Reppin' MM at Tough Mudder Mid-Atlantic

[Evan]

btw Rex you are a crazy man for doing that in a cotton tshirt

[CaptainHenreh]

btw Rex you are a crazy man for doing that in a cotton tshirt

I had a compression shirt underneath. No bloody nipples.

[G.Irish]

OMG the parking. So Frederick County, MD law enforcement is a bunch of bobos. 24k people (not including spectators) coming into your sleepy-ass town on a weekend? No need to do anything at all, I am sure it will be fine.

The road going into the course (2 lanes) was entirely gridlocked for over 3 miles. People were abandoning their cars and running to the startline to try to make the last waves. Very poorly managed traffic.

Looks like the Tough Mudder organizers didn't pay for enough police officers to manage traffic and didn't have an adequate traffic plan. Apparently Frederick County only required that the event provide planning for adequate parking and the Tough Mudder people proceeded to fuck up on traffic:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/speed-cameras-traffic-enforcement-or-highway-robbery/2012/09/11/82d6281c-fc41-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/spe ... story.html</a><!-- m -->

Frederick County pulled the permit for the event after day 1, which was the real reason day 2 was cancelled, not the weather. Angry entrants started demanding refunds and raking them over the coals on Facebook and they deleted the thread. At first they were only issuing vouchers but apparently they reversed course and gave some full refunds.

Last year when I did Tough Mudder there was a big clusterfuck at the bag check leading to people waiting in line over 2 hours to pick up their bags. Seems like there's a serious lack of foresight and leadership in the organization now that the events are getting really big. Maybe they'll get it right next year though.

[JPolen01]

They hired 7 off duty officers for a projected crowd of nearly 30,000. What did they think was going to happen in east bumble fuck Frederick?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[CaptainHenreh]

Hey remember last September when I did a Tough Mudder?

Decided to do another one, so this is the story of how I survived the April 2013 Mid Atlantic Tough Mudder. (but just barely)
Course map: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://toughmudder.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/13.04.20.WV-Spectator-Map-Final.pdf">http://toughmudder.com/wp-content/uploa ... -Final.pdf</a><!-- m -->

To start, parking was way better. Last September I guess Frederick Co, MD was like "Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine" and didn't give any assets to assist the thousands of people coming in to run in the mud. This one was much better.

Anyway, they had a very large, very flat, well organized parking lot and shuttle buses. BRILLIANT!

Here's me and Jake on a school bus, first time in like 15 years:




It was supposed to be 60 and sunny, so I figured a shirt and the same shorts I wore to my last TM would be fine, but wore a sweatshirt on the ride over to take the chill off until I could get moving, then I'd be fine. I was...wrong. But more on that later.

Once you get off the bus, you have a half mile walk to the course:



Register, find yourself here:


I used to live in WV, but I'm always struck by how pretty the other side of the Allegheny Mountains are:


Thinking of doing a TM? This is the only advice I can really give you for surviving, and it's the same I gave myself:


Jumping over the first wall to get onto the course, I land wrong on my left ankle, and nearly end my participation right there. RUB SOME DIRT ON IT YOU'LL BE FINE, lol:


Due to the efficient parking, there are a shitload more people running today than in September:


We could barely hear the Emcee, but he was saying something important no doubt:


AND WE'RE OFF:


Send criticism of my heel-striking form to: <!-- e --><a href="mailto:yeahiknow@heavy6.org">yeahiknow@heavy6.org</a><!-- e -->

Headed into the second obstacle...a "Mud Mile".


They wasted no time getting you wet, cold, and muddy.
I had to take off my shoes to get the WV gravel & mud out of it. I didn't have to do this at all for the last mudder,

Off to King Of The Mountain, one of my favorite obstacles. Basically just a hill of haybales that you have to climb...people seem to make a big deal of it, (at least, they were as they were climbing) maybe all those summers baling hay on my grandfather's farm prepared me for this? Piece of cake:

I am having fun, see! (it won't last)

So. So far I'm fairly dry, and while it's 53°F and windy, it's not too bad.

