It's been a busy week, but I wanted to write a short report on the SoCal Tough Mudder race.
It was a fun race, and was the hardest obstacle/mud/ event I have done. The Tough Mudder bills itself as a challenge rather than a race. It certainly draws a different crowd than your average road race. The parking lot was full of face-painted, tattooed, pierced, camoed, kilted, underrooed, and scantily clad men and women.
The race was held at a ski resort, so the elevation and constant up and down would have made this a challenging course even without the obstacles. Add in a half mile uphill and downhill section were you had to carry your own log (there is no easy way to carry a log up a hill), twelve-foot walls, four in a row that you had to scale with the help of fellow racers, a half pipe you had to pull yourself up and over, a 15 foot platform you had to jump off of into a cold mountain lake that you then had to swim across, and a couple claustrophobia-inducing pipes that you had to crawl through and a 12-inch high smoky box you had to slither through. There were about twenty various obstacles. The most fun obstacle was the 30 foot water slide into another cold lake, and the scariest was the live electrical wires you had to run through right before the finish. I ran through the wires, covering my face, and getting small zaps of electricity when I saw the last wire, figuring I had gotten off easy, but that last one hit me hard. Later, I saw a few people get floored by the last wire, literally falling flat on their faces and getting up with blood pouring out of their noses and large swatches of skin rubbed off.
The finish line was a party with free beer and a free mohawk and mullet tent. That combination led to this:
It was a fun race, and was the hardest obstacle/mud/ event I have done. The Tough Mudder bills itself as a challenge rather than a race. It certainly draws a different crowd than your average road race. The parking lot was full of face-painted, tattooed, pierced, camoed, kilted, underrooed, and scantily clad men and women.
The race was held at a ski resort, so the elevation and constant up and down would have made this a challenging course even without the obstacles. Add in a half mile uphill and downhill section were you had to carry your own log (there is no easy way to carry a log up a hill), twelve-foot walls, four in a row that you had to scale with the help of fellow racers, a half pipe you had to pull yourself up and over, a 15 foot platform you had to jump off of into a cold mountain lake that you then had to swim across, and a couple claustrophobia-inducing pipes that you had to crawl through and a 12-inch high smoky box you had to slither through. There were about twenty various obstacles. The most fun obstacle was the 30 foot water slide into another cold lake, and the scariest was the live electrical wires you had to run through right before the finish. I ran through the wires, covering my face, and getting small zaps of electricity when I saw the last wire, figuring I had gotten off easy, but that last one hit me hard. Later, I saw a few people get floored by the last wire, literally falling flat on their faces and getting up with blood pouring out of their noses and large swatches of skin rubbed off.
The finish line was a party with free beer and a free mohawk and mullet tent. That combination led to this:
I keep telling everyone I'm going to shave it, but I haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet.
The running is going well. I'm to the point now where I can do an easy 8 mile run in the hills around my house and it feels easy, and that's good. I'm heading to the mountains this weekend, and I'm excited about exploring some new trails.
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| Today's 8 miler |
Wow, that was an interesting experience. Congratulations that you made it through.I like those courses that Tough Mudder created, it was really cool ! Great job ! Looking forward for more updates and for your next race someday.
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