Tough Mudder Memoire 2014
By Trewest
Toronto Tough Mudder Saturday August 16th More
So through sheer dumb happenstance I think everyone missed this obstacle. We were following the right pathway, and it was beyond COLD by now. Between the adrenaline of my ‘holy crap I almost got seriously hurt’ moment and the wind that was blowing, we were all shivering. And it started to rain for real at this point too, just to remind us all that Mother Nature wanted to make sure that it was nice and muddy.
The thing is there was a single sign saying: Warrior Carry, and no one actually manning the obstacle, and no other sign saying when to switch the person being carried to the person carrying. And no end sign. I think everyone saw the sign and figured it was just over the lip of the hill, only to realize like I did that we inadvertently missed it. I wasn’t too worried about missing it, still being a little shaky from adrenaline, and we were walking around the lake so it was a matter of me just going. Besides, in a challenge like this, you’re almost guaranteed to get a chance to do something to actually help someone for real, instead of just doing it for the sake of an obstacle.
And then we were walking. And walking. AND WALKING. All those uphills we did earlier were now matched with some equally challenging down hills. It was WINDY, and the rain wasn’t letting up, and going down a ski hill that was slicked with mud and rain made for very bad footing, and we were going down a zig zag trail, so it we had to make sure not to slip and take out someone else on the way down! My brother adopted a butt scoot method similar to how toddlers master going down stairs and I only slipped to my butt once or twice. By now my blistered heels were quite uncomfortable, between the friction from my shoes to the grit and mud that had wormed their way in between my sock and my skin, but I was no longer the only one with sore footsies. My husband was starting to walk with a noticeable limp as well. My brother wasn’t sore footed, but he had wrenched his shoulder by this point so we were all walking with a lot less swagger.