So, naturally, it's time to walk the plank and get soaked:
Looking down (probably...12-15 feet I guess?)

You can see jake in the lower right...look at his expression,
Then look at mine:

GERONIMOOOOOOO

SWEET BUDDHA'S TRANCENDENT BALLSACK! THIS WATER IS COLD

The Man In The Yellow Helmet there is asking me if I'm ok...apparently they'd already had to pull a half dozen people out...one got pulled as soon as I exited the water

Wife likes taking pictures of the scenery:



The Walk The Plank was on a hill, offered a good position for vista shots.

Lol these dudes:


They kept their briefcases through the whole race, and even at one point used them as boogeyboards, lol.

It seems like every 500m you were walking through some little mud puddle up do your knees. Basically as soon as your feet were dry, you were gonna get them wet and muddy again:


New obstacle this year, the Wounded Warrior Carry. Ideally you're supposed to carry a dude 100m, then switch and him carry you. Well I'm a heavy dude, so we "cheated" and I just gave Jake a 200m piggyback ride:


We made piggy noises the whole 200m, to the great amusement of everyone around us.

About this time is when my hips really started to ache. The entire course was either up or down hill, or at about a 45° side angle. And very, very slippery due to the intense rain the night before. I've never had this pain before, and while I had the "energy" to do whatever I needed, every step running was some pretty heinous pain on first the left, then the right hip. I'm thinking maybe stabilizing my legs in the muddy running strained some muscles in my hip? They still hurt today and made it very difficult and painful to run. This began between obstacles 12 and 13 (approx 6mi) and steadily increased in intensity the rest of the run. It was brutal and kept me from moving fast enough to really effectively stay warm, which of course, then sapped EVEN MORE energy.

But I shambled through, jumping over some fire into once more cold water:


That obstacle was actually really nice because they had fires built. I stayed a few minutes (but not long enough) in an attempt to dry off and warm up (again, right before jumping into some more freezing water)
After that was the "cage crawl" which was probably the worst obstacle for me. A, the water was once again GODDAM COLD, but B, you barely had enough room to keep your head above water without interference with the chain link fence above you. As you were moving forward, if you stopped, water would wash over your face in a psuedo waterboard. It was physically not very difficult but mentally VERY intense. When I got out of the water from there, I noticed I wasn't cold. A gust of wind blew and jake yelled "FUCKING SHIT WIND" and I was like "What are you talking about?" Then I got a little dizzy, and I realized what was happening. I stripped my gloves off and started doing some jumping jacks (which did not hurt my hips) in an effort to warm up. I gradually started to feel cold, so I knew I was going in the right direction. Took off (painfully) running again to the next obstacle which was, you guessed it, MORE WATER!

This time though, a lake:

Much warmer than the shallow, artificial water channels we'd been slogging through and crawling in. Still not WARM, but warmer and if you could get your body under you were sheltered, at least a little, from the wind. Floating in the water also took strain off my hips, and it felt glorious.



Remember, it's below 60° Fahrenheit, and the wind is blowing through this little valley. I wish I could emphasize how fucking cold it was, it was REAL GODDAM COLD.

Mario and Luigi look on as we swim in this lake:


So at the end of your swim there's a structure with a cargo net:

Holding it taut at the bottom helped the climbers get better footing


This is where I got actually frustrated.


I clambered up this net like a spider monkey:


Plenty of energy and motivation, I'm lucid and aware by this point, and I handle this obstacle FINE. Then it's time to run:


MORE PAIN! Ugh. I've got to get this hip thing figured out before my next mudder. it REALLY held me back.

Then, inexplicably, slide?



Of course, more cold water at the end:


Then, we had Everest and Funky Monkey. At this point, I could barely walk. I was cold, wet, and exhausted. The wind started to blow again in earnest, and I just didn't have the energy. I looked at the top of Everest to see if there were any beefcakes that could haul my heavy ass up, and determined I was probably just going to end up twisting an ankle or falling on my face. Similarly, I had no grip strength for the funky monkey, and didn't want to be wet(ter) again. So, to my great shame, I skipped it.

