recovered a bit I ran until the next obstacle. I believe this was known as "K2". A giant cliff with a cargo net. You had to get a running start up a hill which was mostly dirt and rocks, then latch onto the rope and climb. 3 people went at a time. I started slowest of the 3 because it took me a little while to find my footing to get onto the net. But once I got on I sped up and made it up quickly. Made it to the top and we were back in the woods. Once again I was reduced to walking. Ran a bit to the next obstacle - trenches. Crawl through a tunnel - probably bad for people who hate small spaces, but I was cool with it. Was just a bit disorienting when I crawled back into the sunlight.

All that running through the fields, monkey barring and climbing made me hot as hell. Pro Tip - Bring a hydration pack with electrolytes. I'm so glad I did! It was sunny and about 80 degrees, aka way too damn hot for this cold weather runner. Perfect timing for Arctic Enema. The one where you jump into a giant container of ice water. This is one of those things you just do and don't think about it. There was hardly any ice in the water when I went through it, but it was still cold as shit. I had to go completely underwater because there was a wall. It was shocking but I kept moving and got out. Got a bit of brain freeze for like 10 seconds right after I got out. It was like drinking a slurpee, only without the slurpee part. I saw 3 guys hunched over with their hands on their thighs, I was like "What are you doing, you gotta keep moving!" One guy said "Well we lost our penises and balls in the ice bath!" Hahaha. Nice. I gotta say, it wasn't too bad. I felt refreshed actually. But I can take the cold better than most I think. We were back out in the sunny fields and reached mile 6. Next was a short mud crawl through that famous Georgia clay. After we were good and muddy we hit the Berlin Walls. These had to be 10-12 feet. I couldn't reach the top so I had to get a boost. I'm not a wall person and definitely need more practice with them. After the walls was a cargo net climb strung between 2 trees. It was backed up here because the ropes were not strung tight enough. They BROKE OUT THE DUCK TAPE. Lol. But it was only to reinforce the obstacle - nothing was broken. We had a good laugh about it though. I met "Foreign Accent Guy" and chatted with him for a bit before it was my turn to climb. Getting over the top was hard and I will have bruises underneath my arms. We hit mile 7 and I was running at this point. Approached the mud hills. Very slippery. I got up 3 out of 4 without assistance, and hung back to help Accent Guy get up since he was behind me. The 4th hill had absolutely no footing and everyone had to be pulled up out of the water. Helped AG and a few girls and had some laughs at the people slipping and splashing everywhere.

Another aid station was next, followed by more running. Walk the Plank was up next - climb a 15 foot platform and jump into a pool of water. Did it and yelled "Woohooo!" as I fell, not really thinking about closing my mouth or holding my nose. Ended up breathing in a little bit of water and coughing. Duh, should have thought about that one. More running through the woods and fields. I was pretty much alternating walking and running - my heart rate was up and I was breathing heavy ever since the big hill around mile 3. It was a sign of working hard. Next up was my failure of the day. Balls to the Wall. A straight wall with some footholds and a rope to climb up. Started climbing.. the footholds were really far apart. This was hard. I reached my right leg up to the next one and my calf cramped up on me. I knew this one wasn't happening for me so I climbed back down. Spent a minute stretching out my calf, thankfully the cramp went away and I could keep running (and walking). Not much longer now, it was around mile 10 and Everest was up next. It's a greased up quarter pipe that you have to run up. Of course the bastards put it at the top of a hill. Stopped at the top to catch my breath and watched people. Everybody was making it over with the help of people at the top. My confidence soared. I sprinted up the pipe, a guy's hand was reaching out for me, I grabbed it and pulled myself over the top. Yes! I was so nervous about that one but I did it! Hung around to help some ladies up, then continued on. They had a few of these random little road block obstacles and my calf cramped up again at one of them. A couple guys shouted out at me - "This girl's still runnin', keep on truckin' along!" I was like "Have you guys been watching me the whole time or something?" Turns out they had stuck near me through most of it. I guess the long strawberry blond ponytail and US Army Camelbak with my last name on it kind of makes me stand out? These guys seemed impressed with me. I had done my share of walking, but now I was running because the finish line was near. Ahead of me was the last obstacle.

Electroshock Therapy. I had to skip this one.

I have heart palpitations sometimes, and they say that if you have any heart issues you should skip this one. I have gone through tests and they said my heart was normal and in really great shape (and this was BEFORE I got fit). The doctor feels it is due to anxiety The more active I am, the less I get them (less anxiety?). But, I still didn't feel the risk was possibly worth my life. I felt REALLY bad skipping it. I need to talk to my doctor about this one. Hopefully once I get my answer I'll be able to try it at next year's Tough Mudder.

Finally, the finish line! Orange headband and beer received! The long coveted Tough Mudder complete. I was tired, but I had endured and it was FUN! I loved it! Met some awesome people out there. I will have so many great stories and memories from this day.

My thoughts on Tough Mudder

• Not timed, so there was less pressure on me to finish fast. I took my time and enjoyed every moment.
• Camaraderie is awesome. It exists in other races such as Spartan Race and Warrior Dash, but in TM it is a central focus of the race. You are encouraged to help and some obstacles such as Berlin Walls can rarely be done without help.
• No penalties. If you fail something or physically can't do something they are ok with you skipping it. I personally try my best before giving up and I'd take the penalty, but it was kind of nice not having to worry about it.
• My race was well organized and very few lines. The only weird things were - they used rotating sprinklers to hose us off (I seriously feel like this was someone's idea of a joke) and the bag check was self service. Even though they had a guy confirming you got the right bags, anyone could go rummage and I don't like that.

I went a little crazy in the gear tent. They have Under Armor gear which is *all* I wear, so I kind of had to get stuff! 

I'll be back next year!