Tough Mudder!

Yes I am.

Here is the course:

Here are the obstacles:

Here are me and Chevaughn prior to the race:

Here is the official video:

We had to go over an eight foot wall just to get into the starting corral.

Here's my run down of the obstacles:

Glory Blades-  These are eight foot walls slightly inclined toward you.  I did not try to run and pull myself up by myself, but got a boost.  Once up, I went very slowly to balance myself on top, before lowering myself down.  The wall is not very thick, so it was more difficult than I expected to accomplish this.

The Guantlet-  This was sort of ridiculous.  They had misters on a section of uphill trail that made the trail muddier than normal, but nothing exceptional. (That's me in orange).

Mud Mile-  Not a mile, more like 50 yards of mud pit, mud embankement, mud pit, just wading and climbing.

Electric Eel- You get down onto your hands and knees, and start crawling through the dangling electric wires.  The first shock is quite a rude awakening as it seriously hurts, and instantly propels you forward as fast as you can crawl/slide crawling through charged wires with much swearing.  The surface you craw on is quite slick, and I saw a video of someone, laying very flat and dowing a breast stroke glide through the obstacle with limited electrical contact.  I don’t know if that would work for my size.  As long as i am and large, i think I am exposed to a disporportionte number of wires.  I was glad to be done with it, although there is no lingering pain from the shocks.

Walk the Plank.  We jumped off a platform maybe twenty feet down into the lake.  No big deal.

Funky Monkey- monkey bars.  This was the only obstacle I failed at.  I grapped the first bar with both hands.  I should have just jumped out and started swining.  With no momentum, I just dropped into the water, and started swimming for the otherside.  Someone else dropped and almost landed on my that would have been bad.

Lumberjack-  This one, my height definately benefited me.  You had to climb over these thick logs that were chest high.  I was able to jump up and get my body weight enough over the log that i was balanced, and could swing my legs and get over.

Cage Crawl-  You lay on your back and went through water,.  You used your hands to crawl under the cage.  Super easy for me, as I just floated along.

Boa Constrictor- In this one, we had to crawl through a corrugated pipe down into water that filled half the pipe, and then we had to crawl back up through another pipe on an uphill slope.  Going down was easy, as i slide down.  I had no difficulty with the water.  As long as I could turn my head to keep my mouth above the water line, that was fine.  it was slow going uphill, as the pipe was too confining for me to get up on my knees, I had to pull myself up only with my arms.

Artic Enema- Jumping into an ice filled dumpster, swiming through the ice under a board, then coming out and racing to get to end of dumpser and out of it before freezing.  I jumped right in, and by gosh, it was numbingly cold, I ducked down under the board, came up through the crunch of ice, and could not feel my body.  I kept moving as my head was saying if I didn’t move i was not going to be able to moce.  Getting out, I kept sweaing and looking at my body and shaking my arms.  Truly the most astonishing cold I have ever experienced.

Warrior Carry-  We picked up one of our partners and carried her for 100 yards.

Kiss of Mud- This one was very difficult for me.  The barbed wire is low.  I was unable to crawl on my knees, so I had to pull myself with just my arms.  i did turn slightly on my side to try to get a little bit of leg kick, but when I did, i occasionally touched a barb.  Fortunately, the barbe won’t cut you unless you are actully moving at a certin pace.  The surface was also fairly rocky.  I made it through but slowly.

Hold your Wood-  You grabbed a log and walked down a path and then back up to the start.  I found a medium size leg that was nice and rounded.  Not much of a challenge.

Berlin Walls-  More climbing.  These walls were ten feet high.  Again I needed a boost, and had to be careful not to fall down hard on the other side.  I scarped the skin off my forearm on the plywood.

Cliff Hanger-  A particuarly steep section of trail.  I went up it without much problem.  It did not seem like an obstacle at all.

Just the Tip- Traversing water.  Initialy, you have both hand holds and foot holds, but then the footholds disappear and yo have to cross using just your hands to grip a two by four.  I was worried i wan’t going to be able to do this one, but I made it acros with the help of some supportive cheering.

Everest- Running up a slicked quarter pipe. I did not expect to get up.  I caught the eye of one of the guys up at the top to see that he would try to grap me.  I ran as fast as i could, was slowed initially by having to run through mud, then charged up the wall.  i dove.  the guy caught me, and then another guy grapped my other arm, and they pulled me up.  If i had to do it over again, I would hve stayed up ontop and helped some other people or at least enjoyed the view.

ElectroShock Therapy- Ruuning through dangling charged wires just prior to finish line.  While being tall, helped in some of the climbing events, my added length made me a sitting duck in the electricity events.  On the final obstacle -- Electroshock Therapy” where you run through the dangling charged wires,  the shocks knocked me completely off my feet three times.  i’d get up, get shocked and go back down, but I made it through, and then crossing the line, they put an orange headband on my greying head, and gave me a cold Dos Equis and it was over.

Here are my knees the next day:

And here's me with my Tough Mudder Headband and beer:

More coming