Also, considering my blackout experience in september, I skipped the wires at the end also, though Jake had the huevos to try it:


Oddly, I probably would have been fine doing the wires. The wires were mounted MUCH higher than in september, you can see that jake (who is taller than me) is very nearly ducking under them, while in September, I slipped and fell, crawled through the mud and was STILL shocked in the back of the head enough for me to black out. C'est la vie.

Regardless, we both felt our Dos Equis ambers were well deserved:


Funny story though, we were both shaking so bad we lost like the first 3" of our beers, and after two sips poured them out, "For Boston" as jake put it, and went to go hose off our mud and change into dry clothes.

Remember my advice?


Between the cold, the mud, the cold, the wet, the cold, the terrain, and the cold, we pretty much felt like bosses:


Today though, I'm moving around much better than in September. Hope you guys enjoyed my story.

[premiershine9]

Hahahah that last pic is great! I'm doing this with you guys next time for sure

[CaptainHenreh]

Hahahah that last pic is great! I'm doing this with you guys next time for sure

Had a whooooooooole lot of dudes say that last time and who ran this with me?

Jake aaaaaaaaand? Jake aaaaaaaaaaand? Jake and nobody. #justsayin'

[premiershine9]

#committed.

[Jake]

This was, by far, the most difficult thing I've ever done, physically. I had only worked up to running ~3.5 miles at a time (because running sucks and I hate it) so having to make it 12 miles while playing in the mud was... a challenge.

The obstacles were really well done. A lot of them are designed to test you mentally for various reasons. The cargo net climb was a mental block for me (I don't like heights when the risk of falling 15' to dirt is prevalent) but lo and behold, I did it. There are two electric shock obstacles. The first requires you to army crawl. I got hit twice there, once hard enough to make me yelp, and the other just enough to feel it. The "run through the wires" obstacle at the end was not bad. I kept my head down and powered through, and got hit once. Not sure where the wire got me, but I felt it on the tip of my nose.

Rexy went into a good bit of detail otherwise, but my reaction to the Arctic Enema was pretty funny, I think. So, the AE is a big dumpster full of ice water (volunteers are dumping bags of ice into it and smiling at you as you wait in line) and you have to jump in and swim underneath a board, ensuring full-body submersion. So, I do that, make it out the other side as quickly as I can, and get out of the water. There's this middle-aged lady standing there waiting for her teammates and she gives me a big smile... to which I looked her dead in the eyes and went OH FUCKKKKK. It was just that cold.

I'm very glad I did this, the sense of accomplishment is huge at the end. I'd probably do another one.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Hahahah that last pic is great! I'm doing this with you guys next time for sure

Had a whooooooooole lot of dudes say that last time and who ran this with me?

Jake aaaaaaaaand? Jake aaaaaaaaaaand? Jake and nobody. #justsayin'

Unfortunately I had planned (and signed up and paid to run SCCA Pros and events happened to fall on this one and the one in VA beach on June 8th/9th). I just recently cancelled and was not going to pay the $180 (WTF??!?!?) registration fee for late fee since I only cancelled on SCCA stuff this year the week before.

Before May 2nd, the VA beach tough mudder is $135 (still wtf, how much money do these guys make?) for June 8th/9th that I couldnt make before because of SCCA stuff again. I will sign up right now, and I will see if my other "mud run peeps" want to join. Lesssss do it?

[CaptainHenreh]

I might do the one in October (same place, WV) but I got this thing that's happening in July that I gotta get ready for so everything is touch and go for rexy until after then.

[WRXtranceformed]

The obstacles look like stupid fun but the running part is complete suck. If you took out all of the miles of running and added a bunch more obstacles I would be so down. After 15 years of long distance and sprint training for soccer, this kid refuses to run now unless his life depends on it.